india part 5

mumbai is probably more in the news these days than any other indian city...first because of bollywood, and 2nd because of 26 november...we arrived in mumbai the morning of 22 jan...there are no rickshaws in central mumbai, which means we had to take a taxi from the train station...the first offer we got was for 270 rupees...we got it down to 80...(though the other taxi drivers weren't too pleased with our driver)...mumbai has some of the most expensive accomodation in india...we paid more there than anywhere else!!!
the daily average income in mumbai is three times the national average...yet more than half the city lives in slums...some of you have probably heard of slumdog millionaire, the movie that has won several awards...much of it was filmed in mumbai, a couple of the child actors in the movie still live in the slums...our first day there, layna and i walked through a very small area of slums...surprisingly, it was one of the friendliest places we've been...the streets are small, and everything is crowded, but the people were really friendly, and eager to talk...the movie opened in india quite a bit later than in the states...(it had already won several golden globes before opening in india)...we went to see it opening night...though it has it's share of complainers, we enjoyed the movie...i wonder if we enjoyed it more because we are currently in the middle of everything it shows?
at the end of the day, ben arrived in mumbai...he's another american, 31yrs old...i know some of you think i've done a lot of traveling...but compared to ben, i've never left my couch...his travelogue gets 5000 hits a month!!! anywho, this is his first time in india, so we introduced him a bit...he just had surgery on his acl a couple months ago, and has only been mobile for 2-3 weeks...he wanted to strengthen the muscles, and reverse some of the atrophy...so we walked...a lot...he said that in the past he's always been the one to want to walk more, but that we put him to shame...hee hee...most of our days in mumbai we walked at least 15K, sometimes as much as 20K...mumbai was our first warm city, so we went from being cold much of the time to sweating much of the time...
asia's busiest train station is in mumbai...it used to be called victoria terminus, and now has a long indian name...people still call it victoria terminus, or vt for short...it's shown several times in slumdog millionaire...we saw the oldest english building in mumbai as well, a church...there are a lot of memorials in the church, and it was interesting to see the differences...some described entire careers, some said how the person died, and some seemed to place more emphasis on who built the memorial...there are lots of colonial style buildings all over mumbai...it's easy to imagine the british there...very very easy...
one of the british influences in mumbai are three different maidans...(think big empty field)...the oval maidan is probably the most well known...the only organized activity allowed on the maidan is cricket...there were LOTS of different games going on...with bowlers coming from every which direction, and balls flying everywhere, it was amazing people weren't being knocked down left and right...the last time we walked through this maidan was republic day, one of only three national holidays...(yup, the entire country only celebrates three holidays together...each state has plenty of it's own holidays and festivals though, and they're awesome)...republic day was very very very security conscious over the whole country...because of additional terrorist threats and a foiled terrorist plot in delhi just the day before, delhi was practically on lockdown, and there was a lot more security in general...during the republic day parade in delhi, the airport wasn't allowing flights in or out...because of what happened in mumbai in november, there was also a lot of additional security...
one activity that ben has become involved in during all of his travels is hashing...it's a running club, much of the time with a drinking problem...it's international, with different kennels in every city and country imaginable...anywho, ben found a hash for us to run, or so we thought...after arriving at the proper place, we realized we were 2.5 yrs late...the owner of the house had even passed away!! note to the mumbai hash club: update your website!!!!!!!! instead of going back to our hotel, we went to the biggest laundry area i've ever seen in my life...HUGE...they do laundry in india by beating the dirt out of your clothes...they slam it against stone again and again and again, in between soakings...it's rather impressive...nearly all the laundry done in the city is done in this one area...i wonder how it doesnt get all confused and returned to the wrong people...
that afternoon we took the ferry out to elephanta island...the guidebook talked about caves with buddhist carvings, and i thought they sounded interesting...as this was only ben's second day in india, and he's got the world's most sensitive stomach (after all his traveling you'd think it wouldn't be that way anymore...when he was in turkey he lost 25lbs in one month!!) he had to run back to the hotel, so he ended up on a different ferry...hee hee...the caves didn't end up being all that great...we liked the ferry ride better than the caves!!
our last day in mumbai we walked to chowpatty beach...it's a reasonable beach, but the water is NOT CLEAN...toxic maybe?...so people just stand around a bit, but don't go in the water much...after the beach we continued walking, all the way to malabar hill, which is supposed to be the ritzy area of town...it's definitely nicer than other areas, but maybe we missed the best spots, because it didn't seem that fabulous...layna and i have developed a love for curd, and when we saw buffalo curd advertised, we couldn't resist...we devoured a half kilo of the stuff, in record time...i don't think ben was very impressed...he loved his lassi though...
in keeping with habits layna and i have developed, we stuck to local places to eat...we rarely eat in places mentioned in the guidebook...we've found that places crowded with locals offer better (and cheaper) food...YUM!!!

india part 4

after jaipur we went to another "ur"...there seem to be lots of them...udaipur is named for udai singh, a maharaja...it is built around lake pichola, which is supposed to be really pretty...according to who knows who, udaipur is the venice of the east...i wouldn't really agree with that...the monsoon has been pretty crappy for the past two years, so the lake is pretty low, and doesn't look very pretty...not at all...there are two islands in the middle of it...one is a palace, and one is a hotel...they're both lit up at night, and quite picturesque...it's pretty at night than during the day...at least that's what i thought....there is another lake on the north side of the town, called fateh sagar...that lake is low as well, and looks just as icky...
when we arrived in udaipur my foot got caught as i was getting out of the rickshaw that delivered us to a hotel...i didn't think anything of the cut on my hand at the time...
there are a number of temples around town, and the first one we discovered was nearly completely deserted...of course, as we walked in to explore, two locals came with us, each trying to be our guide...udaipur was the place where we had the most people who would walk along with us for a little while telling us facts and showing us places, then ask for money, even though we hadn't asked them for anything in the first place...frustrating...anywho, this temple was indo-aryan, with exquisite carving...we went to another one as well, but it was covered in people, and somehow that made it less interesting...
our favorite part of udaipur was a cooking class we took from a lady named shashi...having been in india for nearly a month, we had tried a lot of different foods, and were really excited about learning how to make some of them...she started the class by telling us her life story, which was awesome...she's a widow, and by the laws of her caste, she's not allowed to remarry, ever...she also told us some other details....she's a very strong woman...anywho, 3 hours later, we had prepared a FEAST, and got to attempt to eat it...that was probably the first and only time in india that we weren't able to finish everything in front of us...so much food...and such good food...as part of the class we received the recipes of everything we made, and now we're both really keen to have "indian night" with some friends after our trip....at the end of the class shashi also gave us earrings, a keychain, and a friendship bracelet...fantastic experience...
we left udaipur on a bus one morning, and arrived that afternoon in mt abu...it's a hill station, and the road up the mountain is windy...surprisingly, i didn't get sick...we hired a paddleboat and paddled around nakki lake for an hour, which was nice...at one point on the lake a couple indian guys in another boat attempted to make conversation, and one even climbed over onto our boat...the only problem is that they spoke only a few words of english...i'm not exaggerating...when we said we were going to keep going, i had to indicate that it was time for him to get out of the boat, because he didn't understand...he also asked us for our mobile numbers, which of course we don't have, and wouldn't have given him...that would be a conversation of total silence!! anywho, the other reason to go to mt abu is to see the jain temples at dalwara, a few kilometers away...they are made of white marble, with incredibly intricate carving...you're not allowed to take a camera in, so i don't have any pictures other than the ones in my head...there are 5 temples, and to someone like me, they all look somewhat the same...they are awesome though...temple #5 isn't finished...according to someone who works there, while it was being built, a war broke out, and funds that were supposed to go to the temple were diverted to the war fund...sad...
on the bus ride from mt abu to ahmedabad, i did get motion sickness...at least i felt awful on the way down the mountain...but after our first food stop i felt a lot better...that was our first time (and only time) in a sleeper bus...when we arrived in ahmedabad, it wasn't clear at all when we were supposed to get off the bus...we asked, and got conflicting answers from the same guy..."last stop"..."this stop"..."next stop"...we're used to miscommunication by now...ahmedabad is one of the more muslim areas of india...there are quite a few mosques, and quite a few women who are almost entirely covered...the street market is huge, and keeps going and going and going...we saw another bollywood movie, chandni chowk to china...we didn't like it as well as our first movie, rab na bana di jodi...there aren't many tourists in ahmedabad, i don't think we saw any other foreigners...

india part 3

after jaisalmer was the town of bikaner...we ended up getting off the train at the wrong station w/out realizing it, but that was a blessing in disguise...as usual, someone approached us quickly about a place to stay, and also handed us a schedule...(we went to bikaner because we had heard about a camel festival and wanted to check it out)...the price sounded good enough, it was family run, and we always knew we could go somewhere else if we hated it...staying in that guesthouse turned out to be a great decision...the father was super friendly, as were the wife and kids...three kids...one of the girls spoke pretty good english, and could read and write as well...the wife cooked great food, and the portions were HUGE...the father was fantastic about helping us with directions, and suggesting things to do...
the first full day there we went to the fort in the morning...it's totally different from the fort in jaisalmer...this fort was originally the residence of the local maharajah, and most of the original decorations and furnishings are still in the fort...the entrance fee includes a required guide, and for once, we were happy that we had the guide...w/out him, we wouldn't have found all the little hallways and palaces, etc...the interior decoration is pretty fancy, and it was neat to go up on the roof...in several rooms there are old pictures on the wall, from maharajah parades and such...
that afternoon, we took a bus out to the camel festival...AWESOME!!!!! it was in the village of ladera, not too far from bikaner...we got to see decorated camels, and of course took lots of pictures...we saw a dune race, which wasn't all that exciting...at one point, layna joined in a long jump contest, running and jumping down a dune...(a photographer took her picture, and it ended up in the paper the next day:)...we watched camel races, during which not all the jockeys could control their camels...they didn't always go in a straight line, and they weren't always able to stay on the camels...funny...we got to watch the women play musical chairs...it sounds tame, but some of them really wanted to win...each woman seemed to have a cheering section, and when some of them were out, those cheering sections were NOT happy...at one point we were told we should get out of the crowd, as it was getting rowdy, and we were told the police might have to use force...we got to watch a cultural show, which had exhibitions of traditional song, dance, music and costumes...they had announcements in punjabi and english, so we always knew what was coming up next...though the english announcements were, how can i put this, very flowery and slow...after the cultural show the last event of the evening was a fire dance...only men in a certain caste of a certain faith could participate in the dance...first a bonfire was burned down to nothing but red hot embers, then the men danced through and around the embers...very cool...at the end, they used their feet to spread out the embers, so they were no longer a danger...after it was over, we saw one old man pick up embers twice and put them in his mouth...they said that true believers would not feel the pain of the fire...either way, it was pretty impressive...we took the same bus back to bikaner, and it was a bit more of an adventure...not too long after we left, the guy taking money got into some sort of argument with some of the passengers...lots of yelling back and forth, layna and i sitting there clueless...it got so bad that the bus driver pulled over and stopped the bus, waiting until it was all sorted out...when it was sorted out, many of the passengers cheered, i still wish i knew what it was all about!!!
the next day was more fun...we went out to the karni mata temple, also known as the rat temple...i'm not sure of the story, but the end result is that rats are allowed to run freely all over this temple...they're supposed to be the incarnation of something, or someone...we were told there are 30,000 rats living there...who knows what the actual number is, but it's a lot...there are large bowls of milk set out in several places, it's both creepy and fascinating to watch all the rats perched on the edges, leaning down and drinking...it's said that it's good luck if the rats run across your feet (did i forget to mention that you take off your shoes before going into the temple?)...they did run across our feet...there is one white rat (albino) and it's also said to be good luck if you see him...and we did...so i guess we're double lucky:) ...seeing and being around all those rats was definitely not in my comfort zone, that's for sure!! in the afternoon we went to a camel farm...officially called the national camel research centre, or something like that...it's either the only one in india, or the only one in asia (depends on who you ask, or what you read)...we learned a lot about camels (i won't bore you with the facts unless you ask)...we got to see camels milked, see camel products (made from camel bone, camel hair, etc) and more...while standing next to one corral, several camels came over to investigate us...several kisses and attempted bites later, we had some new friends:) ...we also tried camel milk ice cream...YUM!!!
after bikaner we went to jaipur, the capital of the state of rajasthan, because we had heard about a kite festival...jaipur is just as bad as delhi in terms of touts and the aggressiveness of the city...after finding a guesthouse, we were told by several different people that it's impossible to walk around and see the sights of the city...i guess layna and i are different than most, because we don't consider 5K very long to walk to get to something...not at all...anywho, we did walk...during the day, layna ended up talking to a guy on the street trying to sell us traditional rajasthani puppets...the conversation resulted in an invitation for both of us to come spend the day with his family for the kite festival the next day...SO MUCH FUN!!! we got to his neighborhood, and spent the majority of the day on the roof...we learned how to cut kites (the idea being that you use your kite string - while flying of course - to cut the string of someone else's kite) and were served the best chapati we've had...we met the entire family, and all the cousins/friends/neighbors who were close...all the roofs in this neighborhood were made of sheets of corrogated tin held in place by rocks...and most of the roofs were very close to each other, so we didn't have to go down to the ground to move around...we got a LOT of attention from all the kids (particularly guys) in the area...i was proposed to twice, but since both were just teenagers, i decided to wait on matrimony...hee hee...seeing all the people on the roofs, flying kites was awesome...mostly kids, but some adults as well...in reading the newspaper the next day, it seemed everyone had been in on the fun...politicians and other big wigs even took a few hours out of their work days to fly kites!!! jaipur is known as the pink city because the old city is painted entirely pink...it was originally done to welcome the prince of wales (who later became king charles something or another) and the tradition has remained...it's also a great place to shop, if you have the desire...shoes, fabrics, electronics, bikes, toys, food, etc...it's all there...
our last evening in jaipur we decided to go to a bollywood movie...it was our first, and we had been told about a great theater by a couple different locals...the theater was indeed fancy...the story was that the person who had designed it had suffered some sort of mutilation afterward so he couldn't design anything that great again...i don't know that i trust that story...anywho, watching a bollywood movie was definitely an experience...at the first flash of the stars on the screen the crowd cheered...they cheered, clapped and generally got involved with the plot of the movie as it was playing...it definitely wasn't quiet...i can't remember how many times mobile phones started ringing, and people answered them!!! the movie followed the same storyline that seems to be common...people fall in love, there are difficulties, and by the end of the movie, everything is hunky dory...they even hug at the end!!

india, part 2

after delhi we went north to the indian state of punjab...for those of you who haven't been to india, what you know of india probably comes mostly from punjab...tandoori chicken, a lot of curries, etc...
we went to the city of amritsar, home of the golden temple...it's the holiest shrine in sikhism, and attracts a lot of sikh pilgrims...made of white marble, and covered in 750kgs of pure gold, it's beautiful...it's on a small island in the middle of a holy pool, and you walk across a white marble bridge to go in...it's not big, not at all...inside there are holy men reading the sikh holy book, and musicians singing and playing sikh hymns...they are broadcast around the entire complex from 0300 to 2200 each day...arriving in amritsar was much more pleasant than arriving in delhi...the golden temple is a big deal, and they have a lot of pilgrims/visitors, so they run a free bus from the temple to the train station and back quite regularly...once we found the correct spot to wait outside the train station, the touts and rickshaw drivers left us alone...soooo nice...when we got to the temple, we were immediately shown where to go, and very quickly shown into a room...nearly all of it was done w/out any english (or much talking at all, for that matter)...the temple provides (free) accomodation to pilgrims and tourists...it's simple accomodation, think dorm style...each night there were a lot of people sleeping in the courtyard of the building in which we had our room...communal bathrooms, etc...they can accomodate as many as 30,000 people at a time, which apparently happens a few times a year, during major holidays...there is also a GIANT community kitchen, which can serve 40,000 (free) meals a day...eating there was quite an experience...the entire complex is staffed by volunteers...they do everything from organizing the accomodation, to peeling potatoes, to serving chai, to washing spoons, etc...all of it is paid for by donations and the offering money in the temple...it's an amazing example of how incredible something can be when a lot of people happily give time and energy, and all work together...during breakfast of our second day, we ended up talking to a 20 yr old punjabi girl...she wanted to practice her english, we had lots of questions to ask...she was at the temple with her family, for the second time in her life...she answered all of our questions, both about the sikh religion, and about herself...a total sweetheart...she even helped us get train tickets!! we also spent some time with her after our last dinner there...
one of the other reasons to go to amritsar is that it's an hour bus ride to a border village called attari...the border with pakistan, that is...the pakistani side of the border has a village called wagah...each afternoon there is a fancy border closing ceremony that lots of people come to watch...each country has built permanent stands for all the spectators...(and they are separated by sex)...you're not allowed to carry a bag of any kind to the ceremony, and you are searched on the way there...the soldiers in the ceremony are wearing super fancy uniforms, complete with head stuff...i have no idea how to describe them, maybe head plumes? lots of marching, stomping and the like...even some high kicking, which, as lonely planet puts it, is so high that you wonder they don't concuss themselves...the crowds on either side are really patriotic, chanting and cheering the entire time...LOUD...at the very end of the ceremony, the flags of each country are lowered in unison, staying at an equal level the whole time...considering the level of animosity between the two countries, the degree of cooperation during the ceremony (for choreography and the flag lowering) is pretty incredible...tensions between the two countries have never been good (going back to when the modern borders for india were set and pakistan was created)...politics are different, and so are the religions...pakistan is mostly muslim, while india is mostly hindu...during the partition, hundreds of thousands of people were killed and injured as they crossed the country in order to get to the right territory...the anger hasn't ever gone away...and now, after the bombings in mumbai, the feelings continue...
after amritsar, we went to jaisalmer...a pretty town, mostly built of yellow sandstone...throughout the town there are beautiful havelis, old, VERY ornately carved houses...the town is most known for the fort in the middle...unfortunately, the fort is on the world monuments watch list for the world's 100 most endangered sights...the drainage system under the fort was only built to handle a 10th of what it is dealing with now, and as a result, the ground is slowly collapsing...the fort is slowly sinking into the hill...there are currently 99 bastions surrounding the fort, 3 have already collapsed...it's not ethical to stay in a hotel inside the fort, and we didn't...we didn't eat at any of the restaurants in there either...people still live in the fort, but they always have, ever since the fort was built...it's the hotels and restaurants that are so awful...basically, the town is killing itself by not practicing conservation...the town isn't big, there is no reason to stay inside the fort...layna talked to a guy at our hotel whose family emigrated here in 1971 from pakistan...at that time, the countries didn't like each other, but the border was relatively open...now, they can't really go back...this guy would like to see where his family is from, but he's not likely to ever do so...he said he considers himself indian, not pakistani...and he doesn't like pakistanis...he said no people live in pakistan, only animals...soooooooooo, yeah, the two countries don't get along so well...

india, part 1 of many

technically we arrived in india very early the morning of new years day...but we didn't arrive anywhere until the afternoon of the 2nd, when our bus FINALLY arrived in delhi...delhi is a VERY different capital city from kathmandu...kathmandu is completely tame compared to delhi...delhi is much more aggressive, much more crowded, much more polluted...as soon as we got off the bus we were surrounded by rickshaw drivers who wanted to take us anywhere, at very inflated prices...and they also lied to us about several distances we asked for...fortunately, we were at a bus station, and it had a prepaid rickshaw stand...not surprisingly, they tried to steer us away from it, saying it was closed...surprise surprise, it wasn't...the price we ended up paying was less than half of what any of them were offering...when we arrived in the area where we planned to stay, we again had to fight off touts...they wanted to show us all sorts of hotels, and tried to entice us with tv, big rooms, etc...none of that is what layna and i want in a hotel room...all we need or want are beds, and we don't want to pay much for them...

our first full day in delhi was so so, and both of us thought india wasn't going to be that great...it was our first experience with the radically different entrance fees for foreigners and indians...at the red fort, we paid 250 rupees (1 USD = approx 47 indian rupees) to get in...indians paid 15 i think...the best part of the red fort was the conversation we had with visiting afghan university professors...they were all professors at kabul university in afghanistan, and in delhi for 10 weeks or so attending workshops...later that afternoon we visited jama masjid, the largest mosque in india...the courtyard is supposed to be able to hold 25,000 people...entrance is free, but you are supposed to pay 200 rupees for a camera...layna and i had no intentions of taking pictures, and so hid our cameras...the guy at the gate was only stopping foreigners to check for cameras, which was really frustrating...as he felt my ipod in my purse, he decided it was a camera w/out seeing it and insisted i pay the fee...(my camera was in the back of my waistband, where i knew it wouldn't be found)...i didn't pay the fee, nor did we leave our shoes with the shoe minder, instead we carried them in with us, just like all the indians going in...when we got inside, we were glad we hadn't paid the camera fee...sure, it's big, but not all that picture worthy...the frustrating part was seeing all the indians who were taking pictures, and knowing that they hadn't paid the fee...argh...

our second day in delhi was a LOT better, and both of us loved every minute...first we found a mosque that was marked as an archeological treasure, but wasn't touristed at all...as we went in, the one man inside (who was about to start his prayers) told us the mosque was over a 1000 years old, and that we were more than welcome to look around whereva we wanted...we found several sets of stairs that led to great views around the area...right next to this mosque was part of an old fort...this was also an archeological treasure, but not touristed...and again, we were allowed to explore and climb whereva we wanted...after having two such areas completely to ourselves, we decided to skip the rest of the fort, knowing that it would be much more crowded...next we went to humayun's tomb...i don't know who he was, but the tomb was built for him by his second wife...apparently, she really liked him, cause it's HUGE...built of red sandstone and white marble...beautiful...as we were entering, so were hundreds of schoolgirls on a field trip...the most exciting part of the tomb for us was taking LOTS of pictures with all the schoolgirls...we had a lot of fun, and so did they...lots of laughing and smiling...

the third day we walked to the US embassy, so layna could have extra pages put in her passport...(a free service for US passport holders, in case any of you ever need them)...it turned out to be the day the embassy was celebrating it's 50th anniversary...i guess that's newsworthy, as there were quite a few tv trucks there...the first guard we talked to (to find out which entrance to use) asked us which channel we were from...hee hee...

our first meals in india were great...one of the things we had been looking forward to about india was the food...we realized there are soooooooooooooooooo many types/flavours here, we'll never get to try them all!!! dosas, curries, rices, juices, fruits, snacks, sweets, etc...

and so ends the intro to india.....

nepal 4

at the end of my last email, i think we were about to go for our third trek...we trekked the helambu area, which is pretty close to kathmandu...well, the start of the trek is close to kathmandu...this trek wasn't as high, or as long as our first, but it was still my favorite...there wasn't quite the variety of scenery, but it was still awesome...we saw soooooooo many farming terraces, each of which was farmed by hand...absolutely incredible...they went all the way up to about 2200m...each day was both physically and mentally challenging...rarely did this trek go flat...most of the time the ascents and descents were rather steep...this trek is less popular than other treks, we saw very few other trekkers during our time on the trails...it's also not marked like the other two treks we did...there were quite a few times we came to forks in the trail and had to decide where to go...most of the time both options looked equally good...several times during the 8 days we missed a turnoff and were lucky enough to run into a nice local person who sent us in the right direction...two of the days we spent 3/4 of our day without any clue as to where we were...it's a bit scary to walk through/over/around hills and valleys when you don't know where you are, and people can only communicate vague directions...
during one of my last days in kathmandu i went to the town of bhaktapur...waaaayyyy back when, during the days of the malla kings, the kathmandu valley was divided into three kingdoms...patan, (which i visited during our first few days in nepal,) kathmandu and bhaktapur...now they're all one giant area, but bhaktapur has held up the best in terms of what it used to be...there is almost no traffic in bhaktapur, it's much more pleasant to walk around than kathmandu...lots of temples, etc...two different guys decided they wanted to be my guide, w/out me asking for that service...one guy got the hint when i said i wanted to wander around on my own...the other guy, not so much...he kept telling me things, and showing me places in the town...i sat near one temple for over an hour and watched people, he even hung around for that!!! i knew he wanted money, and while he did take time out of his day for me, i knew he did it because he got to practice english, and was hoping for money from me...i didn't ask for it though...
another one of our last days in kathmandu we spent more than 5 hours total at the indian embassy...all waiting around, not doing anything...when they finally called our numbers, we were at the window for less than a couple minutes!!! getting a tourist visa to india involved going to the indian embassy a total of three different times...
we spent new years eve day in the village of lumbini...most of you have probably never heard of the place, unless you are buddhist...lumbini is where buddha was born...he was born as a prince...prince siddartha gautama, or something along those lines...just before he was born, someone prophesied to his father that he would be a great teacher or a great ruler...obviously, his father wanted him to be a great king, so he kept him in the palace, learning only the life of a ruler...i don't know why he left, but when he did, he saw the opposite side of life...the sick and the poor...eventually, in bodghaya, in india, under a tree, he found enlightenment...and thats how the "middle path" was born...anywho, in lumbini there is something now called the lumbini development zone...all the countries with strong buddhist histories were asked if they wanted to build a monastary there...nearly all of them did, even countries in which it is currently not a good thing to be a practicing buddhist...(like myanmar and china)...the monastaries in lumbini are big and ornate...another area to visit is the temple in which there is a rock that marks the exact spot where buddha was born...(how they know that for sure, i don't know...cause the rock was put there several hundred years later i think)...just outside this temple is a pool in which buddha's mom supposedly bathed before giving birth...again, how they would know that, i don't know...there are also remains of quite a few monastaries that were built and in use from the 3rd and 4th centuries BC to the 4th century AD...
the morning of new years day we got up early, and somehow managed to avoid all the cycle rickshaw drivers who wanted to take us to the border...they all said the bus wouldn't get us close, that we'd still have to walk 2km...the bus did get us close, we had to walk about 100m at most...we've learned not to trust distance measurements from anyone, as none of them are ever correct...(even signs during trekking shouldn't be trusted completely)...we officially left nepal, walked over the invisible line, then officially entered india...the immigration office in india was a completely open room...four men sat on one side of a table, drinking chai and reading newspapers...if someone hadn't pointed it out to us, we would have missed it completely...
after entering india, we got on a bus, and 30 hours later ended up in delhi...definitely a LONG bus ride, but not nearly as bad as either one of us expected...sure, we were stared at the whole time, but we're used to that...while talking to one guy who sat next to me for a while, i discovered that all of india's problems can be attributed to pakistan...he was also looking forward to obama becoming president:)
and so ends the saga of nepal...

nepal 3

IX. ANOTHER TREK the second trek we decided to do is called the langtang valley...it's much shorter, only 7-8 days, depending on how you do it...we took a bus to syabrubesi, stayed the night, and started the next morning...the first day was a 1000m climb (net)...it took us around 6 hours...there was a lot of up and down, quite a bit of it was steep, so we actually climbed more than 1000m...we climbed more than 1000m on the day...it was a relief to arrive at the "friendly guest house"...the next day was another 900m climb, this one much easier and faster...the third day was only 2 hours, though we knew it would be short...we were howeva, expecting three hours, and were quite surprised to come over a hill and see the village all of a sudden...we had been excited, as kyanjin gompa has a cheese factory...but because it's not high season anymore, it was closed...soooo disappointed...from our guesthouse we could see part of the langtang glacier, as well as two ridges in the himalayas...the kanja la himal, and i've forgotten the name of the other one...gorgeous...the fourth day we decided to stay in kyanjin gompa another day, and do a day hike...so we continued up the valley for three hours, and almost made it to seeing another glacier...by the time we got back, we could feel it in our legs...layna stepped into an icy river we had to cross, i can still imagine the cold!! the next day it was back down again, back to friendly guest house...(we skipped the village we had stayed in the night before first arriving in kyanjin gompa)...the 6th day we intended to descend 800m, then climb 600m to a village called thulo syaphru...but we didn't get to the turnoff until having been on the trail for more than four hours...i wasn't in the mindset to climb at that point...layna let me make the call, and we went to syabrubesi again...the following morning we walked back to that turnoff, and did the climb...steady, pretty steep for 3 hours...it was worth it though, the views of the valley were great...we could see how steep the langtang valley is, and appreciate the climbing and descending we had done earlier in the trek...that night there was a "jamboree" in the village of thulo syaphru...at least that was what the lady who owned our guest house called it...we had no idea what was going on, but it was great to watch...lots of singing...it seemed to move through the village, stopping in open areas in front of guesthouses...there was always a table in the middle of the area, and the same people lined up at the table each time...the men would sing, then the women...over and over and over again...they circled around a bit, and there were some men in some sort of costume beating drums and spinning around...the last day we walked to dhunche... during this trek we saw white monkeys, yay!! awesome to see animals in the wild...i've only seen monkeys in a zoo previously...well, there is a temple in kathmandu sometimes called the monkey temple because of the troop that lives around the area...but that's not really "wild"...those monkeys have figured out how to take food off visitors, they can even unwrap lollies!! this trek was cheaper than our first trek...because it wasn't as long, of course, and also because we didn't pay for our lodging 75% of the time...because we were trekking outside of high season, the people who run the lodges have a harder time getting people...they usually offered us a free room, and a bit of a discount on our food...(the food is where the lodges actually make any money)...not a huge amount, but still, it was nice...during this trek we also got our first taste of yak curd...SO GOOD...you all know i'm a huge fan of curd (yoghurt) in general, so i was happy to try it...the first time we had it, it had been made freshly that day, and was still warm...GOOD...the next morning, we had it again, from the same place, and it was still GOOD...the day we came back down the valley, from kyanjin gompa to the friendly guest house (in the village of lama hotel) we tried another place for yak curd...it was the best we had...AMAZING...i wish yak curd was available in more places, but i suppose it's best that it isn't...hee hee...the other food of interest we tried was a snickers momo...the owner of the lodge wrapped the snickers in pastry, and pan fried it...so when we got it, the snickers was melted inside the crust...heaven!!
X. "HOME" TO KATHMANDU we're now in kathmandu for the third time...we've done a few more errands, gotten permits and tomorrow will take off for our third trek...this morning we started the process for getting our indian tourist visas...it was my first time in the embassy of another country...lots of waiting around, (about 5 hours worth!...when they finally called our numbers, it only took a minute or so to do what needed to be done)...but oh well...we'll finish up the process when we return from this trek...we've stayed at the same hotel each time, they've gotten to know us pretty well...hee hee...they hold onto all our stuff we don't take with us, which is awesome...

nepal 2

VI. THE SECOND CITY
pokhara is the second city of nepal...much more tame, though still touristy...the world peace pagoda overlooks the town...one day we rented a boat and went out on the lake...you can see the mountains behind the city while on the lake...gorgeous...pokhara was also our first opportunity to use computers in nearly three weeks...we were both a bit overwhelmed with being in contact again...as this was only three days after the events in mumbai, it was especially intense...while we were in pokhara, we found out the dates for something we had read about in the guidebook, and decided we had to go...
VII. WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
after two days in pokhara, we rode two buses to the village of meghauli...it's just outside chitwan national park...there is only one time of year, and one reason that foreigners ever go to meghauli...each december, for a week, it hosts the world elephant polo championships...how awesome is that??!! on the second bus,i got to talking to the man sitting next to me, and he offered to let us stay at his house...so we did...his house happened to be a 30 minute bike ride past meghauli, in an absolutely tiny village...we got off the bus at the last stop, then walked 20 minutes through fields to get to his house...attracting attention EVERYWHERE, of course...it was a traditional house, one room downstairs, with a ladder leading up to the one room upstairs...it had electricity, but no running water...the kitchen was a straw covered shack of sorts...in the middle of the front "yard" was a huge haystack...that evening our host took us to the house (a 40 minute walk through more fields, we were totally lost) of one of his relatives...she served us local rice beer, and a fantastic curry...obvioiusly, i didn't drink the beer, but layna said it was good, and it certainly smelled good...kinda lemony, though he said there was no lemon in it...walking back to his house was interesting, as it was completely dark...walking where you can't see is difficult, and we all know my level of coordination, even when i can see!!! the following morning we got up, and our host led us (all three of us on bicycles) to the grounds in meghauli where we watched the WORLD ELEPHANT POLO CHAMPIONSHIPS...it was AWESOME...the game moves a lot faster than you would think...there are 9 elephants on the field at a time...4 for each team, and a huge referee elephant...each elephant had two people on it...a player and a handler...the players were using mallets with 2m handles...funny to watch them try to hit the ball and make sure it didn't hit the feet of the elephant...the elephants seemed to know not to use their trunks to do anything with the ball...occasionally they would step on the ball, which of course frustrated the players...hee hee...we saw a lot of missed hits, sometimes three or four times in a row!! there was a team from new york there, it was their first time in the tournament...lots of locals turned out to watch the tournament, it's probably the excitement of the year in that area...there was a british guy doing play by play, he was amusing...he kept referring to "the greatest nation on earth"...hee hee...at least he knew the important stuff...lol...we had so much fun watching that we watched the entire day's worth of games...as we were leaving, i couldnt help but wonder, how exactly does one get into elephant polo? it's not exactly a worldwide sport...
VIII. BACK TO KATHMANDU we hopped two buses again, and made our way back to kathmandu...we had lots of errands to do, and wanted to see a few more sights...laundry, email, etc...we took a microbus one day to a stupa called boddha...it's especially important to the tibetan buddhist community here...it's HUGE...anywho, as we got off the bus, the guy who collects money tried to tell us that the fare was 200NRps each...when he first said the number, we both thought he was talking about the entrance fee to the stupa area...but he was talking about the bus fare!!!! we were both shocked, and weren't about to pay that...it was just another example of a local trying to rip off a foreign traveler...we paid 20, and knew we had overpaid by 5 or so...in american dollars, 200 rupees isn't a lot...but it's more than 10x the fare!!! he had no choice but to accept the money we were willing, but as he got back on the bus he kept calling us idiot girls... we also visited several travel agents in order to get prices for the permits and tickets we needed for the next trek we had decided to do...the last agent we visited was by far the best...he explained what we needed, and even told us we could get the permits ourselves...he also told us that the TIMS (trekkers information management system) cards are actually free...the other agents were telling us that they could get them for us for 500 rupees each!! in addition to their markup on the permits...needless to say, to book bus tickets we were happy to go to the honest travel agent...he told us the price of the tickets, as well as the commission he charged...we were happy to pay that...

nepal 1

I. INTRODUCTION
layna and i met in germany, she moved there a year after i did, in june 2002...who knows exactly when we met, but it was sometime not too long afterward...one of her sisters had already been there a few years...layna is a graduate of texas a&m...she went to yell practice regularly, but wasn't often a 12th man...she's way more impressive than me, in that she put herself entirely through school by herself...(a side note, the sister already in garmisch is a UT graduate...or, as aggies call it, TU)
II. THE BEGINNING
our first trip together was while we were living in germany...purely by accident we both had the same few days off, and while we didn't know each other well at all, thought hey, lets go somewhere...so we went to the travel agent, and ended up going to turkey...at the time our visa cost more than our flight!! sometimes being an american sucks...anywho, we loved the trip, and found that we have similar traveling styles...our next trip together was to russia (moscow and st petersburg) with the sister i already mentioned...another great trip...
i left garmisch in march of 2004, then traveled for 7 weeks in southeast asia, (including visiting hana who was living in the philippines at the time)...that summer, i worked in seward, alaska, home of the seward army resort...sometime during that summer, layna and i hatched the plan for this trip...we thought hey, wouldn't it be cool if we spent a bunch of months budget traveling all over asia...we originally thought we'd start it in late october or november of 2006...obviously that didn't happen...for various reasons, each of us pushed it back a couple times, always knowing that we were still going to do it...and finally, about a year ago, we said YES, WE ARE GOING TO START IN NOVEMBER...
III. THE PLANNING
all these years, layna and i would email every few months, and check in, that yes, each of us is still up for the trip...each making preparations, but not really coordinating anything...it wasn't until just a couple months or so before we were supposed to start that we even started emailing weekly...hee hee...but yes, we did get it all together...tickets bought, gear bought, etc...it helped a lot that each of us knew people who had trekked in nepal, so we knew who to ask questions...
IV. THE MEETING
we agreed to meet in kathmandu...originally, layna had a ticket that had her arriving on 5 november...but that ticket had her transferring through india, and apparently you need a visa to do that, which she didnt know at the time...so she got stuck in new york, and had to buy another ticket...(don't worry, she got most of the first one refunded)...so she ended up arriving the same day i did, 6 november...she found me in the airport, and our hotel picked us up, so we were set to go...
V. MORE PLANNING
since our flights arrived in kathmandu in the early afternoon, we actually had part of the day with which to do things..we went straight to the travel agent (there are gbillions from which to choose) to figure out details for the trek we had chosen...the annapurna circuit...it's one of the most popular (along with the everest base camp trek) as well as the longest...we originally thought of doing the everest base camp trek, but had both changed our minds w/out telling each other, so it worked out well...we knew that we could do the trek ourselves, w/out a porter, and w/out a guide, and we didn't want to pay for them anywho...(though porters and guides make a VERY small amount of money for all that they do...still, what they make is considerably more than the average nepali)...we got our bus tickets, and necessary permits
the next couple days we checked out a few places in kathmandu, and stocked up on what we'd need for the trek...i had showed up w/out a hat, and w/out mittens...fortunately, that stuff is available here, by the truckload, and super cheap...if you're good at bargaining, you'll pay almost nothing...i'm not as good as i'd like to be, since i rarely have any idea what i should be paying for anything...
VI. THE TREK
we took a six hour bus ride from kathmandu to the town of besisahar...the only reason foreigners go to this town is to stay the night before they start the circuit...the day we were on the bus was in the middle of a few holidays, so there were a LOT of people getting on and off...it occured to us that it might be difficult to find a room in besisahar, but it wasn't...we stayed at hotel mongolia, for what we thought was the bargain rate of 500Rps...($1USD = 75NRps)...the view from the back of the hotel was pretty good...or so we thought...our room had it's own bathroom, and two single beds with very thin mattresses...that's it...oh, and a couple windows...but it was all we needed...
the next morning we were up and ready to go (we even ate breakfast) before 0700...we found a bus to take us a little way (7km) down the road to khudi, where we would start walking...the road was, well, um, not good...not sealed at all...when you looked at the bus we were on, you wouldn't have thought it was capable of anything off road...but it was...i don't know if it was actually 4WD, but it certainly was expected to behave that way...the bus driver definitely knew what he was doing...we got off in khudi, and started walking...our first checkpoint (there are police and tourist checkpoints all along the trek) was in the village after that, though i can't remember the name of it...the first hour and a half were pretty flat, and we were both thinking it wasn't going to be as hard as we thought...we had tea around 1000...not too long after we started walking again, we started going up...not too bad at first, but remember that i haven't hiked regularly, ever...still, we took it slow and steady, which would become our mantra as the trek went on...we arrived in bahundanda around 1400...
most of our days ended up having the same routine, give or take hours or minutes...wake up, lay around and daydream, eat breakfast, trek for 4-6 hours, arrive somewhere new, relax and look at the menu and try to decide what we wanted for dinner, eat dinner, go to bed around 2000...(yes, i know, that's early)...in general, the first half of the trek was mostly going up...and the second half was mostly going down...some days were difficult, some were easier...after just a few days, we were sleeping higher than i ever was during 2.5 years in korea...(the highest mountain in south korea is only about 2000m)...day 7 was difficult, as we took the upper route from pisang to manang...it has a pretty harsh climb, but the views for the rest of the day are totally worth it...it was a 7 hour day, and we arrived in manang tired and hungry...manang is a town at 3500m or so, and nearly everyone doing the trek spends two nights there instead of one, to acclimatize...most of the world never spends time at this height, but it's when altitude sickness starts to show...there are several bakeries in the town, of course we had to try the goods...never has apple pie looked so good:)...
the next difficult day was day 10...by far the most difficult of the trek...we spent the night in thorung phedi, at 4400m...the village consists of the two lodges for trekkers, (and porters/guides/etc) and that's it...most people go to bed very early, because you start the next morning in the dark...people eat breakfast around 0400-0430, and start up the mountain in the dark, at 0500...its neat to look up and see the line of head torch lights winding up the mountain...1000m later, (4.5 hours for us) we were at the top, the pass called thorung la...layna started the day with nausea, one of many symptoms of AMS, though she elected to try the climb anywho...as we climbed, she got worse, though she still carried on...at the top, there is a hut where quite a few people stop and have a cup of tea to celebrate where they are and what they've done...we didn't stop...we took the obligatory pictures by the sign, and started our way down...the last hour of the climb i had developed a headache, which i knew would go away as we descended...and it did...5.5 hours later, we arrived in muktinath, after a descent of 1600m+...my knees hurt a little, and my feet HURT A LOT...it was a long long LONG day, and we were exhausted...i was so tired that i kept kicking stones i should have been able to lift my feet over...we arrived around 1530, and stumbled into the mona lisa hotel...the next morning we decided to stay an extra day in muktinath, just because we could...(not having an itinerary is great)...there were a few things in muktinath that we wanted to see, and didn't have the energy when we arrived after the long day...we also used the rest day to rinse our clothes in the FREEZING COLD water...SO COLD...
then we continued going down...the next day we arrived in kagbeni, which has to be one of the windiest places ever...from the north side of kagbeni you can see into a tiny little area of the upper mustang region...we would have loved to go farther...there is a special permit fee to go there, a whopping $700USD...(birthday present for me next year? hee hee)...for a while, nepal has had 75 districts...for a number of years, one king ruled over 74 of them...another king ruled over the other one, known as the upper mustang region...i would love to see it someday...anywho, from kagbeni we continued on...this side of the trek has a road through a good portion, which isn't nearly as fun as the trail on the first half...plus, several of our days were much flatter...we weren't feeling the challenge nearly as much...but it was still amazing...the scenery was totally different, its much more desertlike...by this point, a 4 hour day was a breeze...we'd arrive somewhere and drop our packs and hike around whereva we were...
i don't remember the number of the day, but at some point we arrived in tatopani...the next day is a tough one, as you climb quite a lot again...after going down for days, it's definitely a shock to the system...tatopani itself means hot springs, and there are some right next to the town...there are also a few really good looking bakeries in the town...the next morning, we took off, and kept thinking "when do we start climbing?"...at some point, i looked at the map and realized we had missed the turnoff to the climb...whoops...so we walked back, found the turnoff, and started climbing...we only made half the climb, but that was okay...we slept the night at sikha, then continued the climb the next day, finishing at ghorepani...it actually worked out really well that we did the climb in two days instead of one...
the last morning, we got up in the dark again...ghorepani is at the bottom of what is known at poon hill...watching the sun rise from poon hill is great, so we figured, why not? again, climbing up in the dark with the line of lights from head torches...the sun rise was beautiful, and the perfect morning...cold, but awesome...we walked back down to the lodge, ate breakfast, and started going down even more...that last day we descended almost 2000m, down to the town of naya pul...from there we caught a bus (after saying no to a taxi who wanted WAY too much money) to pokhara...
one of our biggest concerns in doing the trek w/out a porter was how hard it would be to carry our packs each day...but our bodies adjusted surprisingly well...that's not to say it was easy, because it wasn't...but it wasn't as bad as we thought...and we didn't need a guide, except for the one time...hee hee...

new zealand part 3

arrived 18 sept
visited waiwera, with a great hotel pool...and a total surprise...dan set a high standard for himself...
also met part of dan's extended family in napier...on the way to napier we stopped at candyland, not too far from hamilton...heaven!! his cousin anne has the cutest 5 month old, tafia...dan was great with tafia, he spent more time with him than almost anyone else...endless patience for bouncing him up and down and up and down, over and over again...played golf, which isn't a surprise...
also visited rotorua, or rottenrua...smells like sulfur at times, but everything is geothermally heated, which is fantastic...we spent hours in the hotel pool...played more golf...
next was tauranga, more golf and climbing to the top of mt i cant remember the name...
more golf in waihi, after seeing hot water beach and somewhere just north of that...
golf in hamilton, for free...waitakere is a sister course of lochiel...dan got mad and ended up breaking the shaft of his driver...whoops...rain and wind were making me miserable...visited waitomo caves, they're awesome...the glow worms are beautiful...though two girls in the boat kept talking...
celebrated my birthday by going to gilmours, and buying way too many lollies...can't wait to do it again...also, dinner with amy, ivan and jess...