Around India in 8 Days - Part 1

So, we've been traveling. Lots of traveling. Not quite "Around the World in 80 Days" traveling. But around India in 8 days is still pretty impressive. Right? So, get ready to be flooded by pictures. (But cool pictures, so it should be a good experience. I hope.)

We left Visakhapatnam (the city we live in) much to early for my liking on July 27th, and arrived in Delhi by midmorning. We headed to our hotel and then it was out to find food. I would like to add that the hotel had a closet with pug puppies. First, to find a pug in India is kind of odd. Secondly, to go sit on a couch in the lobby and hear squeaking, look over at  an open closet and see a pile of sleeping, squeaking puppies is awesome. The hotel may have been dirty and hot, but it had puppies. Not many hotels can say that. After getting a wee bit lost we found food. We had some McDonalds and then got thoroughly lost (see a theme here? We get lost a lot.), walked around for well over a few hours and then finally found the National Gandhi Museum.

The museum was amazing. I loved to see more about Gandhi's life and quotes. We were able to see one of the bullets that took his life. The whole museum was very simple and down to earth. I think Gandhi would have liked it a lot.

This puppy fell very much asleep on Stephen.

Trying to get un-lost

Building seen while being very lost

An old fort, also seen while lost. But seen from the back of a bicycle rickshaw.

Gandhi! "Whenever you are confronted with your opponent, conquer him with love."

After the Gandhi museum we went off to find the Lotus Temple. We found it quickly (yay!) and it was such a beautiful place. It was peaceful and the gardens were beautiful. The whole temple is built on lines of simplicity and is dedicated to all religions for meditation and prayer. It was peaceful inside, and we sat in there for about 20 minutes. I even snuck a picture inside!

One of my favorite people, Kendra, and myself.

Picture I snuck while inside of the ceiling. The whole temple is built like a lotus flower
about to bloom.

From here we went off to the local mall, which was gigantic, and ate some "American" fast food. (Hello McDonalds. Yet again.)

Next morning we all stopped at Starbucks and had delicious frozen drinks. Even if they did butcher our names. From there we went to Delhi Arch, where there was a ceremony going on honoring soldiers who had died in wars over the past 75-ish years. We arrived just in time for the end of the ceremony.

Stephen with the guards.

 After the ceremony, our group meandered at our own sweet will over the long grass strip between the arch and the presidential palace. We ate popsicles and did cartwheels and handstands and laid in the grass. It was so much fun to actually have GRASS (Sounds odd, I know. But really.)

That is the presidential palace Waaaaaaayyyy back there. They don't let you get close to it.

 After seeing the palace and other government buildings, we went to see the biggest mosque in India. Only problem was, they wouldn't let us American girls in. Others were going in, after they accepted this funny looking covers. But they didn't want to let us in. So we stayed out, while Stephen went in. It was a nice view though.

 Afterwards, it was time to go to the train station. So we walked. And we walked. And we got monsooned on, while we walked. And the streets were crazy, but we saw some nice things on the way. And eventually made it safe and sound, though dripping wet, to the train station.

We spent all night on the train. We were in first class, which mean A/C! (Miracle of miracles!) It wasn't so bad sleeping on the train. A little loud and jerky. You never really get into a deep sleep. The bathrooms are truly awful, and there is no hope of a shower. But it was a fun experience. And very, very early the next morning we found ourselves in Amritsar.

Amritsar is famous for one thing really, the Golden Temple. Which is a beautiful Shikh temple. Amristar borders Pakistan so it is an area of some unrest, but the temple was beautiful. And as tired as we were, we enjoyed the experience very much.

We saw this adorable little boy sleeping in line. He wasn't impressed with the Golden Temple.

After grabbing lunch we ran off to the train station for a 17 hour train ride across the Indian desert. It was as fun as it sounds.

Stay tuned for our adventures in Jaipur, Agra and Delhi (again)!

Last bits about Nepal (or the one with 800 pictures)

So back to our Nepal trip!

On day 4 of our Journey we woke up early, at some good breakfast and headed out to Changu Narayan. It is a small town just... outside (no idea about which direction) Kathmandu. Our taxi driver was awesome and took us up to the little town just outside the hindu temple.

Stephen and I walked the tiny streets, marveled at the ducklings and chicks all over the streets and enjoyed the old temple. Stephen, being himself, made friends with the only two people there and ended up playing ping pong. Followed by a soccer (futball) game with the village children. I can't take him anywhere without him making friends. It is a joy to watch.

Rice Paddies

By the by, Stephen lost the ping pong match.

The small street leading to the Temple

After visiting the village and the temple, we started our hike. The entire time we hiked through tiny villages filled with children, dogs, goats, baby goats (cutest things ever), chickens and ducks. The people were kind enough to point out the trail to us when it was a little iffy. The kids were always adorable and smiling, happy to see us. The nepalese are a beautiful people. The scenery was stunning. It was soul-refreshing to be out in nature, surrounded by trees, damp earth, sunshine and quiet.

Three generations, all captured on a hill in the mountains.

The trek was broken into two parts. The first part was up and over one mountain, and down into a valley. And then we climbed 8,000 stairs. No joke. So many stairs. The picture right above, that was the beginning of the stairs. They went on for another eternity. I would rather climb multiple mountains than do those stairs again.

Near the end of our hike, the clouds started coming in. I would call it a mist, but we were so high that we were
literally inside the clouds. We were above 6,200 feet.

Our hotel was called Hotel at the End of the Universe. It felt like a fitting name, because it was at the tip toppest part of the mountain, up another hundred stairs. It was beautiful and quaint. The staff were adorable and kind. The dogs were friendly and the views were magnificent.

Our room was in this cabin. There were only two rooms and one bathroom. The room was so quaint!

That night, after dinner, the staff and hotel guests (there were only three others. Three middle aged Koreans who were really enjoying their red wine) all came together and played music and danced. Stephen was an honorary drummer in the little band. We had a blast enjoying the music. There was even a big didergydoo that they played. At one point, they were doing a call and answer song together that was just beautiful.

The next morning we woke up just before 5:00 am so that we could watch the sunrise and catch a glimpse of everest. Unfortunately, we were very much in a cloud. So we just went back to bed and woke up a few hours later. We ate a good breakfast and then headed back down.

We trekked up 14 miles and down 15 miles. We actually went down to a different town entirely. What we didn't know was that most of it would be walking Nepalese highway, passing many of their military posts and being passed by a lot of cars. But it was nice to see all the different towns and villages. And we only had once incident with a crazy man who grabbed me. (I fondly refer to him as the Nepalese Groper. He laughed like a madman, and groped like one too.)

When we arrived in the town we wandered around until we came across this wonderful business man who called a taxi for us. We talked with the man for a good while. He owned a butcher shop, and had three children. One of them is studying in California. Our taxi didn't show up, so he had one of his friends drive us back to Kathmandu for even cheaper than a taxi, in a very nice car. (The taxis were truly terrifying.)

The uh..."Sunrise"

This sweet dog followed us for miles as we walked. She was super friendly and adorable,

We were definitely glad to finally get back to our hotel, and then head off to get a thai massage. Which felt lovely after hiking and walking 30 miles in two days. We spent our last day wandering around Thamel market, shopping and finished off the whole night eating at the best restaurant in the whole wide world.

The Royal Penguin is actually a hotel. With a restaurant. The restaurant had this crazy furniture, and a quirky ambiance. You could choose how sociable you wanted the staff to be, and you could request your country flag to sit on your table, a large stuffed animal to sit at your table, and a board game to play while waiting for your (amazing!!!) food.

It was probably the most fun I have ever had at dinner. They served Stephen's toast in a small shopping cart. Seriously. I highly recommend it to anyone traveling to Nepal.

Stephen really likes this panda....

And the next day we went home. We spent the entire day traveling, and we were sad to leave. I think we all agreed it would be a lot better to be in Nepal than India... The trip was a once in a lifetime, beautiful, crazy experience. I'm so glad we went!