Rajahmundry

This past week we traveled to Rajahmundry! It was a 5 hour train ride, and what an interesting train it was. Indian trains are... well we were in good seats. And this train had A/C (a huge blessing) but the chugging and swaying and stopping and going did make me a little sick. That didn't dampen our excitement though!

Stephen insisted on standing outside the train, while it was moving.

The beautiful river

Once we were there we went shopping, walked around and enjoyed the fact that we were inland enough that it wasn't humid. The weather the whole time we were there was pretty perfect. It was cool-ish and rained a lot. We loved it!

After shopping we ended up at a large river (whose name is both unpronounceable and unspellable) and watched the sunset. And there began a very odd trend, newspaper photographers wanting our picture. I'm not a fan of this trend. It happened pretty much every day. I would make a horrible celebrity. (Not to mention I really don't like walking down the street and watching people whip out their phones to take pictures of us. It makes me feel like an exotic monkey.)

We ended up surrounded by water buffalo. We might have accidentally
hit one with the car. It was only a nudge. The huge animal was fine.

Day 2 brought about a riverboat cruise! After a car ride, we were able to play on the banks of the river before the boat came. Once on the boat we enjoyed the beautiful scenery around us. We were on the boat for about 8 hours, and were able to see bats the size of bald eagles (I wish I was joking. I'm not) and many, many, many water buffalo. (Ashley, they are real. Seriously.)




It was so nice to be out in nature. The boat was pretty crowded, but if we managed to get seats at the prow (I believe that means front) than we could enjoy the breeze and pretend that we were all alone in nature. Granted, swimming in the water would probably mean imminent death, but we liked to imagine how nice it could be.

A village we drove through

We were able to disembark to check out a temple, only we all got so distracted by giant trees and enchanting little brooks that we could walk in that we never actually went in the temple. (Oops!)









Also, Stephen danced.

Some rock yoga.

More water buffalo

Boat napping

Some bird of paradise, in the river.

The boat

It was a very lovely day.



Day 3 we visited our host's home village and enjoyed a walk around the beautiful place. We played in the garden (I have a wonderful video we made coming soon!) and walked down to the river and a Hanuman temple (Monkey temple!) We saw no monkeys, but that was ok. The rain was refreshing. And I saw a pig, which is almost as cool as a monkey. I haven't actually seen a monkey yet. We will soon though. I'm certain of it!

Hanuman Temple

 Day 4 was a very, very, very long and cramped car ride to visit the textile factory. We were able to see how they hand stamped the fabric, made the wooden tamps and we shopped!

Afterwards, a quick lunch, and then we went on to visit the birth place of kachipudi dance, which is a classic and beautiful dance style here in India. There I made friends with a 4 year old girl who danced for me, even though she was very shy.

Our last stop was at a Krishna temple, where we were blessed by the priest. It was pretty awesome.

Afterwords was a very long, very cramped ride back to the hotel, and the next morning, we left to come back to home base.

The dance place

Krishna Temple

All in all it was a wonderful adventure where we were able to see a lot, buy some gifts and enjoy a few nights in air conditioned comfort.

Next week, Nepal!