We woke up today at 5:45, packed our shit up real quick like, and bit the road! Our guide told us that we could just get started and he'd catch up, so we hit the trail! One thing that was quite startling was that the trail was mostly flat, if not at a nice down grade! This was quite different then the joke our guide had made a few days earlier about a Nepalese flat: where you go down for a while then up, down then up ( course this averages out to flat after a while :p ). But this was truly flat! What a day! We made it alway down to the first main "town" with out our guide or porter catching up with us (not so slow on flat ground after all!), but even though we didn't have our guide a dog from the village we were staying at followed us the whole way to the first town. We were expecting him to stop at some point, but he would just slink along and keep us company, I named him Vincent :p. Once we got to the main town we had to wait a few minutes there for the guide, then we continued on our way, only about 30 mins more, Vincent left us to our guide at that point (guess he knew we didn't need him any more!). After a short walk longer (short compared to the 5-7 we have been doing!) we were at the main road!! After a while our ride showed up, which we beat btw! And we were on the road to pokara, in the car we got a flight that was an hour and a half earlier arranged and enjoyed the sights...while not walking :p. We killed some time at a hotel in town with internets gettin caught up on what we had missed out over the last 8 days or so and then hit the airport for our plane! The security check through our check in bag was the silliest thing ever...basically jus open then at and peer into he top layer...then root around for a sec then call it good! With a shrug we entered the waiting room to await the plane. It was the same type of little plane we flew in on and dad and I made sure to grab seats on the left side so we could view the mountains as we left. While the cloud cover was very high we were able to spot fishtale, Annapurna south, and one other peak through the clouds...they were at the same height as us :p. 20 more minutes and we were on the ground and headed towards the hotel...what a great trip!! Now to enjoy Kathmandu for a bit longer and spend the last bit of time with my pops! We fly on the same plane to Bangkok tomorrow and then I hop away to visit clay :).
I'll post more of our crazy antics as the arise!
My advice...you must go trekking in the Annapurna region if you ever get the chance!! B-E-A-utiful!!!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Trek day 8: Last full day!!
Well this will be our last full day trekking! We had originally planed to have a four hour hike on the ninth day then drive back to pokara, but we decided to go an extra hour or two today to make it farther south and then we'll wake up early tomorrow morning and make it into town with hopes of catching a much earlier plane back to Kathmandu!
The first part of our journey today was down hill for a bit and then all the way back up to the top of chomgrong! Down and then back up...as usual! To pass the time I decided to count the steps up to the top of chomgrong...what a long ordeal!! By the time I got to the top I was at 2088 steps (this was counting things that looked like real steps not just rocks that I had to step over...so it's rough...but around 2200 steps! Wow!). Needless to say it was quite a ways up! The rest of the valley was beautiful as usual...waterfalls and the like! We continued much of the day along the river that we have been following from the source since ABC...not too often to you get to see the birth of a river...at his point much of it is whet water and flowing quite quickly!! We stopped at one waterfall area before lunch and rinsed our faces and hands in the cool mountain water and I also found a sweet egg shaped rock...it might be marble but I'm not sure. Lunch was good...the standard macaroni I've been having for the last few days...and then back down the trail for a few more hours!!
Fantastic!!! Finally we arrive at a lodge that has hot water! Well maybe not exactly hot, but warm enough! The shower was a concrete room with mold and other moss growing in it, no lights besides a window in one wall, but it was the best shower that I can remember in quite a while!! At least 7days :p. This was also a good opportunity to don some new clothes, so my sleep and travels tomorrow will be quite comfy! After he showers dad and I settled in for the night, I finished my book and he got bit laptop and other things-a-chargin. Tomorrow we have just 2.5 hours to hike out and then a hour or so ride into town! Hopefully we will be able to catch an earlier plane and get almost a full day in Kathmandu before we have to fly out! This trek has been all ups and downs and amazing views all around! Many more times then once have I had my breath taken away form the sights, but I Juliet say it will be good to get out of the mountains for a bit and rest my weary legs :p
The first part of our journey today was down hill for a bit and then all the way back up to the top of chomgrong! Down and then back up...as usual! To pass the time I decided to count the steps up to the top of chomgrong...what a long ordeal!! By the time I got to the top I was at 2088 steps (this was counting things that looked like real steps not just rocks that I had to step over...so it's rough...but around 2200 steps! Wow!). Needless to say it was quite a ways up! The rest of the valley was beautiful as usual...waterfalls and the like! We continued much of the day along the river that we have been following from the source since ABC...not too often to you get to see the birth of a river...at his point much of it is whet water and flowing quite quickly!! We stopped at one waterfall area before lunch and rinsed our faces and hands in the cool mountain water and I also found a sweet egg shaped rock...it might be marble but I'm not sure. Lunch was good...the standard macaroni I've been having for the last few days...and then back down the trail for a few more hours!!
Fantastic!!! Finally we arrive at a lodge that has hot water! Well maybe not exactly hot, but warm enough! The shower was a concrete room with mold and other moss growing in it, no lights besides a window in one wall, but it was the best shower that I can remember in quite a while!! At least 7days :p. This was also a good opportunity to don some new clothes, so my sleep and travels tomorrow will be quite comfy! After he showers dad and I settled in for the night, I finished my book and he got bit laptop and other things-a-chargin. Tomorrow we have just 2.5 hours to hike out and then a hour or so ride into town! Hopefully we will be able to catch an earlier plane and get almost a full day in Kathmandu before we have to fly out! This trek has been all ups and downs and amazing views all around! Many more times then once have I had my breath taken away form the sights, but I Juliet say it will be good to get out of the mountains for a bit and rest my weary legs :p
Trek day 7: Back down to Sinwa
Today we have a down hill stroll back to the lovely village of Sinwa. While our trip from Sinwa up to ABC took two days (1.5 really) MBC down to Sinwa would be done in one. This is mostly because much of our trip today was down hill! And after just about two days of mostly up hill this was quite a relief! Snatching our last few views of the mountains as we walked south the weather got warmer and more of the lush Oregon-esk greenery began to appear all around. It was a pleasant day and good to be going town hill. Oh did I mention that we were happy to be loosing elevation?? It was quite evident on peoples faces as we passed them on their upward trudge at how tough that part of the trail was at that point! (who would have thought there would be so much up and down in the Himalayas!!) Dad and I however were all smiles and well wishes for those upwards Trekkers! Really though it was all area we had seen in the way up, so mostly we just got to "sit" back and enjoy the scenery and stroll down hill!
Tomorrow will be our last full day of trekking and a good 6-7 hours at that!! It's been a great trip so far, but I know that i am looking forward to a shower when we get back to Kathmandu (still no hot water). And it'll be nice to stay off my feet for some time once this trek is over :p
Tomorrow will be our last full day of trekking and a good 6-7 hours at that!! It's been a great trip so far, but I know that i am looking forward to a shower when we get back to Kathmandu (still no hot water). And it'll be nice to stay off my feet for some time once this trek is over :p
Trek day 6: ABC!!!
More up today, practically all up when it wasn't flat. We had about two hours to climb up to MBC (where we sleep tonight) and then two more hours up to ABC. Lucky for our porter he only had to carry our bag up to MBC and then got to call it a day! We still had two more hours left and that last hour climb to the "top" was defiantly getting to me, the thin air making my breath come quicker and there was a chilled wind that swept through the valley. The views up were even more amazing then the past days! The valley we had been climbing up northward since Sinwa had narrowed from the start of our trek today to only about 50meters across and we were now looking straight up at the mountains looming above! Fishtale was to our right most of the day till we got to MBC and then after that point we turned west into the ABC area others came into view! What continues to amaze me is that most of our journey today was spent about the elevation of Mt. Hood and yet there were still mountains covered in green trees all around us, which then had the much larger snow covered mountains above those! As we made our last trudge from MBC to ABC we began to become surrounded but those giant mountains in all directions! It was an incredible sight to behold but none so amazing as finally making it to base camp! Annapurna base camp is located smack dab in the middle of the Annapurna mountain range with a good 5 snow caped monsters towering over head and fishtale looming in the distance back through the valley we hiked up through. I'm not sure if it was the altitude, finally being at the top, or the breath taking view, I found myself nearly laughing with joy at reaching the top! While everest may be the tallest mountain in the world I'm not sure it can top the since of wonder at being in the midst of so many giants! We climb up to a good viewing point, snapped our pictures, and settled in for a while to just gape in awe!! Not too long after we arrived the clouds rolled in with full force and socked in the mountain ranges leaving nothing but a white blanketed sky above us...at this point we decided to walk back down the the base camp proper and get some lunch...maybe the clouds would clear up and we'd get one last view!? They didn't...but we were quite content with seeing it in the first place!!! 13,550 ft was the max elevation we made (highest I've ever been, heh) and from here it would all be down hill! Relatively. We walked back Down to MBC firths night (a shame we couldn't stay up at ABC, but we have a long day tomorrow so it's better to be lower I guess!). The walk down only took half as long as the walk up and we even ran into some more Americans (one an Oregonian who lives in Eugene!!). We chatted for a bit and then wished them well on their climb to the top!! Its nice to be a little lower in elevation now...and tomorrow we start our journey back towards Kathmandu (maybe a bot shower in 3 days too!)
Trek day 5: Northward and up! (halfway)
Today we head out from Sinwa and travel north through the mountains towards ABC. This trail would continue a standard upward theme (about 3000ft gain over all). The path lead us through the valleys leading north and pretty much a straight shot towards the center of the mountain range! Dad was wearing his Oregon Ducks t-shirt and to our surprise we ran into a group of three women from Oregon! They were chanting "Oregon" with surprised looked on their faces! I'm guessing neither of is were expecting to encounter other Oregonians up here in the Himalayas!! Turns out they were from grants pass :). Another thing this valley presented was even more waterfalls! I for sure have seen more waterfalls on these last few days as I have in the rest of my life together! It is quite amazing to see them, and usually just around each bend or several right in a line! The going was mostly up as I previously stated, but it was not quite as steep as other days and at the end our guide told us that today was probably the hardest day (though I still think the endless stair/rain day on the second was the hardest!). We made it just in time to the lodge as well! While the clouds had rolled in over an hour before and kept threatening at rain it would only let out a few drops then stop...however not more then 10 minutes to finally arriving the rain came down in full force!! Just in the nick of time :p. It was very cold at this altitude, especially with he rain so we bundled up in coats and sleeping bags for a bit before a nice warm dinner! Tomorrow we will make it to base camp! Hopefully the clouds will hold till we get there for the view :p
Trek day 4: Onwards towards Sinwa
Another sung morning (thankfully). With the clouds away as they have been the last morning we were able to enjoy the nice view of the mountains now looming close by over head. After breakfast we packed our stuff and headed out. Today the journey was along mountain sides climbing down and up. The downs don bother too much, but after taking stone steps down for 15-30 mins (or more!) it can even make the ups a bit more pleasant in my eyes. For once many of the areas we were traveling to were with in sligt, only they were across from one side of the valley we were on, and so we would have to go down and then travel back up the other side! I also realized that he old saying "up hill both ways" must really refer to once you walk down to the bottom of a valley :p. Through the valleys we passed many terraced corn fields and little farms. Once we rounded towards the second valley just past mid day we stopped for lunch then journeyed on a little further to chomrong which is probably the largest "city" in the area! It is trickled down across a mountain side and it probably took a good 20-30 mins just walking down stairs from the top! From chomrong we were able to spot sinwa, but again it was across valley, thus we still had another hour and half to do...finishing with a lovely uphill! Going down through this area we spotted some of he grandest waterfalls! Falling from high in the mountains, they were split into many streams which wove their way back into the grand fall! We spotted three like this and they were a sift to behold! After finally making it up that last hill we were quite pleased to rest at our lodge! One funny thing from our trek today is that my neck got sunburnt, but only on the right side because of the direction we were walking :p. After dinner the clouds seemed to have rolled in and the rain started in full force! Glad to be inside we listened to the rain fall and even observed some lighting strikes (oddly enough the lighting was below us...can't say I've seen this while not in an airplane!). Glad that the rain missed us during the day we hopped into our sleeping bags to get some rest! Tomorrow we head north towards ABC and towards about 3000ft of elevation gain!! Tomorrow is an up day :p
Trek day 3: Poon hill and beyond!
Today we started our day at 6am headed up to poon hill (heh) which is just outside of he village where our lodge is. The climb was about a thousand feet and it presented an amazing view of the mountain range infront of us! And a view we had too! Sure there were quite a few clouds in the sky, and headed for the mountains we wanted to see, but we lucked out for quite a bit seeing each mountain over time! It was about an hour hike to he top of poon hill, and for a bit we were worried that dad wouldn't make it up to the top before the clouds covered the mountains, so he handed his camera off to me and I sprinted up the hill! By the time I reached the top I was quite winded and sweating like a fish! Much like trying to get to the top of Hendrix as fast as you can non stop...but the view was worth it! (of course the top of this hill was twice the height of timberline lodge!!) I snapped away with the camera and after a while dad and the guide caught up and I wad relieved of the camera. After enjoying the view and resting a bit we returned to the lodge and picked up some breakfast before heading out for the second part of our day which was to be 4-5 hours (plus the 2 from poon hill made a total of 6-7 today!!).
The rest of the day was very pleasant!! The sun was out...if not some times covered by clouds, but it wasn't raining! Intact it was quite warm, back to t-shirt and shorts. The climbs today were nothing compared to yesterday even if at our highest point we came within 500feet of mount hood's height! With no rain filling in the valleys we were able to enjoy the great views(not being soaked to he bone was nice too). Our journey to our next guest house took us over one mountain ridge down through a valley with at least 20 or more waterfalls and then sweeping up another valet to the other side. One place where we stopped for tea actually had a bunch tables with goods set up for sale...dad made a Joe about the Annapurna mall :p. Though I'd rather not come into the mountains to buy something from Kathmandu then carry it back :p. Still no not showers at this guest house (no showers at all actually...) but also no western toilets...good thing I'm a boy :). But for now we relax drink tea and stay warm...it seems much colder when we aren't walking, but tomorrow we will finish the greater part of the Annapurna loop and head a bit north towards ABC!
The rest of the day was very pleasant!! The sun was out...if not some times covered by clouds, but it wasn't raining! Intact it was quite warm, back to t-shirt and shorts. The climbs today were nothing compared to yesterday even if at our highest point we came within 500feet of mount hood's height! With no rain filling in the valleys we were able to enjoy the great views(not being soaked to he bone was nice too). Our journey to our next guest house took us over one mountain ridge down through a valley with at least 20 or more waterfalls and then sweeping up another valet to the other side. One place where we stopped for tea actually had a bunch tables with goods set up for sale...dad made a Joe about the Annapurna mall :p. Though I'd rather not come into the mountains to buy something from Kathmandu then carry it back :p. Still no not showers at this guest house (no showers at all actually...) but also no western toilets...good thing I'm a boy :). But for now we relax drink tea and stay warm...it seems much colder when we aren't walking, but tomorrow we will finish the greater part of the Annapurna loop and head a bit north towards ABC!
Trek day 2: Rain rain go away!
We awoke this morning bright and early for breakfast and then headed out for our first full day of trekking! In the morning light we were able to see the full extent of the two waterfalls surrounding our hotel. The sight was beautiful, and fortunately dad managed to get a few pictures before the fog rolled in. Today's trek would be mostly up! In all we traveled 5. miles and gained almost a mile in elevation! In all we were told that we traveled 3500 steps! These steps were all stone and I can't imagine how long it must have taken to pave the entire trail! My dad equated our trip to being taller then the empire state building. I'm quite certain that I have never done that many stairs all at one time, every time that I hoped to be finished with the sets of stairs they continued to climb up and up ahead of me! The only thing that made the steps worse was the rain that set in...starting not long after we left the lodge with a drizzle and picking up to a very steady pour. At first this seemed nice because it took off some of the heat of climbing, but after a few hours of this I was soaked to the bone! From this point we still had 3-4 more hours of up hill in the rain :(. By he time we stopped for lunch we were only about an hour away from out next hotel, but the rest was very welcomed and some food in me before traveling was a nice idea too! The lunch was good, noodles and tea, but I drank the tea too fast and was half frozen from my wet clothes well before we left. Because of the chill I was more then happy to tackle the up hill battle to our lodge, even with the rain coming down outside. This last hour flew by, maybe because half of it I was pushing forward at a good pace just to warm up...and also probably because I wanted to get out of my soaked clothes!
At last!! Finally to our lodge...no hot water at this one either, but there was a fire and once out of my soaked clothes and into my patron pants the though of a hot shower was even put out of my head! I wrung the water out of my socks and underwear (quite a bit o water actually!!). And wrapped myself up in my sleeping bag with my slightly soaked book to warm up more!
This first full day of trekking was kinda lame because of the rain, but mostly because all of the amazing views I knew I was missing :(. Probably could have had a similar experience in Oregon, but hopefully it'll clear tomorrow!! If so we'll wake up early to catch the sun rise over the Annapurna range...if not...a bead start in the rain to our next lodge!! Time will tell!
At last!! Finally to our lodge...no hot water at this one either, but there was a fire and once out of my soaked clothes and into my patron pants the though of a hot shower was even put out of my head! I wrung the water out of my socks and underwear (quite a bit o water actually!!). And wrapped myself up in my sleeping bag with my slightly soaked book to warm up more!
This first full day of trekking was kinda lame because of the rain, but mostly because all of the amazing views I knew I was missing :(. Probably could have had a similar experience in Oregon, but hopefully it'll clear tomorrow!! If so we'll wake up early to catch the sun rise over the Annapurna range...if not...a bead start in the rain to our next lodge!! Time will tell!
Trek day 1: Kathmandu and away!
We started the day early to go out to Durbar square before we flew out to pokara. The square was filled sry many shrines and was all a bustle because of a festival that was going to take place there later that day. The festival was for the kumari which is a living goddess for the people. This was the one day in the year where she came out of her house and was paraded around! Sadly we would miss this because we would be trekking...but the square was bumpin! From there we zipped over to the airport and got onto a small porp plane...infact it was so small that the roof only allowed me to stay bent half way over. The flight was only 20 mins, so up and down, then we hopped into a van to drive to the start of our trek! The start of point had quite a bit less pomp than I was expecting...just a bunch of food shacks along the road and a set of stairs into a village we passed through...but we were on our way!! 9 days total...and we wouldn't see a car for over a week from now...the longest I've been on any hike thing...
We had our guide with us and also a porter to carry the pack with all of the stuff my dad and I had. At first I felt bad for our porter, but then I realized that he could probably beat me up the mountain with that pack on!! While mostly up hill, it wasn't that bad and the view was amazing!! Wonderful green terraced fields along the mountain side. At one point we came across a 5 tier waterfall cascading down the area! This was going to be an amazing 9 days! After about 3-4 hours of walking we came upon the lodge we were staying over for the the night and it was much more like a hotel the I was expecting! I guess I was imaging a hut or something in the open :p. There was even a bathroom and shower...though after some testing we discovered the hit water didn't work...oh well I've gone over a week with out a shower before and hell this was a Himalayan trek!! The lodge was also nestled between two water falls is quite a magnificent location! That night we were to fall asleep to the sound of water flowing...tomorrow our first full day of trekking!
We had our guide with us and also a porter to carry the pack with all of the stuff my dad and I had. At first I felt bad for our porter, but then I realized that he could probably beat me up the mountain with that pack on!! While mostly up hill, it wasn't that bad and the view was amazing!! Wonderful green terraced fields along the mountain side. At one point we came across a 5 tier waterfall cascading down the area! This was going to be an amazing 9 days! After about 3-4 hours of walking we came upon the lodge we were staying over for the the night and it was much more like a hotel the I was expecting! I guess I was imaging a hut or something in the open :p. There was even a bathroom and shower...though after some testing we discovered the hit water didn't work...oh well I've gone over a week with out a shower before and hell this was a Himalayan trek!! The lodge was also nestled between two water falls is quite a magnificent location! That night we were to fall asleep to the sound of water flowing...tomorrow our first full day of trekking!
Nepal of bust!
Dad and I can surely say that our time in India was great/interesting, but I think both of us are very ready to be done with this country and on our way to Nepal! We booked a room in new Delhi for our last night right the airport so we would have no problems on leaving (I think we were both worried that we still might encounter some complication that would keep us in India longer). The hotel swore up and down that it had wireless Internet, but when we got there we had to switch rooms three times before we could actually get the signal! Finally settled we killed the last of our time in India. The next day we headed to the airport, quite uneventful, besides our plane being an hour late and then gladly hopped on our plane for Nepal!! Hoorah! We had escaped India with our lives and I put that at a Delhi: 2 Brad: 2 !!! I'm fine with a tie if it means getting out with my life :p
So on to Nepal! From the first minute in Nepal I knew that I liked it already! The man from the hotel who picked us up from the airport was very friendly and spoke very good English (much better then almost all the Indians I encountered!). He told us about different trekking options about things going on in the city and was just overall very helpful!!! The hotel we were staying at was off of one of the shopping streets, so close, but out of the hustle and bustle! We spent our first night browsing around the market streets and enjoying the atmosphere. My dreds brought about much attention as usual with many people trying to sell me hash and the like on the street.
Our next day we spent a good portion of the beginning of the day looking into trekking options. Due to the weather all of the flights to the closest place to everest had been canceled for the past three days and there didn't seem much chance that we would luck out and make one the next day (three days of wait lost ahead of us!!!). So we decided on an Annapurna trek! After talking to several agents we found the best deal through a guy from our hotel Nakul. He not only managed a trek that got us to ABC (Annapurna Base Camp) but also to the loop around that area to see the area around!! the other guys were only managing to ABC and back! So with our trek all planed for early the next day we found dinner and got our affairs straightened out before we headed into the mountains for 8ish days!
What an adventure this will be!
So on to Nepal! From the first minute in Nepal I knew that I liked it already! The man from the hotel who picked us up from the airport was very friendly and spoke very good English (much better then almost all the Indians I encountered!). He told us about different trekking options about things going on in the city and was just overall very helpful!!! The hotel we were staying at was off of one of the shopping streets, so close, but out of the hustle and bustle! We spent our first night browsing around the market streets and enjoying the atmosphere. My dreds brought about much attention as usual with many people trying to sell me hash and the like on the street.
Our next day we spent a good portion of the beginning of the day looking into trekking options. Due to the weather all of the flights to the closest place to everest had been canceled for the past three days and there didn't seem much chance that we would luck out and make one the next day (three days of wait lost ahead of us!!!). So we decided on an Annapurna trek! After talking to several agents we found the best deal through a guy from our hotel Nakul. He not only managed a trek that got us to ABC (Annapurna Base Camp) but also to the loop around that area to see the area around!! the other guys were only managing to ABC and back! So with our trek all planed for early the next day we found dinner and got our affairs straightened out before we headed into the mountains for 8ish days!
What an adventure this will be!
Friday, September 17, 2010
Delhi-2 Brad-0
Well seems like every time we go through Delhi something lame happens...be it our train delayed 5 hours to all my shot stolen, lucky for me we're headed back there as I write this portion of my blog to try and get me a new passport :(.
Maybe I can win one point from Delhi...in the final count they snatched my digital camera, iPad, external hard drive (thankfully almost all of my pics from the trip were backed up on dad's laptop!!), both of my harmonicas, plane tickets for the last leg of my trip, my dad's zoom lens, my favorite set of pens + journal (can't replace that one :( ), over 80 panda express fortunes, plus a few misc things here and there (the saffron I had just bought for my ma and Darlene!). On the positive side of things it turns out my ma's insurance will cover me for everything besides the journal entries and the 80 fortunes (unless I can get a shit ton of panda gift cards to cover the meals :p). We also had to cancel our trip to Varanasi because as I stated above we are headed back to Delhi. For better or worse it's Friday today, so we have today to try to get my passport and then rush it over to the Indian-what-ever place to try and get a rush on an exit visa for the new passport (cause even with a new passport I can't leave this damn country now) and this exit visa could take up to 2-3 business days...good news considering we are supposed to leave on Monday at 2pm for Nepal...I just hope that after getting mah shits stoled I have enough karma now to have this paper work shit go smooth... After we do as much as we can today we'll take our taxi back to Agra at least and finish up what we would have done today tomorrow...so really we will only miss out on Varanasi (and see more o Delhi then I wanted to :p).
On a kinda ironic note, I think it's funny that I got my passport stolen on what was my passport birthday! For those of you who might not know, my passport has said that my birthday is a month early on sept. 16th not oct. 16th :p though I guess with my passport stolen it was no longer my passport birthday...still worst fake birthday ever!!
One of the first orders of business for us in Agra was to make a police report for aiding in gettin a new passport...cause it's not like they'll ever find my shit! Once we found the tourist police station we had a very interesting meeting with the head officer. He was a very nice man and seemed only to want to please, especially after hearing how the police at the train station in Delhi didn't do shit...he seemed very disappointed in this fact and made it very clear that his duty (heh) was to serve and help us and that tourist were honored guests which made them close to gods (neat!). He had me write out the police report on some carbon paper while he dictated what I should write, at one point even complementing me at how good my English was when I added in the words he was leaving out for full sentences! I told him it was my first and only language :p! We also got complementary chai while there, which for some reason we haven't found any where else (best chai in India!! So far...). So after our chai, long conversation about duty and me writing the police report we headed out to check out the Taj Mahal!
The Taj was the one thing that kept this day from the worst day ever! Mind you we had left manali at 4pm the day before and traveling for the last 20 hours while my bag was stolen...but the Taj helped brighten up my day! I would agree that this amazing compound is one of the wonders of the world! The building was built for this emperor's third wife...the most beautiful, and is made out of her favorite marble, and is white also because of her beauty. The taj is identical on every side and the marble work is amazing! Some of the prices inside are six feet tall with very intricate parade designs which if screwed up would just have to be discarded and started over! The four towers around the main building I discovered were built slightly leaning out so in case of earthquake they would fall away from the main building causing it no damage! One thing I though funny is that there is a mosque on the left as you approach the main building, and an identical building on the right that doesn't serve a purpose, but was built to preserve the symmetry of the overall compound :p. Truly though it is a sight to see, and just walking around on the marble floors 500 years old and feeling it's smooth surface under my feet was great, apparently they used many camel trains and over a thousand elephants to bring the marble from southern India, the only place this type of marble comes from in the world! I also learned that the emperor had plans to build a second black taj across the river that's on the back side of the first for himself and connect the two with a silver bridge! This was started but then stopped when one of his sons killed off his other siblings and imprisoned his father! Too bad, cause a black and white taj would have been even more incredible! This did cheer up my day a bit...then I got the news from my ma that my stuff should be covered by insurance so my brand new camera and other stuffs wasn't lost for ever! Still a rough day, but getting better...
All we had left to take care of was get a new passport picture taken, which was difficult because the government was having rolling blackouts over the city and the power dropped out just as my pictures finished printing...in a size too small for passport pics! So after dinner we had to come back, but with pictures in hand we headed back to the hotel to try to get some rest before our 5am taxi ride to the U.S. Embassy in Delhi...I'll fill in the rest after we go through those hoops!
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Good news everyone!! I've fixed the frozen...err Great news I have a passport and an exit visa all in one day!!! Well look at me acting like one of those fancy movies or tv shows where I give away the ending then go about telling you the beginning to end...
So Delhi has horrible traffic no matter what time it is...we arrived at the boarders of the city at around 7:30am and didn't make it to the U.S. Embassy until around 10am. This was partially due to the traffic and partially due to our driver not having a clue as to where to go and not understanding us enough to go to the American embassy! This second hitch is what got us to the place we needed to go second for the exit visa...great :(. After going to the Erin place and our driver stopping about every block to ask directions we finally made it to the embassy at around 10am...still 20 mins before we would have made it to Delhi had we chose to train it in! We had all the forms and things we needed for my emergency passport ready so we got the process started quite quick at the U.S. Embassy. Still this took about 2 and a half hours, but we were able to make it to our second stop by 12:45, just 45 minutes before their lunch break! While working on the paper work we discovered I needed a photo copy of my passport, which took me 10 mins of running around asking everyone where to get one with only answers of "out" or "outside" finally I discovered I needed to go down the road and cross a busy intersection to a shop that could do it...fun! While I ran and ducked through traffic dad filled out the forms for me and by the time I came panting back into the office we were ready to turn in the papers! After going to a few desks we had our papers marked up, signed, and stapled and were directed towards "in charge" which is apparently the person in charge...and the title above him on the wall...this guy was a stern looking older gent who upon finding out that we had to fly out on Monday informed us that Monday was a holiday so if we didn't get it done today we were basically up shut creek till Tuesday (my words not his). To top this off they needed to contact Trivandrum, our port of entry, which seemed to be very hard because it's "very far." Told to come back at 5 at closing to see if it would work. While we were hoping at most to get me a new passport and get that turned in for the exit visa before going back to Agra, then hoping that we could pick up the passport before the flight on Monday...we not had hope that we could finish every thing today!!
With a bit of relief we headed over to a mall to grab a bit to eat and forget out troubles a bit! We ended up finding a very nice posh mall (fun fact: posh stands for port out starboard home, because the britts knew there were nice sea breezes on the port side going to India and on the starboard side going back home...) and found a T.G.I.Fridays!!! and what a coincidence...it's friday :p. Relaxed we had some good ol' American foods and then picked up a well deserved cinnabon for the ride home! I don't typically like malls that much, but it was quite nice to be in some place with AC and clean to take my mind off my India troubles for a minute :p. When it was close to 5 we headed back to check on the progress of the exit visa. Man can these guys pull off a nail biting reality show style finish! We sat there for about 45 mins waiting to hear the news, each moment my fears for not making the deadline, thus missing our Monday flight out to Nepal coming closer to fruition! Finally at 5 we got up and asked the intimidating in charge man if we were in luck or not. He told us that we needed to wait for the security officer to return with our paper work to know for sure...we sat back down with the officer coming back into the room jus moments later! We asked if mine went through and he shook his head and made some sort of noise that I took as a "no," my heart sinks even more the when i discovered my backpack missing, when we look back at Mr. In charge he responds with a "Yes!!!!" wooohoooo!!! We bouncy back to desk 5, she stamps and marks up my paper work a bit more and back to Mr. In charge for one last signature and many thanks to him on our part!!! We had not only gotten a new passport for me, but also the exit visa as well! That's two different forms of bureaucracy in one day!!! In India no less! Dear lord, karma has slightly worked out for me today and hasn't totally screwed the rest of my trip!! Out the door we went before they could change their minds, take my newly aquifer passport, and lock me in jail to boot (I could only think the worse you know...) and back to our car off to Agra!! Sure we had a bunch of rush hour traffic to sit through, but all dad and I could talk about was our luck with this hail marry, last second half court lob for a win of a day!!! Maybe our luck has finally turned around...
Delhi-2 Brad-1
But then again we still have to come to Delhi to fly out to Kathmandu...guess we'll see if I can even the score...and I think I'll call it a point in my favor if I can just get on the plane :p
One full day in Agra tomorrow, and we plan to take full advantage of it...for now though I think we will sleep a little more easily tonight!
Cheers!
Maybe I can win one point from Delhi...in the final count they snatched my digital camera, iPad, external hard drive (thankfully almost all of my pics from the trip were backed up on dad's laptop!!), both of my harmonicas, plane tickets for the last leg of my trip, my dad's zoom lens, my favorite set of pens + journal (can't replace that one :( ), over 80 panda express fortunes, plus a few misc things here and there (the saffron I had just bought for my ma and Darlene!). On the positive side of things it turns out my ma's insurance will cover me for everything besides the journal entries and the 80 fortunes (unless I can get a shit ton of panda gift cards to cover the meals :p). We also had to cancel our trip to Varanasi because as I stated above we are headed back to Delhi. For better or worse it's Friday today, so we have today to try to get my passport and then rush it over to the Indian-what-ever place to try and get a rush on an exit visa for the new passport (cause even with a new passport I can't leave this damn country now) and this exit visa could take up to 2-3 business days...good news considering we are supposed to leave on Monday at 2pm for Nepal...I just hope that after getting mah shits stoled I have enough karma now to have this paper work shit go smooth... After we do as much as we can today we'll take our taxi back to Agra at least and finish up what we would have done today tomorrow...so really we will only miss out on Varanasi (and see more o Delhi then I wanted to :p).
On a kinda ironic note, I think it's funny that I got my passport stolen on what was my passport birthday! For those of you who might not know, my passport has said that my birthday is a month early on sept. 16th not oct. 16th :p though I guess with my passport stolen it was no longer my passport birthday...still worst fake birthday ever!!
One of the first orders of business for us in Agra was to make a police report for aiding in gettin a new passport...cause it's not like they'll ever find my shit! Once we found the tourist police station we had a very interesting meeting with the head officer. He was a very nice man and seemed only to want to please, especially after hearing how the police at the train station in Delhi didn't do shit...he seemed very disappointed in this fact and made it very clear that his duty (heh) was to serve and help us and that tourist were honored guests which made them close to gods (neat!). He had me write out the police report on some carbon paper while he dictated what I should write, at one point even complementing me at how good my English was when I added in the words he was leaving out for full sentences! I told him it was my first and only language :p! We also got complementary chai while there, which for some reason we haven't found any where else (best chai in India!! So far...). So after our chai, long conversation about duty and me writing the police report we headed out to check out the Taj Mahal!
The Taj was the one thing that kept this day from the worst day ever! Mind you we had left manali at 4pm the day before and traveling for the last 20 hours while my bag was stolen...but the Taj helped brighten up my day! I would agree that this amazing compound is one of the wonders of the world! The building was built for this emperor's third wife...the most beautiful, and is made out of her favorite marble, and is white also because of her beauty. The taj is identical on every side and the marble work is amazing! Some of the prices inside are six feet tall with very intricate parade designs which if screwed up would just have to be discarded and started over! The four towers around the main building I discovered were built slightly leaning out so in case of earthquake they would fall away from the main building causing it no damage! One thing I though funny is that there is a mosque on the left as you approach the main building, and an identical building on the right that doesn't serve a purpose, but was built to preserve the symmetry of the overall compound :p. Truly though it is a sight to see, and just walking around on the marble floors 500 years old and feeling it's smooth surface under my feet was great, apparently they used many camel trains and over a thousand elephants to bring the marble from southern India, the only place this type of marble comes from in the world! I also learned that the emperor had plans to build a second black taj across the river that's on the back side of the first for himself and connect the two with a silver bridge! This was started but then stopped when one of his sons killed off his other siblings and imprisoned his father! Too bad, cause a black and white taj would have been even more incredible! This did cheer up my day a bit...then I got the news from my ma that my stuff should be covered by insurance so my brand new camera and other stuffs wasn't lost for ever! Still a rough day, but getting better...
All we had left to take care of was get a new passport picture taken, which was difficult because the government was having rolling blackouts over the city and the power dropped out just as my pictures finished printing...in a size too small for passport pics! So after dinner we had to come back, but with pictures in hand we headed back to the hotel to try to get some rest before our 5am taxi ride to the U.S. Embassy in Delhi...I'll fill in the rest after we go through those hoops!
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Good news everyone!! I've fixed the frozen...err Great news I have a passport and an exit visa all in one day!!! Well look at me acting like one of those fancy movies or tv shows where I give away the ending then go about telling you the beginning to end...
So Delhi has horrible traffic no matter what time it is...we arrived at the boarders of the city at around 7:30am and didn't make it to the U.S. Embassy until around 10am. This was partially due to the traffic and partially due to our driver not having a clue as to where to go and not understanding us enough to go to the American embassy! This second hitch is what got us to the place we needed to go second for the exit visa...great :(. After going to the Erin place and our driver stopping about every block to ask directions we finally made it to the embassy at around 10am...still 20 mins before we would have made it to Delhi had we chose to train it in! We had all the forms and things we needed for my emergency passport ready so we got the process started quite quick at the U.S. Embassy. Still this took about 2 and a half hours, but we were able to make it to our second stop by 12:45, just 45 minutes before their lunch break! While working on the paper work we discovered I needed a photo copy of my passport, which took me 10 mins of running around asking everyone where to get one with only answers of "out" or "outside" finally I discovered I needed to go down the road and cross a busy intersection to a shop that could do it...fun! While I ran and ducked through traffic dad filled out the forms for me and by the time I came panting back into the office we were ready to turn in the papers! After going to a few desks we had our papers marked up, signed, and stapled and were directed towards "in charge" which is apparently the person in charge...and the title above him on the wall...this guy was a stern looking older gent who upon finding out that we had to fly out on Monday informed us that Monday was a holiday so if we didn't get it done today we were basically up shut creek till Tuesday (my words not his). To top this off they needed to contact Trivandrum, our port of entry, which seemed to be very hard because it's "very far." Told to come back at 5 at closing to see if it would work. While we were hoping at most to get me a new passport and get that turned in for the exit visa before going back to Agra, then hoping that we could pick up the passport before the flight on Monday...we not had hope that we could finish every thing today!!
With a bit of relief we headed over to a mall to grab a bit to eat and forget out troubles a bit! We ended up finding a very nice posh mall (fun fact: posh stands for port out starboard home, because the britts knew there were nice sea breezes on the port side going to India and on the starboard side going back home...) and found a T.G.I.Fridays!!! and what a coincidence...it's friday :p. Relaxed we had some good ol' American foods and then picked up a well deserved cinnabon for the ride home! I don't typically like malls that much, but it was quite nice to be in some place with AC and clean to take my mind off my India troubles for a minute :p. When it was close to 5 we headed back to check on the progress of the exit visa. Man can these guys pull off a nail biting reality show style finish! We sat there for about 45 mins waiting to hear the news, each moment my fears for not making the deadline, thus missing our Monday flight out to Nepal coming closer to fruition! Finally at 5 we got up and asked the intimidating in charge man if we were in luck or not. He told us that we needed to wait for the security officer to return with our paper work to know for sure...we sat back down with the officer coming back into the room jus moments later! We asked if mine went through and he shook his head and made some sort of noise that I took as a "no," my heart sinks even more the when i discovered my backpack missing, when we look back at Mr. In charge he responds with a "Yes!!!!" wooohoooo!!! We bouncy back to desk 5, she stamps and marks up my paper work a bit more and back to Mr. In charge for one last signature and many thanks to him on our part!!! We had not only gotten a new passport for me, but also the exit visa as well! That's two different forms of bureaucracy in one day!!! In India no less! Dear lord, karma has slightly worked out for me today and hasn't totally screwed the rest of my trip!! Out the door we went before they could change their minds, take my newly aquifer passport, and lock me in jail to boot (I could only think the worse you know...) and back to our car off to Agra!! Sure we had a bunch of rush hour traffic to sit through, but all dad and I could talk about was our luck with this hail marry, last second half court lob for a win of a day!!! Maybe our luck has finally turned around...
Delhi-2 Brad-1
But then again we still have to come to Delhi to fly out to Kathmandu...guess we'll see if I can even the score...and I think I'll call it a point in my favor if I can just get on the plane :p
One full day in Agra tomorrow, and we plan to take full advantage of it...for now though I think we will sleep a little more easily tonight!
Cheers!
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Fuck!
Backpack stolen from under my feet today at Delhi train station...passport, camera, iPad + more all gone...GREAT! G fucking G! Now I might be stuck in this damn country so long I might miss most of Nepal! Worst day ever!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Shimla crazy taxi and the Manali roller coaster!
Well no I have missed two forms of transportation on this trip. The second was our bus from shimla to manali. Our bus was to leave at 8:30 am and we were told that the station was only a 10 minute walk from our hotel (told a 2 minute walk the night before >< ) and we discovered the hard way that it was quite more then that! By the time we got to the wrong bus station it was already 8:30!! So we jumped into the nearest taxi with all haste and speed off to the other bus staion! The taxi driver seemed to think that our bus was gone, so he speed off along the path to catch it!! After about 15 minutes of zipping through winding curves and narrow passes we finally caught up with a manali bus!!! Not ours of course! What had actually happened is we had some where passes our bus, very good driving...much like that game crazy taxi :p. After about a 15 minute watt our "bus" more like a passenger van pulls around the corner and we flag it down and hop in :).
This is where the manali roller coaster began, because soon after the road went to hell and we were bumping and bouncing all over! Mind you this was a 10 hour bus ride (well 9:30 for us once we were actually on the bus!). But man have I never imagined gaining so much air time while in a van! A few times I was close to hitting my head on the roof and it was a quite tall roof at that! None the less the scenery around was beautiful and the bumping was something that I was able to handle after a while...sort of rode them out like on a horse...or a camel as my dad would say from time to time "we could be riding camels now!" which was the other option besides coming up to manali! After the long ride we finally arrived in manali, and what a sight to see!! In fact it looks much like Oregon if you only look at the trees, breath taking!
Not much besides dinner was had our first night because we were a bit tired and it was already later on in the evening when we arrived. The next day we slept inca bit (whoohoo, got my own room again with big bed and comfy soft blanket!!) and hit up a coffee shop for bfast! After that we gathered our gear and walked up towards a temple in the forest that was made in the 1500's. The walk was night through the woods, all be it up hill. And the temple was small but serene, standing in the middle of large trees and completely made of wood besides a metal umbrella at the top! Not to mention that it was close to 500 years old...and wood! W also walked around in a nice forest preserve near the temple for a while the reminded me a lot of walking around at Hendrix park in Eugene :). After that we stopped at a nice italian restaurant for some really good pizza and a good slave of tiara misu (well good for India at least :p). After that we walked out to old manali, this walk was a bit farther...up hill mostly too, but still not too bad because the temperature here isn't that bad. On our way up we stopped at a place to get information of a canyoning trip we hope to do in the next few days, and then explored old manali a bit. They have one area where a natural hot springs comes in and they have bath houses and the like in the area...seems cool (or hot I guess!). We also stopped at a cafe where my hunt for a mango lasi finally ended! Nom nom nom, but maybe still not as good as mango milkshakes from Bali :p. After a bit of walking around there we made the trek back to our part of town, checking out beautiful waterfalls along the way and stopping by the river too! It's been a grand first day in manali and tomorrow we will probably go up to rohtang pass about 50km from here which is at a elevation of about 14,000 ft! Enjoy the pics and more to come :)
Kalka to shimla toy train...
500 year old forest temple!
Come on...don't destroy your mother!
Kinda looks like hendrix park yeah?
River!
This is where the manali roller coaster began, because soon after the road went to hell and we were bumping and bouncing all over! Mind you this was a 10 hour bus ride (well 9:30 for us once we were actually on the bus!). But man have I never imagined gaining so much air time while in a van! A few times I was close to hitting my head on the roof and it was a quite tall roof at that! None the less the scenery around was beautiful and the bumping was something that I was able to handle after a while...sort of rode them out like on a horse...or a camel as my dad would say from time to time "we could be riding camels now!" which was the other option besides coming up to manali! After the long ride we finally arrived in manali, and what a sight to see!! In fact it looks much like Oregon if you only look at the trees, breath taking!
Not much besides dinner was had our first night because we were a bit tired and it was already later on in the evening when we arrived. The next day we slept inca bit (whoohoo, got my own room again with big bed and comfy soft blanket!!) and hit up a coffee shop for bfast! After that we gathered our gear and walked up towards a temple in the forest that was made in the 1500's. The walk was night through the woods, all be it up hill. And the temple was small but serene, standing in the middle of large trees and completely made of wood besides a metal umbrella at the top! Not to mention that it was close to 500 years old...and wood! W also walked around in a nice forest preserve near the temple for a while the reminded me a lot of walking around at Hendrix park in Eugene :). After that we stopped at a nice italian restaurant for some really good pizza and a good slave of tiara misu (well good for India at least :p). After that we walked out to old manali, this walk was a bit farther...up hill mostly too, but still not too bad because the temperature here isn't that bad. On our way up we stopped at a place to get information of a canyoning trip we hope to do in the next few days, and then explored old manali a bit. They have one area where a natural hot springs comes in and they have bath houses and the like in the area...seems cool (or hot I guess!). We also stopped at a cafe where my hunt for a mango lasi finally ended! Nom nom nom, but maybe still not as good as mango milkshakes from Bali :p. After a bit of walking around there we made the trek back to our part of town, checking out beautiful waterfalls along the way and stopping by the river too! It's been a grand first day in manali and tomorrow we will probably go up to rohtang pass about 50km from here which is at a elevation of about 14,000 ft! Enjoy the pics and more to come :)
Kalka to shimla toy train...
500 year old forest temple!
Come on...don't destroy your mother!
Kinda looks like hendrix park yeah?
River!
Friday, September 10, 2010
On the subject of monkeys and trash.
The title of this post might be slightly deceiving...but these are two things that didn't really fit into any one post (most posts actually :p) so I decided to give them a little spot light...
Monkeys: who doesn't like monkeys? I've always loved them at the zoo's ive been to and they just fascinate me. One thing I really like about Simla and some of the other places that vie been to in India and Sri Lanka is that there are wild monkeys every where!! Maybe not in every locale and not as many in some areas, but seeing monkeys just roaming about un noticed by the locals, much like we wouldn't pay much attention to a cat in the street, is just awesome to me :). I've probably seen about 100 monkeys just going about their business today since arriving in Simla and a good 5 or so have been from my hotel window...just monkeying around :)
Trash: India is dirty...much of it any way...now don't get me wrong, vie been to many dirty countries and I don't really care that much. But these people just throw trash out all over the streets...and every where! I've been taught to never litter and I think I do a very good job of that, but here it's just crazy! On the toy train ride today through some of the most beautiful country sides I've seen...people just throw their trash out that fucking window! It's awful!! I mean...how can you feel proud of yourself when every action like that just goes to ruin all of the beauty around? It really is quite sad to me :( and it really grinds my gears!
And that are my two rupees on monkeys and trash...
Monkeys: who doesn't like monkeys? I've always loved them at the zoo's ive been to and they just fascinate me. One thing I really like about Simla and some of the other places that vie been to in India and Sri Lanka is that there are wild monkeys every where!! Maybe not in every locale and not as many in some areas, but seeing monkeys just roaming about un noticed by the locals, much like we wouldn't pay much attention to a cat in the street, is just awesome to me :). I've probably seen about 100 monkeys just going about their business today since arriving in Simla and a good 5 or so have been from my hotel window...just monkeying around :)
Trash: India is dirty...much of it any way...now don't get me wrong, vie been to many dirty countries and I don't really care that much. But these people just throw trash out all over the streets...and every where! I've been taught to never litter and I think I do a very good job of that, but here it's just crazy! On the toy train ride today through some of the most beautiful country sides I've seen...people just throw their trash out that fucking window! It's awful!! I mean...how can you feel proud of yourself when every action like that just goes to ruin all of the beauty around? It really is quite sad to me :( and it really grinds my gears!
And that are my two rupees on monkeys and trash...
A day of tale and a toy train too!
We took to the streets for our last day in Jaipur. While much of this day would be a travel day we knew that we had some time for exploration! Most of this was done through the old city (it's all pink and white!!!). On our way into the old city we stopped by Lasi walla (where walla translates to trader roughly, so Lasi trader!). This lasi stand had been in business since the 40's and was well known...in fact there were three other Lasi stands right next to it, some with the name Lasi walla even! They serve their lasi in terra cotta cones...the locals, after finishing their lasi just throw their cone on the ground and smash it! We decided to keep ours, though it mitt be smashed in the luggage already :p. While not mango, the lasi was very tasty and I haven't always been the biggest fan of the plain yogurt taste!
Any how...we walked with our lasi down through the old city. Mostly we just passed through street after street of vendors peddling wares from fruit and other foods to clothes and jewelry. Almost everything you can think of...besides electronics :p. The day was hot too! While we would have liked the sun and blue sky when at amber fort...we got clouds...then the sun the next day in town with nothing that we needed sun for to take pictures of, figures! The heat drove us to find some sort of cover, in the form of lunch! Very nice. After lunch we headed back to the hotel to gather our nags and head to the airport...much travel was about to begin.
We had a flight to new delhi, from there we had to make it to the train station for a train bound for Kalka. From there we hopped on a different train for Simla (also spelled shimla in places). The flight went off with out a hitch, however we were less lucky with our train to Kalka. This was an over night train that was supposed to arrive in kalka at 5am, and then we were to hop on the next train for Simla straight away from there. Sadly our train was about 4 and a half hours late into Delhi!! Every so often there would be an announcement saying that our train was 2 then 3 then 4...up to 5 hours late! We assumed that we would have no chance of making our connecting train to Simla, and maybe not even the next one out at noon the next day! Wh
Ile this though wasn't a very nice one...it was getting late and even getting on our first train would feel great! We could figure everything else out once we were in kalka! Finally at 2am our train arrived and we were able to board...an hour later we were sound asleep. Lucky for us our connecting train from kalka to Simla was more of a direct connection then we imagined, because most of the people on the second train must have been on our first train from delhi because the Simla train was held up by about 3 hours for us to show up!! Providence!! This last part of our journey, which would take us almost 24 hours of travel was on a toy train...no not a small train for children, but a train that was smaller and ran on meter wide tracks! It was a cute little thing, and it went back and fourth through the mountains, up switchbacks, through over 100 tunnels and quite a few bridges to boot! The mountain air was cool and refreshing, and the view was amazing! I've never been in a place that I could see pine trees and palm trees next to one another...also several types of cactus O.o!! Amazing valleys and mountains...terraced lands...some growing corn? Never seen corn terraces in my life :p. Along the way there were also many villages built on steep mountainsides, much like Simla is. After 5 hours we arrived at the train station...snagged a taxi and rode to the base of the hill that our hotel is on. The taxi couldn't take us to the entrance, because the entrance was after a shit ton of stairs up! There are no roads behind this place, so our only option is to climb, climb, climb!! Ojce finally at the top we ran into an interesting problem with our room. While we had reserved a room with 2 beds... Got a room with a double bed..."no, not one bed, two" we would tell the desk guy...and he would just repeat "yes, double" seems like we had a communication barrier...eventually we discovered that they only had rooms with one large bed...so we went about the long process of trying to get another room and figure out the price...after talking to his manager on the phone we ended up getting the second room for less than the first...kinda worked out. But man is the view amazing from the room!! This is one such example...
This is a HRD that my dad took out our hotel window...SWEET!
On our way to find some place to eat (I was starving too, with only one proper meal in the last day or so!) we walked along mall road, which most of it is nice shops and all closed off to the dangers of cats and motor bikes. One of the first shops we recognized was cafe coffee day, oh joy! Would make a tasty desert. We wondered around until our stomaches got the best of us and headed into a Indian/Chinese restaurant, ordered up a bunch of Chinese food and preceded to stuff our faces! We sat on an outdoor area overlooking one part of the valley and mountains in the distance and enjoyed the rolling fog and clouds (our elevation is higher then government camp on mt hood, so really we were higher then many of the clouds) while we ate our dinner. After leaving the beautiful scenery behind we purchased some snacks for our 10 hour bus ride tomorrow and headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep!! A long day, but very nice over all, and Simla is a beautiful city with very nice people (no one bugged us to buy shit we didn't want or hassle us in any way) and also very clean!! Now it's time for a long awaited sleep :). More from manali!!
Me hanging out the window of the toy train
this is a public urinal in Jaipur (super public if you ask me!)
Any how...we walked with our lasi down through the old city. Mostly we just passed through street after street of vendors peddling wares from fruit and other foods to clothes and jewelry. Almost everything you can think of...besides electronics :p. The day was hot too! While we would have liked the sun and blue sky when at amber fort...we got clouds...then the sun the next day in town with nothing that we needed sun for to take pictures of, figures! The heat drove us to find some sort of cover, in the form of lunch! Very nice. After lunch we headed back to the hotel to gather our nags and head to the airport...much travel was about to begin.
We had a flight to new delhi, from there we had to make it to the train station for a train bound for Kalka. From there we hopped on a different train for Simla (also spelled shimla in places). The flight went off with out a hitch, however we were less lucky with our train to Kalka. This was an over night train that was supposed to arrive in kalka at 5am, and then we were to hop on the next train for Simla straight away from there. Sadly our train was about 4 and a half hours late into Delhi!! Every so often there would be an announcement saying that our train was 2 then 3 then 4...up to 5 hours late! We assumed that we would have no chance of making our connecting train to Simla, and maybe not even the next one out at noon the next day! Wh
Ile this though wasn't a very nice one...it was getting late and even getting on our first train would feel great! We could figure everything else out once we were in kalka! Finally at 2am our train arrived and we were able to board...an hour later we were sound asleep. Lucky for us our connecting train from kalka to Simla was more of a direct connection then we imagined, because most of the people on the second train must have been on our first train from delhi because the Simla train was held up by about 3 hours for us to show up!! Providence!! This last part of our journey, which would take us almost 24 hours of travel was on a toy train...no not a small train for children, but a train that was smaller and ran on meter wide tracks! It was a cute little thing, and it went back and fourth through the mountains, up switchbacks, through over 100 tunnels and quite a few bridges to boot! The mountain air was cool and refreshing, and the view was amazing! I've never been in a place that I could see pine trees and palm trees next to one another...also several types of cactus O.o!! Amazing valleys and mountains...terraced lands...some growing corn? Never seen corn terraces in my life :p. Along the way there were also many villages built on steep mountainsides, much like Simla is. After 5 hours we arrived at the train station...snagged a taxi and rode to the base of the hill that our hotel is on. The taxi couldn't take us to the entrance, because the entrance was after a shit ton of stairs up! There are no roads behind this place, so our only option is to climb, climb, climb!! Ojce finally at the top we ran into an interesting problem with our room. While we had reserved a room with 2 beds... Got a room with a double bed..."no, not one bed, two" we would tell the desk guy...and he would just repeat "yes, double" seems like we had a communication barrier...eventually we discovered that they only had rooms with one large bed...so we went about the long process of trying to get another room and figure out the price...after talking to his manager on the phone we ended up getting the second room for less than the first...kinda worked out. But man is the view amazing from the room!! This is one such example...
This is a HRD that my dad took out our hotel window...SWEET!
On our way to find some place to eat (I was starving too, with only one proper meal in the last day or so!) we walked along mall road, which most of it is nice shops and all closed off to the dangers of cats and motor bikes. One of the first shops we recognized was cafe coffee day, oh joy! Would make a tasty desert. We wondered around until our stomaches got the best of us and headed into a Indian/Chinese restaurant, ordered up a bunch of Chinese food and preceded to stuff our faces! We sat on an outdoor area overlooking one part of the valley and mountains in the distance and enjoyed the rolling fog and clouds (our elevation is higher then government camp on mt hood, so really we were higher then many of the clouds) while we ate our dinner. After leaving the beautiful scenery behind we purchased some snacks for our 10 hour bus ride tomorrow and headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep!! A long day, but very nice over all, and Simla is a beautiful city with very nice people (no one bugged us to buy shit we didn't want or hassle us in any way) and also very clean!! Now it's time for a long awaited sleep :). More from manali!!
Me hanging out the window of the toy train
this is a public urinal in Jaipur (super public if you ask me!)
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Jaipur: Cows, Camels, and Elephants oh my!
Jaipur is know as the pink city because the old city was all painted pink many years ago for the kings visit, it's been that way since! Our driver took us to two places today. The amber fort, which is a palace fort in the mountains behind the city and later the city palace. While cows walking around in the streets has become a very common sight on this trip, we noticed two different animals that are not so common in a city...camels and elephants? Not to mention there's monkeys jumping around on roof tops in the old city! What an interesting city this is :). The fort was amazing, large walls off in the distance all around and beautiful marble carvings and paintings. We even found a cafe coffee day on the way out of the fort!! These places pop up in the strangest places...but dad and I were happy for a cool and tasty break :p. After the coffee break we found a cobra charmer that I got to get a few pics and some vid with!! Check for a separate post...had tech difficulties in this one >< I'll have to post a bunch of pics on my photo bucket page, but here are a few.
Long Shot of the Palace
Walls in the distance
I liked this shot of the palace with the crossing stairs...
Elephant! They were used to carry the lazy tourists to the top of the fort...
Camels?
We also went to the royal palace here...though I didn't take any pics, my dad got a few...one of the neatest thing there...in my opinion was the weapons museum. They had a large collection of guns, swords and the like! Large guns that were mounted on elephants and camels (more like cannons!) And my favorite, katars! There was even a katar thAt had two small pistols attached to it! Super cool! They also have the worlds largest silver objects two giant silver vase that were made when the king of Jaipur traveled to england in 1902 for holding water from the Ganges river (holy water for bathing with every day why away from home). The vase both come to 5 feet 3 inches and each hold about 900 gallons of water!! After leaving the palace we crossed the street to a really neat outdoor observatory with many intestine astronomical apparatus, very advanced for being built between 1728-1734. One of which is the worlds largest sun dial!! Sadly there was no sun while we were there...infect after a while it started to rain, so we headed out on foot throughout the old city. Tons of shops along the street and very interesting sights, we were looking for a special lasi place to finally get a mango lasi, but sadly we had no clue where we were, let alone where the lasi place was, so we eventually headed back to the hotel to rest up a bit before heading out to dinner. We went to a great dinner place...but ater dinner dad had spoted an ice cream place just next door...Mango Sunday??? YES PLEASE!!! What a great day...tomorrow is our last day in Jaipur, but we've got til like 2pm before we need to head to the airport so explore a bit more we shall!
More on down the road :)
Long Shot of the Palace
Walls in the distance
I liked this shot of the palace with the crossing stairs...
Elephant! They were used to carry the lazy tourists to the top of the fort...
Camels?
We also went to the royal palace here...though I didn't take any pics, my dad got a few...one of the neatest thing there...in my opinion was the weapons museum. They had a large collection of guns, swords and the like! Large guns that were mounted on elephants and camels (more like cannons!) And my favorite, katars! There was even a katar thAt had two small pistols attached to it! Super cool! They also have the worlds largest silver objects two giant silver vase that were made when the king of Jaipur traveled to england in 1902 for holding water from the Ganges river (holy water for bathing with every day why away from home). The vase both come to 5 feet 3 inches and each hold about 900 gallons of water!! After leaving the palace we crossed the street to a really neat outdoor observatory with many intestine astronomical apparatus, very advanced for being built between 1728-1734. One of which is the worlds largest sun dial!! Sadly there was no sun while we were there...infect after a while it started to rain, so we headed out on foot throughout the old city. Tons of shops along the street and very interesting sights, we were looking for a special lasi place to finally get a mango lasi, but sadly we had no clue where we were, let alone where the lasi place was, so we eventually headed back to the hotel to rest up a bit before heading out to dinner. We went to a great dinner place...but ater dinner dad had spoted an ice cream place just next door...Mango Sunday??? YES PLEASE!!! What a great day...tomorrow is our last day in Jaipur, but we've got til like 2pm before we need to head to the airport so explore a bit more we shall!
More on down the road :)
Goa, going, gone!!!
Yes that's right folks, our relaxing time of fun in the sun in goa has come to an end. Only it wasn't ever that sunny... Goa was a nice week, if not really that eventful. I mentioned in my last blog post that it is currently the off season in Goa, so most of everything that isn't big enough to get traffic from the locals was closed and tarped up (to my surprise I've seen more blue tarps this summer then last summer in alaska's tarp village O.o). Part of the reason for the western hordes not being around at this time is because of the numerous rain showers still happening at this time of the year! While, as an Oregonian, I didn't let this bother me too much, it did hamper our activities a bit. A few of the places we would have voyaged to were either closed for the season, impossible to get to because of rained out roads or just not worth seeing when it was pouring down rain non stop. So in very relaxing fashion we...relaxed! We found a nice coffee shop called cafe coffee day, where we could get a tasty chocolate type cold coffee drink. We spent a bit of time in the pool each day (one of which while it poured buckets for about 30 minutes and almost over flowed the pool!) And then journeyed out to different restaurants in the area every night. On Saturday and Sunday we had the "pleasure" of experiencing the local night life at dinner with come good ol' fashioned karaoke! Sadly this was not the same as the nori bangs in Korea with the personal rooms...this was just the guy in charge of the karaoke singing what ever song that he wished to sing...if I ever hear "hello" by Lionel Richie again it'll be far too soon! (got that one sat and sun ><) dad put it bet saying that it was a classic karaoke song...which is to say a really shitty song :p. Since we were only a 10 minute walk to either of the towns near by we didn't ever use a taxi, just hoofed it where ever we were going, but boy are those drivers persistent!! My favorite was when we were seconds away from entering the restaurant we were headed to when someone would call out "taxi!?" ha!!
Dads been working on a nudibranch identification app for the apple app store while we've been on this trip and he managed a bunch of work time on that during our Goa down time...seems like he's nearing the finish line on that one, which is good for him...vacation and getting something accomplished!! This makes me feel like a lazy bum (which I don't mind too much) but I decided that it would be nice to have something to do in my spare time and travel times (besides doodle jump and peggle) so I hoped on the iBook store and bought the first book in the wheel of time sage by Robert Jordan. While i've read the first 10 books already I decided that with the finale coming up in a year or so that I'd start on a re read to catch my self back up on everything from the first 10 books before going on :). It's been really nice reading it on my iPad (nicer then I though it would be!) it's just a pain when your book's batteries die...or when the flight attendant on a plane as me to turn off my book :(.
When our stay in Goa was up we headed out from our constantly renovated hotel and hit up the airport bound first for Mumbai and then on to Jaipur! One funny note while passing through security at the Goa airport was when I forgot to empty my water bottle...the woman opened it up, smelled it, and then asked me to drink some! Seems like if I was up to something devious I'd just have to be willing to drink a bit :p or just pretend, heh!
Any how our journey was mostly uneventful. We found a cafe coffee day at the Mumbai airport and killed some time there...tasty! Once we arrived in Jaipur a man with am really sweet beard (the kind that has really thick parts on the chin and shaved in the middle) picked us up and drove us the the hotel. The town seemed alive and bustling, much more so then any other town in India so far. Can't wait for tomorrow to get out and check out the amber fort and the Jaipur royal palace!
Dads been working on a nudibranch identification app for the apple app store while we've been on this trip and he managed a bunch of work time on that during our Goa down time...seems like he's nearing the finish line on that one, which is good for him...vacation and getting something accomplished!! This makes me feel like a lazy bum (which I don't mind too much) but I decided that it would be nice to have something to do in my spare time and travel times (besides doodle jump and peggle) so I hoped on the iBook store and bought the first book in the wheel of time sage by Robert Jordan. While i've read the first 10 books already I decided that with the finale coming up in a year or so that I'd start on a re read to catch my self back up on everything from the first 10 books before going on :). It's been really nice reading it on my iPad (nicer then I though it would be!) it's just a pain when your book's batteries die...or when the flight attendant on a plane as me to turn off my book :(.
When our stay in Goa was up we headed out from our constantly renovated hotel and hit up the airport bound first for Mumbai and then on to Jaipur! One funny note while passing through security at the Goa airport was when I forgot to empty my water bottle...the woman opened it up, smelled it, and then asked me to drink some! Seems like if I was up to something devious I'd just have to be willing to drink a bit :p or just pretend, heh!
Any how our journey was mostly uneventful. We found a cafe coffee day at the Mumbai airport and killed some time there...tasty! Once we arrived in Jaipur a man with am really sweet beard (the kind that has really thick parts on the chin and shaved in the middle) picked us up and drove us the the hotel. The town seemed alive and bustling, much more so then any other town in India so far. Can't wait for tomorrow to get out and check out the amber fort and the Jaipur royal palace!
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