Singapore
That's all. Hi from Kuala Lumpur!!
That's all. Hi from Kuala Lumpur!!
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Sorry for being crappy at blogging
There was no internet in Mt. Abu and then we were so busy in Mumbai that no blogging was possible. Now we are in Goa, birthplace of the hippy movement, and so relaxing on the beach hasn't been too time consuming.
Mom, this part is for you: We've been using so much hand sanitizer that my henna came off in a week, we put on tons and tons of sunscreen and bug repellent each day, but still getting a few bites. Apparently asian mosquitos like me more than american ones. But taking the anti-malaria medicine, so it should all be good. Our place by the beach is awesome and we are sleeping under a mosquito net for the first time. It kind of feels like camping, haha. Also, in India we haven't had a lot of fruits. The meals don't really come with them. Aside from buying oranges on the streets, and one time I found some good bananas, we've been lacking.. But here in Goa they have breakfast food at every restaurant, with cereal, amazing fruit crepes, mmmm. So we've (ok, just I have) been having like two fruit crepes a day.
We also have a bit of a scavenger hunt going to keep us amused. People from different countries we've met: Slovakia, France, England, Turkey, Israel, Germany, Belgium, New Zealand (spending lots of time in Goa with these two from New Zealand, they're great!), and Russia. Animals we've seen: cow, horse, pony, goat, sheep, peacock, monkeys, turtle, camel, elephant, parrot, oxen, rat (haha, in the train station. no tail, he was a fierce lookin guy), chicken.
We also have a list of things we want to do when we get back to the US. I hope you're all ready for some serious rockband.
Ok, now for the daily updates.
4/3 Jaipur, India
-internet then took a bus to some restaurants. we are getting pro at the buses here. i don't think many tourists take them, because we get a lot of stares. walked around before heading back, and met this guy in a fabric store. excellent salesman. got something for the parents here (hi mom and dad!), and something for myself. my original plan to buy one thing for myself in each country is failing horribly. you'll hear more about this in goa.. haha.
-went back to hotel and got ready for choki dhani (ethnic village outside of jaipur). got a driver to take us there, and it was great! lots and lots of food. they bring you samples of like 25 different things. and lots of sweets, mm. and elephant and camel rides, a random t-rex statue, ferris wheel, and shopping. bought a necklace for 1 USD.
4/4 Jaipur, India
-went to see our first bollywood movie while in india. FALTU. pretty good. i think it might be the indian version of some american movie. i remember the storyline.. no english subtitles but pretty easy to follow. people in the theater here are more fun. they cheer and clap and whistle, and by the end we were cheering too when things went well for the characters. there was a lot of mcdonalds product placement, and fortunately there was a mcdonalds next door, so we got two of my favorites: the mcaloo tikka and a mcswirl. will miss the mcswirls in the US..
-then back to hostel to wash some clothes (they dry crazy fast with the dry heat in jaipur). oh yeah, and took our first anti malaria pills. i was a little worried because mine are pretty big, but no problems at all.
4/5 Mt Abu, India
-one quarter of the way done this trip, wow!
-walked from Jaipur hotel to train station, very short and early morning, so no taxi drivers to constantly ask if we need a ride. had our first 3ac sleeper coach experience. pretty good. you each get a bed. can't really sit up in it, but if you climb down there are some seats. kept all our bags next to us and slept quite well. unfortunately i didn't screw my water bottle cap on all the way one time and it sloshed out a little and got my purse wet. turns out the color bleeds a little (the purse i bought here). oh well.
-mt abu was crazy hot, and we had to walk a little ways to the bus stop with all our bags. not so much english there either. but aarti was helpful, and getting lots of hindi practice. after like an hour and a half of waiting, got on a bus taking us up the mountain. found a hotel for 4 USD a night for each of us and dinner for less than 2 USD.
-went for a walk at night and was surprised by cool temperatures, different flavors of soft serve all over (my favorite is chocodip.. same as the mcswirl really. vanilla softserve with hard chocolate shell), offers of a very cheap tourist bus, shopping, a fake eiffel tower (took a picture for you, paul!), a giant playing field for cricket and polo, and just an awesome atmosphere overall.
4/6 Mt Abu, India
-caught a tour bus. no AC this time. hottt. saw some sweet temples, including one we had to climb 320 steps for. it was worth it though. the temple was built into the rock at the top and you had to crawl between some of the rooms!. also saw honeymoon point, with views of the valley. so romantic with aarti, :-P. then some amazing jain temples. almost every inch was elaborately carved marble. unfortunately no pictures allowed. and then the highest point on the mountain. took some pictures up there, relaxed in the breeze, then headed back down. last stop: sunset point. it's important to reailze though that in india seeing a sunset doesn't really mean what you think. the sun seems to always sort of disappear behind some haze or clouds before hitting the horizon. oh well.
-oh yeah, and made a friend on the bus. her sister lives in sunnyvale! she might come visit CA next year!
4/7 Mt Abu, India
-didn't have much planned but turned into an awesome day. had a aloo mutter cheese sandwich. was kind of intrigued at the thought of a sandwich in india, but skeptical. ended up being one of the tastiest things i've ever eaten. i know i say this a lot, but still.
-wanted to take a boat out on the lake, but too hot. played uno in the shade instead. this boy came over to give us a magic show but we said no (you have to pay at the end). he ended up watching the game and learning it. we dealt him in the next round, and then another kid later. apparently this was all very interesting, because eventually we had about 20 people gathered around us watching. haha.we are quite the tourist attraction here, some of the only westerners..after that, posed for some pictures with random people, a theme on this trip, then escaped for some more soft serve. a lot more soft serve.
-went on a mini hike along a peak and saw some breathtaking views. hopefully my pictures do it some justice. tried to get to toad rock (rock that looks like a toad jumping into the lake?), but failed and ended up back at sunset point instead. oh well. met this man with crazy long dreds walking barefoot along the trail. ouch.
-later that night had one of the best samosas of my life. will miss indian food when we leave..
4/8 Mt Abu, India
-relaxing day of reading, journaling, and studying indonesia. hoping that pays off.enjoying it though, either way.
-found the route to toad path! just a lot of "stairs"- piles of rocks really, haha. pretty worth it. still didn't look much like a toad, but nice views of the lake from above.
-bought snacks for the long train ride and had our first jam sandwiches. haha. don't know if the jam is different here or not, but they were sooo good!
4/9 Mumbai, India
-omg Mumbai is so hot and humid. never been so sweaty before. arrived and got attacked by rickshaw drivers. almost couldn't get up the stairs while carrying all my bags plus aarti's wheely bag. they also cut her off from me. the only time we've kind of lost it with them. i yelled at them to leave us alone in english and she in hindi, which apparently annoyed them a little, so we ended up walking off as one of them yelled back. not so fun. no worries though. hung out at a restaurant while trying to find janmeet, a family friend of aarti's. took a real taxi to our hotel. mumbai is so different! real taxis, no cows on the street, no ice cream carts all over..
-cleaned up a little and put off showering to hang out with janmeet a little since he came across town to meet with us. we were soo dirty! saw a museum, had lots of chicken for lunch (no meat in mt abu so we were so hungry for it!), ice cream, kebobs, then saw gateway of india. nice, right by the water. talked a bit about trash in india. they don't have many trashcans here, so people just litter. lots of bottles in the water. aarti and i can't bring ourselves to throw stuff on the ground so we end up carrying our trash forever. also, india doesn't have many public (clean) bathrooms. my only two grievances, besides the humidity.
4/10 Mumbai, India
-met janmeet at gateway and caught a ferry to elephanta caves.man-made (i think?) with crazy carvings of gods/goddesses. very impressive. and lots of monkeys around! saw a guy feeding one, but we are too scared of rabies to try that.. will be happy not to pay 25 times the indian price when we go somewhere else. entrance fees here are around 10 rupees for indians, and 250 for foreignors. oh well.
-tried a really good little treat. aampapad. dried mango thing. kind of like fruit rolls at trader joes. making a list of indian sweets i want to try to find back in the US.
-went to marine drive, along the queens necklace. it's this curved street with street lights all along it that looks like a necklace from above. just sat by the water and talked. turns out janmeet really likes Eminem. when he told us detroit was the US city he most wanted to see we were confused until we heard this.
-then dinner of pav bhaji (delicious) along the beach, sitting on blankets with 100s of people around. and kulfi (indian ice cream!)
4/11 Mumbai, India
-went to the main post office here. kind of big and confusing, but an adventure
-found our first grocery store in india. with nutella!!
-met with janmeet to go to this temple. found some bananas on the street along the way. so tasty. was craving these forever. had some sweets at the temple as per usual, and whispered our wishes into the ears of this mouse statue, haha. we'll see if they come true.
-tried to go to a market and then a planetarium but turns out things are inexplicably closed on mondays. went to a park and watched kids play cricket while trying to get less sweaty. really, the heat and humidity are ridiculous.
-went to a mall, and ended up buying all the grocery things i'd been kind of missing from the US- yogurt, cereal, peanut butter!, and then a staples (india is just getting these stores here) where i found an 8 GB memory card for my camera for about 13 USD. yessss. should be good for the rest of the trip now. :-)
-then dinner back near the hotel. had some interesting foods....
-researched goa, then off to bed. also showered. showered pretty often in mumbai. completely unavoidable with all the humidity.
4/12 Mumbai, India
-had a day alone in mumbai. went to see our second bollywood movie. it was called "thank you". not quite as good as FALTU, but the main character was pretty amusing. he always wore fedoras, which maybe explains why every shop here sells them.. and there was a malaria ad at the beginning of the movie. good that they do that.
-shopped along fashion st, and despite it being like a half mile of shops, didn't really find anything. maybe we were just too sweaty to really enjoy it.
-went to the restaurant we first went to with janmeet for another round of chicken lazeez. sooo good.
-had some issues with our train. this was the only one where we were kind of far down on the waitlist. ended up at waitlist spots 2 and 3, so we had to go to the train station to try to figure things out. apparently there's a tourist quota, but that office was closed. looked into a bus departing from elsewhere to goa, but weren't sure if there was space or any more buses leaving that night. janmeet eventually came an hour across town to help us. ran into the guy at waitlist spot 1. german guy. ended up tagging along with us as we got offered tickets for he next day at double the price and then eventually found some regularly priced ones.
-went back to our hotel for the night, then ventured out the next morning for our train. so tiring.
4/13 train + Goa, India
-slept, studied indonesian, read, tried to eat this super messy thing on a moving train (mostly successful, i'm getting good with a spoon + my hands)
-met a couple from new zealand across the aisle from us. nice having more tourists on the train with us. easier to figure out where to get off. apparently they've been traveling for like 7 months. wow. been to england, ireland, france, jamaica, korea, morocco, egypt.. jealous, but that would be too intense for me. ended up sharing a super crowded but cheaper taxi to anjuna beach with the new zealanders and the german guy. had aarti on my lap for way too long, haha.
-booked a hotel with the new zealanders, scared a gecko out of our room for aarti (who is apparently scared of them), then had a dinner of crepes- nutella and mixed fruit. omg so good.
4/14 Goa, India
-got some bugbites the night before. no screens in our room or mosquito nets. we wore bug repellant but still.. got up early to check out other places. found one for 100 rupees cheaper by the beach. had some more crepes than moved our stuff with the help of new zealanders (kelly and nick).
-sat on the beach and were approached by three ladies carrying boxes of jewelry. they divided their forces and each took on one of us.in minutes i had an anklet on each foot, a bracelet on each wrist, a toe ring, and multiple other things draped over my leg. kelly and i both ended up getting anklets, but aarti was strong. these women were good! shopkeepers in goa are intense. "i give you good price" "buy two!" "you tell me your price" "see your friend is buying some" "you're my first customer, you bring me good luck".
-after that we found a restaurant right on the beach and got chairs looking out over the water. hung out there for a few hours. goa is so relaxing. then climbed down to shore on one of the more rocky sides of the beach and tried to watch sunset. again, just disappeared behind some clouds.
-bought a dress i'd been eyeing up, found some internet, water, and then some more shopping- two more dresses and a journal (the one i've been using from my peru trip will definitely be full by the end of this trip. i write 2+ pages a day. can't wait to read all of this years later). as we were leaving, the kid who worked the shop- named romeo- says he'll give us some anklets for 50 rupees. i take a look despite definitely not needing one, and again they had the jewelry on me in seconds. if you try to take it off, they'll put it back on. "come on, tell me your price". found one i really did like, but this one was 450 rupees (ha!). said no and walked off, only to be chased down by the kid yelling "150 rupees!" sold.
-later bought a headband/scarf thing like one aarti already got, and then watched a ripped version of prince of persia at a restaurant over dinner.
-by the end of the day: 3 dresses, 3 anklets, 1 notebook, 1 headband. about 34 USD. most expensive day yet. these people are good. but now it's out of my system, haha. at least until thailand...
-came back to our hotel to drop stuff off before going out, only to find that our bag of cereal that's been fine in all the other places had this time attracted a ton of ants. which also got all over my big bag. ughh. so instead of going out, we shook out all my stuff and sprayed the permethrin (crazy bug stuff) we had left all over the source of the ants in the corner. i have no idea how many we killed that night, but our battle will surely go down in history.
-went to bed under our mosquito net.
4/15 Goa, India
-breakfast cereal and crepe. mmm
-found a cool toy for clifton and tyler (can't wait to show you guys!) and i got it for less than half what the lady started at. some indian first year students came up and were telling us how much they got theirs for, which really pissed off the lady since she was trying to sell it to us for like 7 times the price. ended up hanging out with those kids for most of the day, and got rides on their scooters. people really don't seem to like walking here, ha.
-weird thing: once we got to the beach, i'm pretty sure a bird flew into my head. i thought i got hit in the head with a dodgeball or something, but when i turned, there were no balls, just this bird quickly flying off. not his beak or anything, just maybe a wing.. didn't hurt at all, was just very weird..
-went up a hill and saw some hippies giving people paragliding rides for 33 USD for 20 minutes. a little tempting, but probably too cheap to do it. don't worry mom, looks extremely safe.
-decided to find our way to the elusive Curlies, supposedly the most popular restaurant here. you need to leave the beach, go through a restaurant up some stairs, take a random path, go down some stairs, then other "stairs", then take a left, then up some stairs, then down some stairs through their kitchen. and then you emerge at curlies. i feel like there must be an easier way, but maybe that is part of the charm. it was very nice. got more food and lay in chairs by the water at night. made some friends, and might see them all there tomorrow night (today).
Ok, done. Oh yeah, and just ordered my cap and gown for graduation. printed out a ruler to measure my head, and enlisted the help of some random people in this internet cafe to help me read the measurement, hahah. one of them just finished a trip to indonesia and thailand.. hoping to find them later and get some tips, but meeting up is always difficult in a new place without phones. we'll see how this goes, ha.
miss and love you all!!
Mom, this part is for you: We've been using so much hand sanitizer that my henna came off in a week, we put on tons and tons of sunscreen and bug repellent each day, but still getting a few bites. Apparently asian mosquitos like me more than american ones. But taking the anti-malaria medicine, so it should all be good. Our place by the beach is awesome and we are sleeping under a mosquito net for the first time. It kind of feels like camping, haha. Also, in India we haven't had a lot of fruits. The meals don't really come with them. Aside from buying oranges on the streets, and one time I found some good bananas, we've been lacking.. But here in Goa they have breakfast food at every restaurant, with cereal, amazing fruit crepes, mmmm. So we've (ok, just I have) been having like two fruit crepes a day.
We also have a bit of a scavenger hunt going to keep us amused. People from different countries we've met: Slovakia, France, England, Turkey, Israel, Germany, Belgium, New Zealand (spending lots of time in Goa with these two from New Zealand, they're great!), and Russia. Animals we've seen: cow, horse, pony, goat, sheep, peacock, monkeys, turtle, camel, elephant, parrot, oxen, rat (haha, in the train station. no tail, he was a fierce lookin guy), chicken.
We also have a list of things we want to do when we get back to the US. I hope you're all ready for some serious rockband.
Ok, now for the daily updates.
4/3 Jaipur, India
-internet then took a bus to some restaurants. we are getting pro at the buses here. i don't think many tourists take them, because we get a lot of stares. walked around before heading back, and met this guy in a fabric store. excellent salesman. got something for the parents here (hi mom and dad!), and something for myself. my original plan to buy one thing for myself in each country is failing horribly. you'll hear more about this in goa.. haha.
-went back to hotel and got ready for choki dhani (ethnic village outside of jaipur). got a driver to take us there, and it was great! lots and lots of food. they bring you samples of like 25 different things. and lots of sweets, mm. and elephant and camel rides, a random t-rex statue, ferris wheel, and shopping. bought a necklace for 1 USD.
4/4 Jaipur, India
-went to see our first bollywood movie while in india. FALTU. pretty good. i think it might be the indian version of some american movie. i remember the storyline.. no english subtitles but pretty easy to follow. people in the theater here are more fun. they cheer and clap and whistle, and by the end we were cheering too when things went well for the characters. there was a lot of mcdonalds product placement, and fortunately there was a mcdonalds next door, so we got two of my favorites: the mcaloo tikka and a mcswirl. will miss the mcswirls in the US..
-then back to hostel to wash some clothes (they dry crazy fast with the dry heat in jaipur). oh yeah, and took our first anti malaria pills. i was a little worried because mine are pretty big, but no problems at all.
4/5 Mt Abu, India
-one quarter of the way done this trip, wow!
-walked from Jaipur hotel to train station, very short and early morning, so no taxi drivers to constantly ask if we need a ride. had our first 3ac sleeper coach experience. pretty good. you each get a bed. can't really sit up in it, but if you climb down there are some seats. kept all our bags next to us and slept quite well. unfortunately i didn't screw my water bottle cap on all the way one time and it sloshed out a little and got my purse wet. turns out the color bleeds a little (the purse i bought here). oh well.
-mt abu was crazy hot, and we had to walk a little ways to the bus stop with all our bags. not so much english there either. but aarti was helpful, and getting lots of hindi practice. after like an hour and a half of waiting, got on a bus taking us up the mountain. found a hotel for 4 USD a night for each of us and dinner for less than 2 USD.
-went for a walk at night and was surprised by cool temperatures, different flavors of soft serve all over (my favorite is chocodip.. same as the mcswirl really. vanilla softserve with hard chocolate shell), offers of a very cheap tourist bus, shopping, a fake eiffel tower (took a picture for you, paul!), a giant playing field for cricket and polo, and just an awesome atmosphere overall.
4/6 Mt Abu, India
-caught a tour bus. no AC this time. hottt. saw some sweet temples, including one we had to climb 320 steps for. it was worth it though. the temple was built into the rock at the top and you had to crawl between some of the rooms!. also saw honeymoon point, with views of the valley. so romantic with aarti, :-P. then some amazing jain temples. almost every inch was elaborately carved marble. unfortunately no pictures allowed. and then the highest point on the mountain. took some pictures up there, relaxed in the breeze, then headed back down. last stop: sunset point. it's important to reailze though that in india seeing a sunset doesn't really mean what you think. the sun seems to always sort of disappear behind some haze or clouds before hitting the horizon. oh well.
-oh yeah, and made a friend on the bus. her sister lives in sunnyvale! she might come visit CA next year!
4/7 Mt Abu, India
-didn't have much planned but turned into an awesome day. had a aloo mutter cheese sandwich. was kind of intrigued at the thought of a sandwich in india, but skeptical. ended up being one of the tastiest things i've ever eaten. i know i say this a lot, but still.
-wanted to take a boat out on the lake, but too hot. played uno in the shade instead. this boy came over to give us a magic show but we said no (you have to pay at the end). he ended up watching the game and learning it. we dealt him in the next round, and then another kid later. apparently this was all very interesting, because eventually we had about 20 people gathered around us watching. haha.we are quite the tourist attraction here, some of the only westerners..after that, posed for some pictures with random people, a theme on this trip, then escaped for some more soft serve. a lot more soft serve.
-went on a mini hike along a peak and saw some breathtaking views. hopefully my pictures do it some justice. tried to get to toad rock (rock that looks like a toad jumping into the lake?), but failed and ended up back at sunset point instead. oh well. met this man with crazy long dreds walking barefoot along the trail. ouch.
-later that night had one of the best samosas of my life. will miss indian food when we leave..
4/8 Mt Abu, India
-relaxing day of reading, journaling, and studying indonesia. hoping that pays off.enjoying it though, either way.
-found the route to toad path! just a lot of "stairs"- piles of rocks really, haha. pretty worth it. still didn't look much like a toad, but nice views of the lake from above.
-bought snacks for the long train ride and had our first jam sandwiches. haha. don't know if the jam is different here or not, but they were sooo good!
4/9 Mumbai, India
-omg Mumbai is so hot and humid. never been so sweaty before. arrived and got attacked by rickshaw drivers. almost couldn't get up the stairs while carrying all my bags plus aarti's wheely bag. they also cut her off from me. the only time we've kind of lost it with them. i yelled at them to leave us alone in english and she in hindi, which apparently annoyed them a little, so we ended up walking off as one of them yelled back. not so fun. no worries though. hung out at a restaurant while trying to find janmeet, a family friend of aarti's. took a real taxi to our hotel. mumbai is so different! real taxis, no cows on the street, no ice cream carts all over..
-cleaned up a little and put off showering to hang out with janmeet a little since he came across town to meet with us. we were soo dirty! saw a museum, had lots of chicken for lunch (no meat in mt abu so we were so hungry for it!), ice cream, kebobs, then saw gateway of india. nice, right by the water. talked a bit about trash in india. they don't have many trashcans here, so people just litter. lots of bottles in the water. aarti and i can't bring ourselves to throw stuff on the ground so we end up carrying our trash forever. also, india doesn't have many public (clean) bathrooms. my only two grievances, besides the humidity.
4/10 Mumbai, India
-met janmeet at gateway and caught a ferry to elephanta caves.man-made (i think?) with crazy carvings of gods/goddesses. very impressive. and lots of monkeys around! saw a guy feeding one, but we are too scared of rabies to try that.. will be happy not to pay 25 times the indian price when we go somewhere else. entrance fees here are around 10 rupees for indians, and 250 for foreignors. oh well.
-tried a really good little treat. aampapad. dried mango thing. kind of like fruit rolls at trader joes. making a list of indian sweets i want to try to find back in the US.
-went to marine drive, along the queens necklace. it's this curved street with street lights all along it that looks like a necklace from above. just sat by the water and talked. turns out janmeet really likes Eminem. when he told us detroit was the US city he most wanted to see we were confused until we heard this.
-then dinner of pav bhaji (delicious) along the beach, sitting on blankets with 100s of people around. and kulfi (indian ice cream!)
4/11 Mumbai, India
-went to the main post office here. kind of big and confusing, but an adventure
-found our first grocery store in india. with nutella!!
-met with janmeet to go to this temple. found some bananas on the street along the way. so tasty. was craving these forever. had some sweets at the temple as per usual, and whispered our wishes into the ears of this mouse statue, haha. we'll see if they come true.
-tried to go to a market and then a planetarium but turns out things are inexplicably closed on mondays. went to a park and watched kids play cricket while trying to get less sweaty. really, the heat and humidity are ridiculous.
-went to a mall, and ended up buying all the grocery things i'd been kind of missing from the US- yogurt, cereal, peanut butter!, and then a staples (india is just getting these stores here) where i found an 8 GB memory card for my camera for about 13 USD. yessss. should be good for the rest of the trip now. :-)
-then dinner back near the hotel. had some interesting foods....
-researched goa, then off to bed. also showered. showered pretty often in mumbai. completely unavoidable with all the humidity.
4/12 Mumbai, India
-had a day alone in mumbai. went to see our second bollywood movie. it was called "thank you". not quite as good as FALTU, but the main character was pretty amusing. he always wore fedoras, which maybe explains why every shop here sells them.. and there was a malaria ad at the beginning of the movie. good that they do that.
-shopped along fashion st, and despite it being like a half mile of shops, didn't really find anything. maybe we were just too sweaty to really enjoy it.
-went to the restaurant we first went to with janmeet for another round of chicken lazeez. sooo good.
-had some issues with our train. this was the only one where we were kind of far down on the waitlist. ended up at waitlist spots 2 and 3, so we had to go to the train station to try to figure things out. apparently there's a tourist quota, but that office was closed. looked into a bus departing from elsewhere to goa, but weren't sure if there was space or any more buses leaving that night. janmeet eventually came an hour across town to help us. ran into the guy at waitlist spot 1. german guy. ended up tagging along with us as we got offered tickets for he next day at double the price and then eventually found some regularly priced ones.
-went back to our hotel for the night, then ventured out the next morning for our train. so tiring.
4/13 train + Goa, India
-slept, studied indonesian, read, tried to eat this super messy thing on a moving train (mostly successful, i'm getting good with a spoon + my hands)
-met a couple from new zealand across the aisle from us. nice having more tourists on the train with us. easier to figure out where to get off. apparently they've been traveling for like 7 months. wow. been to england, ireland, france, jamaica, korea, morocco, egypt.. jealous, but that would be too intense for me. ended up sharing a super crowded but cheaper taxi to anjuna beach with the new zealanders and the german guy. had aarti on my lap for way too long, haha.
-booked a hotel with the new zealanders, scared a gecko out of our room for aarti (who is apparently scared of them), then had a dinner of crepes- nutella and mixed fruit. omg so good.
4/14 Goa, India
-got some bugbites the night before. no screens in our room or mosquito nets. we wore bug repellant but still.. got up early to check out other places. found one for 100 rupees cheaper by the beach. had some more crepes than moved our stuff with the help of new zealanders (kelly and nick).
-sat on the beach and were approached by three ladies carrying boxes of jewelry. they divided their forces and each took on one of us.in minutes i had an anklet on each foot, a bracelet on each wrist, a toe ring, and multiple other things draped over my leg. kelly and i both ended up getting anklets, but aarti was strong. these women were good! shopkeepers in goa are intense. "i give you good price" "buy two!" "you tell me your price" "see your friend is buying some" "you're my first customer, you bring me good luck".
-after that we found a restaurant right on the beach and got chairs looking out over the water. hung out there for a few hours. goa is so relaxing. then climbed down to shore on one of the more rocky sides of the beach and tried to watch sunset. again, just disappeared behind some clouds.
-bought a dress i'd been eyeing up, found some internet, water, and then some more shopping- two more dresses and a journal (the one i've been using from my peru trip will definitely be full by the end of this trip. i write 2+ pages a day. can't wait to read all of this years later). as we were leaving, the kid who worked the shop- named romeo- says he'll give us some anklets for 50 rupees. i take a look despite definitely not needing one, and again they had the jewelry on me in seconds. if you try to take it off, they'll put it back on. "come on, tell me your price". found one i really did like, but this one was 450 rupees (ha!). said no and walked off, only to be chased down by the kid yelling "150 rupees!" sold.
-later bought a headband/scarf thing like one aarti already got, and then watched a ripped version of prince of persia at a restaurant over dinner.
-by the end of the day: 3 dresses, 3 anklets, 1 notebook, 1 headband. about 34 USD. most expensive day yet. these people are good. but now it's out of my system, haha. at least until thailand...
-came back to our hotel to drop stuff off before going out, only to find that our bag of cereal that's been fine in all the other places had this time attracted a ton of ants. which also got all over my big bag. ughh. so instead of going out, we shook out all my stuff and sprayed the permethrin (crazy bug stuff) we had left all over the source of the ants in the corner. i have no idea how many we killed that night, but our battle will surely go down in history.
-went to bed under our mosquito net.
4/15 Goa, India
-breakfast cereal and crepe. mmm
-found a cool toy for clifton and tyler (can't wait to show you guys!) and i got it for less than half what the lady started at. some indian first year students came up and were telling us how much they got theirs for, which really pissed off the lady since she was trying to sell it to us for like 7 times the price. ended up hanging out with those kids for most of the day, and got rides on their scooters. people really don't seem to like walking here, ha.
-weird thing: once we got to the beach, i'm pretty sure a bird flew into my head. i thought i got hit in the head with a dodgeball or something, but when i turned, there were no balls, just this bird quickly flying off. not his beak or anything, just maybe a wing.. didn't hurt at all, was just very weird..
-went up a hill and saw some hippies giving people paragliding rides for 33 USD for 20 minutes. a little tempting, but probably too cheap to do it. don't worry mom, looks extremely safe.
-decided to find our way to the elusive Curlies, supposedly the most popular restaurant here. you need to leave the beach, go through a restaurant up some stairs, take a random path, go down some stairs, then other "stairs", then take a left, then up some stairs, then down some stairs through their kitchen. and then you emerge at curlies. i feel like there must be an easier way, but maybe that is part of the charm. it was very nice. got more food and lay in chairs by the water at night. made some friends, and might see them all there tomorrow night (today).
Ok, done. Oh yeah, and just ordered my cap and gown for graduation. printed out a ruler to measure my head, and enlisted the help of some random people in this internet cafe to help me read the measurement, hahah. one of them just finished a trip to indonesia and thailand.. hoping to find them later and get some tips, but meeting up is always difficult in a new place without phones. we'll see how this goes, ha.
miss and love you all!!
Sunday, April 3, 2011
PICTURES
Just posted a heck ton on facebook. Hong Kong + pre trip pictures from the summer + some of Jaipur. More later, need food break.
Sorry parents, but you can see them in real life in June. And then I can explain what you're seeing! Couldn't figure out a non-facebook place with enough storage space for all of them.
Sorry parents, but you can see them in real life in June. And then I can explain what you're seeing! Couldn't figure out a non-facebook place with enough storage space for all of them.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
And the true Asian Adventure 2011 starts
We are now in Jaipur, our third city in India. We parted ways with Aarti's relatives in Delhi and had our first alone experience in Agra, but it was very quick. Now we are in Jaipur for about 4 days, so it's nice. We have time to figure out where things are and how to get places (we even used a bus instead of autorickshaw!). Our "neighborhood" has internet, ice cream, snacks, water, and it's near the bus. So great.
3/30 (Delhi)
-started off the morning with sweet treats and watching indian music videos. interesting thing: there are some videos that are just guys dancing. striked me as weird. i don't think i've ever seen an american music video without ladies in it. and this is sort of like regular life here. after india won the semi final of cricket against pakistan there was a big party of guys out in the middle of a street, blocking the entire road. even a firetruck joined in on the action. and yeah, it was a party of just guys. don't know, just thought it was interesting.
-we were in a mall and there was a big screen and literally 1000+ people watching from all floors of the mall and on the floor. wherever there was a tv, no matter how small, there were people gathered around it watching the match. cricket is huge here!
-met up with Talsma! had delicious ice cream sundae and watched the india/pakistan match. walked around afterward and saw the street party and kids setting off firecrackers. met his sister and her husband who just moved to delhi. had an adventurous time getting home. haha. don't worry when you read this mom: we headed home around midnight by autorickshaw but the driver wasn't totally sure of where the address of aarti's relatives was. so we stopped and asked so many people, getting pointed more in the right direction each time. finally made it there but then the door was closed and they weren't answering their phones (the relatives) or hearing us knocking on the door (didn't want to knock too loud and wake everyone). contemplated heading back to talsma's sister's place, but all my stuff was at the relatives and we had a train to catch early the next morning. finally rang the bell a few times and they woke up to let me in. first mini adventure of the trip, ha.
-amusing note of the day. aarti and i saw this white guy running on the side of the road and it looked so out of place! white people in general tend to stand out here, but someone running for exercise was very strange to see, haha. never thought it was strange before until now.
-one more thing: drove by a movie set! lots of people gathered to see and there were some crazy fancy cars. didn't see any action though.
3/31 (delhi/agra)
-left delhi early in the morning and caught our train to agra
-took a nap in the hostel and then headed out for food and taj mahal tickets. found our way to the tourist place and got both things, and also free bottled water and a ride to the taj! food was about 1.5USD, so nice.
-the taj mahal has crazy security. no food, no phones (although ours got through since i keep it in my glasses case and they just assumed there were glasses in there. we keep it there because we get lots of spamming text messages and if you accidentally press 'ok' it'll charge you and send you recipes or something, ha. very weird. so my glasses case is hard and keeps us from accidentally pushing ok)
-the taj mahal was seriously amazing. apparently now it's the first wonder of the world. totally lives up to the hype. we took a ton of pictures and there were so many people there! i had my first experiences with people asking for my picture because i'm white. mostly it's kids who come up to me, but also a married couple with a baby, haha. so i got pictures with them as well! we hung out at the back of the taj for a while in the shade and talked to this family there. funny moment- the lady we were talking to points to this white kid and says 'he looks like harry potter', and really, he kind of did.
-used the internet instead of going to agra fort (weren't that excited about the lightshow or having to haggle with the rickshaw people to get there and back) and failed at uploading pictures. i just have too many and the internet is too slow. will try uploading them in stages.
-arranged with a rickshaw driver to meet us outside our hostel at 4am the next morning for our train ride to jaipur.
4/1 (agra/jaipur)
-our alarm didn't go off and so we ended up sleeping til 4:30am, when we should have been AT the train station. threw our stuff together real real fast and ran outside. luckily the autorickshaw guy was still there after 45 minutes of waiting. sped us to the train station and we asked so many people while running around with all our bags (i had mine + aarti's so we could run up and down the stairs quick enough) until we found the right train and car. made it just in time. don't know how we did it.
-got to our hostel and booked all four nights. they have jurassic park in their little hostel 'library' (books travelers leave behind i think). then showered. so nice. we hadn't showered for like 4 days. don't worry guys, am hobo-ing it up as expected.
-met up with some guys from couchsurfing and had lunch at a cool place. then they dropped us off near the gates to the main part of the city. we wandered around the markets, checked out the hawa mahal (wind palace) with amazing views of jaipur from the top (didn't realize there were hills/mountains around it!), and i helped this guy on the street write a love letter to his girlfriend, haha.don't worry mom, we just sat in the post office (filled with people and not a sketchy place!). he dictated and i transcribed. he can speak and read english pretty well but said he had trouble with writing. he told us about some less-touristy shopping places as a thank you for our help.
-afterward we tried to get to jantar mantar (an observatory), but were too late. it was already closed. oh well.
-went home and realized we were hungry but too tired to head back out on the bus to the street we'd heard had lots of food. went nearby to this starbucks-like place and got sandwiches. made friends with the guy working there who told us about a good restaurant we should try.
4/2 (jaipur)
-got a call last night from the couchsurfing guy saying he'd paid for a fancy hotel for a friend but that that friend couldn't stay the whole time and so there was a room there for us if we wanted it. checked it out on line and decided it was a little too far away from the main stuff and said thanks, but no thanks.
-went to amber fort. highly recommend this place if you come to jaipur. amazing! be warned you must do some serious stair climbing, but the views from the top are awesome. and the place itself was so nice. just a huge fort on a hillside.
-met a girl there who was traveling alone from calcutta. we joined forces and went with her and her driver to some shopping areas where i bought some gifts, then to the jal mahal (water palace), city palace where i got some mendhi (henna), and then to a mall. had our first indian mcdonalds experience. i had a mcaloo tikka :-P and ice cream. also tried indian ice cream today. very good!
-her driver dropped us off at our place after taking her to the airport and we got to take home some homemade sweets from her mom! we made friends with this israeli couple staying at our hostel, then got ready to go out with the couchsurfing people to watch the finals for cricket.
-we watched the finals in this "club" (not really a club in the american sense of the word) where we had good food and there were so many people and big screen tvs. we finally learned the rules and watched india come from behind to have a seriously spectacular win. everyone was very excited. fireworks and cheerleaders afterward. then headed home.
Having a wonderful time in Jaipur and enjoying all the friends we've been randomly making.All part of the adventure. I think tomorrow we start taking our malaria medicine (sadly mine are large pills, which I hate, gah) since the day after that we venture off for Mt. Abu, a hill station with a lake and hiking. Should be nice. Then Mumbai where we will either stay with people that Talsma stayed with there or book a hostel. Then Goa, which promises beaches, more heat, hippies, and many things to do. Then Mumbai again for like a day before we fly on to Singapore! Can't believe we are already about a third of our way through India.And 15 days through our ~70 day Asian Adventure. It goes fast!
Ok, you'll probably get the next update from Mt. Abu.
Love you all!!!
3/30 (Delhi)
-started off the morning with sweet treats and watching indian music videos. interesting thing: there are some videos that are just guys dancing. striked me as weird. i don't think i've ever seen an american music video without ladies in it. and this is sort of like regular life here. after india won the semi final of cricket against pakistan there was a big party of guys out in the middle of a street, blocking the entire road. even a firetruck joined in on the action. and yeah, it was a party of just guys. don't know, just thought it was interesting.
-we were in a mall and there was a big screen and literally 1000+ people watching from all floors of the mall and on the floor. wherever there was a tv, no matter how small, there were people gathered around it watching the match. cricket is huge here!
-met up with Talsma! had delicious ice cream sundae and watched the india/pakistan match. walked around afterward and saw the street party and kids setting off firecrackers. met his sister and her husband who just moved to delhi. had an adventurous time getting home. haha. don't worry when you read this mom: we headed home around midnight by autorickshaw but the driver wasn't totally sure of where the address of aarti's relatives was. so we stopped and asked so many people, getting pointed more in the right direction each time. finally made it there but then the door was closed and they weren't answering their phones (the relatives) or hearing us knocking on the door (didn't want to knock too loud and wake everyone). contemplated heading back to talsma's sister's place, but all my stuff was at the relatives and we had a train to catch early the next morning. finally rang the bell a few times and they woke up to let me in. first mini adventure of the trip, ha.
-amusing note of the day. aarti and i saw this white guy running on the side of the road and it looked so out of place! white people in general tend to stand out here, but someone running for exercise was very strange to see, haha. never thought it was strange before until now.
-one more thing: drove by a movie set! lots of people gathered to see and there were some crazy fancy cars. didn't see any action though.
3/31 (delhi/agra)
-left delhi early in the morning and caught our train to agra
-took a nap in the hostel and then headed out for food and taj mahal tickets. found our way to the tourist place and got both things, and also free bottled water and a ride to the taj! food was about 1.5USD, so nice.
-the taj mahal has crazy security. no food, no phones (although ours got through since i keep it in my glasses case and they just assumed there were glasses in there. we keep it there because we get lots of spamming text messages and if you accidentally press 'ok' it'll charge you and send you recipes or something, ha. very weird. so my glasses case is hard and keeps us from accidentally pushing ok)
-the taj mahal was seriously amazing. apparently now it's the first wonder of the world. totally lives up to the hype. we took a ton of pictures and there were so many people there! i had my first experiences with people asking for my picture because i'm white. mostly it's kids who come up to me, but also a married couple with a baby, haha. so i got pictures with them as well! we hung out at the back of the taj for a while in the shade and talked to this family there. funny moment- the lady we were talking to points to this white kid and says 'he looks like harry potter', and really, he kind of did.
-used the internet instead of going to agra fort (weren't that excited about the lightshow or having to haggle with the rickshaw people to get there and back) and failed at uploading pictures. i just have too many and the internet is too slow. will try uploading them in stages.
-arranged with a rickshaw driver to meet us outside our hostel at 4am the next morning for our train ride to jaipur.
4/1 (agra/jaipur)
-our alarm didn't go off and so we ended up sleeping til 4:30am, when we should have been AT the train station. threw our stuff together real real fast and ran outside. luckily the autorickshaw guy was still there after 45 minutes of waiting. sped us to the train station and we asked so many people while running around with all our bags (i had mine + aarti's so we could run up and down the stairs quick enough) until we found the right train and car. made it just in time. don't know how we did it.
-got to our hostel and booked all four nights. they have jurassic park in their little hostel 'library' (books travelers leave behind i think). then showered. so nice. we hadn't showered for like 4 days. don't worry guys, am hobo-ing it up as expected.
-met up with some guys from couchsurfing and had lunch at a cool place. then they dropped us off near the gates to the main part of the city. we wandered around the markets, checked out the hawa mahal (wind palace) with amazing views of jaipur from the top (didn't realize there were hills/mountains around it!), and i helped this guy on the street write a love letter to his girlfriend, haha.don't worry mom, we just sat in the post office (filled with people and not a sketchy place!). he dictated and i transcribed. he can speak and read english pretty well but said he had trouble with writing. he told us about some less-touristy shopping places as a thank you for our help.
-afterward we tried to get to jantar mantar (an observatory), but were too late. it was already closed. oh well.
-went home and realized we were hungry but too tired to head back out on the bus to the street we'd heard had lots of food. went nearby to this starbucks-like place and got sandwiches. made friends with the guy working there who told us about a good restaurant we should try.
4/2 (jaipur)
-got a call last night from the couchsurfing guy saying he'd paid for a fancy hotel for a friend but that that friend couldn't stay the whole time and so there was a room there for us if we wanted it. checked it out on line and decided it was a little too far away from the main stuff and said thanks, but no thanks.
-went to amber fort. highly recommend this place if you come to jaipur. amazing! be warned you must do some serious stair climbing, but the views from the top are awesome. and the place itself was so nice. just a huge fort on a hillside.
-met a girl there who was traveling alone from calcutta. we joined forces and went with her and her driver to some shopping areas where i bought some gifts, then to the jal mahal (water palace), city palace where i got some mendhi (henna), and then to a mall. had our first indian mcdonalds experience. i had a mcaloo tikka :-P and ice cream. also tried indian ice cream today. very good!
-her driver dropped us off at our place after taking her to the airport and we got to take home some homemade sweets from her mom! we made friends with this israeli couple staying at our hostel, then got ready to go out with the couchsurfing people to watch the finals for cricket.
-we watched the finals in this "club" (not really a club in the american sense of the word) where we had good food and there were so many people and big screen tvs. we finally learned the rules and watched india come from behind to have a seriously spectacular win. everyone was very excited. fireworks and cheerleaders afterward. then headed home.
Having a wonderful time in Jaipur and enjoying all the friends we've been randomly making.All part of the adventure. I think tomorrow we start taking our malaria medicine (sadly mine are large pills, which I hate, gah) since the day after that we venture off for Mt. Abu, a hill station with a lake and hiking. Should be nice. Then Mumbai where we will either stay with people that Talsma stayed with there or book a hostel. Then Goa, which promises beaches, more heat, hippies, and many things to do. Then Mumbai again for like a day before we fly on to Singapore! Can't believe we are already about a third of our way through India.And 15 days through our ~70 day Asian Adventure. It goes fast!
Ok, you'll probably get the next update from Mt. Abu.
Love you all!!!
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