Agra, Varanasi and Bodhagaya

Agra
The day after I wrote my last blog post we went to the Taj Mahal in Agra in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Despite being located in an incredibly touristy area with many hagglers, the Taj does not disappoint! It was actually a mausoleum that Shah Jahan (the emperor of the ancient Muslim Mughal Empire) built for the favorite of his three wives. After a guide took us around the Taj we hung out on the grounds for a while taking in the scenery. As we were walking around I commented to Mike "you know, we haven't had any Indians come up asking to get their picture taken in a while. Within the next two minutes we had a crowd of 10 Indians coming up to us asking for pictures! My favorite has to be one which captures the whole scene perfectly. A few Indians have their cell phones out looking at their pictures they took of us as if they are all, for lack of a better word, badass.

Right about the same time as we were taking pictures with the Indians, a monsoon hit. Conveniently we left our rain jackets back at the Sheela Hotel where we were staying for the night. After a few minutes we were drenched! This included my Lonely Planet travel guide which was in the backpack. But what's a travel guide if it doesn't look traveled anyway.

We ended up hanging out at the Taj for a while and met many more Indians who wanted to have their pictures taken. One of them actually came up to us and said what a nice smile I have and that I should go work for Bollywood (India's version of Hollywood). Apparently there's a character I look like in one of the movies called Chocolate Boy (whoever that is). Its not easy being celebrities!

After the monsoon finally stopped we headed back to Hotel Sheela for a while to dry off, pack up, and head out. Earlier in the day we made friends with two Indian shopkeepers and bought gifts from them. They wanted to say goodbye so we went back to their shop for some tea before catching an auto-rickshaw (auto for short) out of Agra. An auto essentially is a three-wheeled taxi without doors! I was excited when I found out that in India the autos all run off CNG or compressed natural gas instead of gasoline. I'm kind of a nerd like that (thank you Breakthrough Fuel).

Mike and I took the auto to a place called Tundla which isn't the nicest of Indian towns. Actually to be blunt, its a dump. Luckily the only reason we were going there is to catch an overnight train to the next destination, Varanasi. This train was packed with people, so much so that there really isn't any room for luggage. We were in a sleeper car and conveniently both had upper bunks so my backpacking bag became my sleeping buddy for the night as I slept just below the ceiling of the train.

Varanasi
We got to Varanasi early in the morning and were lucky enough to find a taxi cab driver who knew where our place was. He even got out out of the taxi cab and took us back through the narrow, mid-evil streets of Varanasi. If not for him I could have seen it taking hours!

Varanasi is considered one of the holiest cities for the Hindu people (by far the largest religious population in India). It is located right next to the Ganges River, so this was a nice point of reference for navigation around the city!

My favorite part of Varanasi was most definitely the boat ride on the Ganges. We woke up, walked down to the river, did a little haggling and cut the price by over 50% for what was suppose to be a two hour boat ride on the Ganges. For the first hour we checked out various Hindi temples on the water and saw the burning ghats (which is the Hindi form of cremation near their sacred river, the Ganges). Our guide then took us to the opposite side of the river when a mass of black clouds came in on the horizon. Another monsoon! Don't worry, this time we learned and brought our rain jackets. Monsoons usually come slowly, without much wind, but steadily increase in precipitation. We knew we had a little time before it hit so we shot a little footage on Mike's camcorder (he's making a video journal after the trip). Then it was just waiting for the inevitable! We put on our rain jackets just in time and enjoyed a warm monsoon for the next hour and a half before heading back in to the docks! We gave the guide a little tip, then headed back to our "hotel" to dry off.

Bodhagaya
The next day we had to wake up at 4am to catch a four hour train out of Varanasi to Gaya, then on to Bodhagaya, which is the place where Buddha supposedly gained enlightenment under the bodi tree. We met a few travelers on the train ride to Gaya and shared an auto into the city. Surprise, surprise, while we were riding in the auto another monsoon hit. Luckily, our luggage was only a little damp this time (the auto had a cloth roof).

Bodhagaya is a little town of 30,000 people, however traveling into the city still somehow boasts the same traffic problems and traffic jams as the rest of the country. Being an engineering student, its painful to watch as everything is incredibly inefficient! Bikes, walkers, taxis, buses, and India's version of semis all use the same roads.

We decided to stay at a Bhutanese Buddhist Monastery to have a little peace and relaxation before volunteering in Kolcutta. The whole complex is paid for by the Bhutanese government and consists of roughly two acres of fenced-in peaceful land seemingly miles away from an otherwise chaotic India. We have been here for three days, two nights, and besides relaxing spent some time at the Mahabodhi, which houses the Bodi tree. Since we were staying in a Bhutanese monastery, we ran into a few Buddhist monks! It was nice to talk to them and exchange cultural experiences. I asked one of them what he eats back in his home country of Bhutan, and the reply in broken English was "breakfast...rice...lunch...rice...dinner...rice." No wonder he's in India!

We'll head back to Gaya a little later on this afternoon so we can catch our train to Kolcutta tomorrow!

Take it easy and God Bless,
Kyle

I'm Alive!

Hey everybody,

I figured mom would appreciate that subject title! Wow so much has happened during the first three days. The 8 hour flight was a bit rough as the flight to London consisted of 2 or 3 hrs of sleep. From there we went on to see London for the day with some of Mike's friends, bought a first aid kit (not because anything had happened yet but just in case we need it). I bought the first aid kit at the travel store Mike likes to go to when he's in London. The place was awesome...it was full of a bunch of useful things for the wrong price. So besides the first aid kit, I decided to get a sleeping bag liner to beat the heat. All totaling about 50 USD.

That night we went out for drinks with MIke's friends from London...almost ended up missing the flight, but ran through the airport and made it with a whole 10 minutes to spare! Beautiful. Despite the slight buzz, the flight from London to Delhi didn't go any better in terms of sleeping. I probably got 2 hrs of sleep during the 9 hour flight over. Needless to say 5 hrs. of sleep in the last 60 hours didn't feel all that great. As we boarded the plane in London for the first ten minutes there was a guy near the back of the plane screaming his lungs out. We then found out that he was being deported back to India from England. We think its because of a crime he committed back in India but we're still not sure.

On to India! Despite the poverty and obscure character India seems to have, the people are incredibly friendly and view white people almost as celebrities. Most of the time all they want to do is talk to us and see where we are from, what brings us to India and all that jazz. Some people even simply want to stop by to get their picture taken with us! They then go on to show these pictures to their family and friends because its a sign of prestige. Somehow the paparazzi found us a handfull of times so far, and I'm sure it won't stop soon. I've decided anyone who wants to get a picture with us on their camera will also have to get their picture taken on mine! Later on a collage might be necessary.

That's all I have at the moment but for now its back to sleeping off jet lag!

Hope to write again soon,
Kyle

The Washout!

Hey All,

So I figured it being the day before I leave I might as well give a few insights to how things are going at this point.

This morning we woke up from our week's family vacation in the realization that mother nature dropped 5 inches of rain while we were sleeping! There was a "creek" at the end of the driveway that our "astro" van was barely able to cross the previous 5 days (most days it bottomed out). Well with the 5 inches of rain, the "creek" started looking more like a river. It trippled in size and was a good 2.5 feet deep at certain points. The forecast wasn't on our side either. If we weren't getting out of there today, there was would be no leaving for another 4 days as the meteorologists were forcasting another 4 days of rain! ...at this point we believed them. So we spent a good 3 hrs. throwing rock on top of this washed out river making a makeshift rock bridge so the van wouldn't whisk away with the current. The van had one shot, got stuck once, but ironically never bottomed out!

That, combined with getting back home at 5:30 combined with Father's Day activities all made for an awesome, somewhat stressful Sunday before leaving for India! The clothes from this week are in the laundry right now. I won't have a cell phone so I'm going to have to wear a watch (weird), I bought a rain coat for India's monsoon season (check), hiking boots for Nepal along with some socks that are suppose to wick away the sweat from my feet (probably a gimmick but I figured I'd give it a try), kahki pants are also in tow as we will probably be invited to an Indian wedding or two because we're white (they like taking pictures with white people as the white race is considered higher class in India).

At this point it looks like the only thing left to get is a few British pounds as we have a layover in London of 18 hrs! It actually works out well; my travel buddy Mike worked for Parliament in London last spring and knows some people who we'll hang out with for the day before hitting up the connecting flight to Delhi.

If you're ever travelling and don't have anything to use for your essentials (passport, medical papers, money, etc...) try using your external hard drive case, almost perfect size!

Well back to packing!

Peace,

Kyle

P.S. I'm not sure how much blogging I'll have time to do over there at this point. I apologize in advance if I don't end up having time to blog regularly!