A Green Backpack

I visited one of my closest friends, Mari, this past weekend in D.C.

It has been too long since I’ve posted and that’s my bad.

Life has been very hectic in the past two months, I can tell you that much. But essentially:

1. I moved to Boston and am currently living in Somerville/Cambridge.

2. I started a new job and working in the Hancock Tower.

3. My life as an adult/college graduate requires a little bit of adjustments and getting used to. It was weird seeing peope moving into houses and dorms while I was working from 8am to whenever I’m done with work. However, I must say that I really do like the working life since work does not follow me (granted I worked on a Saturday once so far, but that is far and few between).

Those three points are much more than what they sound like, but I won’t elaborate too much on them.

Varanasi, the Holy City, was absolutely one of (if not the absolute) favorite place that I have been to, and mostly due to the people and friendliness.

First of all, as you may have recalled, my arrival in Varanasi was very much unanticipated by death (read: I saw a body at the train station). However, after arriving at my hostel, I booked a tour of the city and saw several interesting sites. By far my favorite is Sarnath, the place where Buddha gave his first sermon after reaching Enlightenment. Other than that, most of the places were pretty much standard: temples, forts, museums, etc. Nothing too exciting.

The other thing about visiting Varanasi in July is that it is during the month of celebrating Shiva. Pilgrims from all over India travel to Varanasi to celebration this momentous occasion. Everyone you go there are guys wearing a complete orange outfit and screaming, “Bul Ba,” which means “Say Shiva.” There are literally thousands and thousands of people wearing orange outfits everywhere.

Anyway, in my tour group were just two other guys: a Spanish and a Russian. We became good traveling friends after a while and hung out for the next several days. The Spanish guy, Alex, works in Sheffield and is on a business trip. He introduced me to one of his friends who runs a learning center, called Ganga, and was visiting Varanasi in hope of getting sponsors for her. The Russian guy, Alexey, is touring India for several months. After touring, we came back to the hostel and met another guys, an Australian named Sam, who was working at a hospital in Jaipur and now traveling for a little bit.

Besides being tourists, the other common thread that we shared is that we hated our hostel. The owner is very sleazy and tries to get every single penny out of you. The place is dirty and he does not even tries to maintain it. All he does is attempts to sell us silk, tour packages, boat rides, etc. The way he talks about women was also very degrading; I found it disgusting and rude. There is a fine line (maybe) between joking and just being an absolute sleazeball.

The next day, Sam and I got up at 5am to do a boat ride at sunrise. Yes, it was only tourists who do that and yes, it was cheesy. But the view of the city is absolutely breathtaking and I would do it again without question. I’ll post some pictures later. I think after that, I just spent the remainder of my stay (1 day) walking around and catching up with two of my friends, Calder and Hutch, who are traveling around Asia for four months. We studied together in London and traveled around extensively in Europe and Africa (barely). It was just really nice to catch up with them.

One more thing, there is this amazing lassi place in Varanasi called the Blue Lassi. It is the number one place recommended by LP and it is delicious!!! I had a total of 8 lassies in three days. If you go to Varanasi, do not miss it!!!

After three days in Varanasi, I departed for Agra on an overnight train ride. Normally it isn’t anything too exciting. Just a typical sleeper train. However, I met three of the most friendliest and smartest kids. Granted, I’m, not that much older than they are. They were 17, 18, and 22 and going to Kota to study medicine. We hung out for about 8 hours, playing card games, talking about Hollywood/Bollywood movies, exchanging stories about my trip, and talking about differences in the Western and Eastern culture in topics ranging from marriages (arrange vs. love) to poverty to corruption. I was really impressed at their level of understanding of the world around them. One of them even bought me dinner. Again, granted it was only 40 rupees, but it just was one of the kindest gestures that I have encountered. Meeting them was one of the highlights of my trip. We exchanged emails, phone numbers, and even addresses!

While very shocking at first, I think Varanasi really grew on me and one of the best places that I have ever visited. I’m in Agra now, planning on seeing the Taj Mahal tomorrow at sunrise before making my way back to Delhi.

So, I decided to be adventurous and took the land route from Kathmandu, Nepal to Varanasi, India. I’ve learned three things.

First, you never should do that again. As cheap as it was and as fun as it was, it’s something that you should only do once just for the heck of it and not ever again.

Second, the journey was not as uncomfortable as I thought, just scary as hell. I had to take a 8-hour bus from Kathmandu to Sunauli, then a 10-min jeep ride from Sunauli to the border, then exit Nepal, check into India, then a 3-hour bus ride from Sunauli to Gorakhpur, and then an 8-hour train ride from Gorakhpur to Varanasi. The total trip time was 22 hours.

On my bus from Kathmandu to Sunauli, I saw three accidents: a bus-car head-on collision, a bus-bus collision, and a bus on its side. Being on a bus, you can imagine how scared I was. On my jeep to the border, there were 19 people who shared it with me. I literally felt like as I heading into a war zone; all that missing were some guns and uniforms. And on my train ride to Varanasi, it was uncomfortable as hell!

And lastly, I learned that India never ceases to surprise me, even after spending nearly 6 weeks here. My first arrival in Varanasi was absolutely shocking! A friend (Leah) has previously said that everything in Varanasi is in your face: life, death, prayer, worship, etc. I got the grasp of it once I saw a dead body on the entrance to the train station. Again, you can imagine my surprise to get into Varanasi at 5am, sleep-deprived with rickshaw drivers approaching me, and being in a very grump mood.

However, after the initial shock, I grew very fond of Varanasi. I met three fellow solo travelers: a guy from Australia, a guy from Spain, and a guy from Russia. We went sightseeing yesterday and visited several temples and Sarnath, the place where Buddha attained enlightenment.

I’m supposed to have dinner with two of my friends (Calder and Hutch) from abroad tonight, so looking forward to it!

I just got back from a 3-day trek in Nepal (through some very small villages and lots of rain). Let me just say that the night before I depart for the trek, my friend was had ultimately decided to fly back home due to urgent matters. So you can see how scared/surprised/nervous I was to go on the trek the next day at 7am.

So, next day at 7am I went down to the lobby to meet the guide. His name is Kumar and he was very friendly and helpful. After taking an hour-long car ride to where we would begin and then getting breakfast, he then warned me that today would be difficult because of the uphill journey. He was not kidding!

We climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed uphill. Through the rain, through very sketchy “forest areas,” and through mud puddles. At one point, we had to hide under a pubic gazebo-esque structure for an hour because it was raining so much.

However, he was very kind and helpful throughout the entire trek (total 6 hours) and insisted that we take occasional breaks. We got to a village called Chisapani around 2pm, where we would stay the night. I immediately showered and took a 3-hour nap. The village consisted of about 10 or so hotels/guesthouses and not much else. I had no access to the internet nor power for most of the night because of a blackout. Furthermore, everyone in the village sleeps no later than 9pm. After eating dinner at 530pm and then playing card games for about an hour, I was told, “bedtime.”

The next day, we departed for Nagarkot, which is a slightly bigger city about 20 km south. Three things happened. First, I got bit by two leeches (be warn of graphic images). Second, it rained and rained and rained like there’s no tomorrow. I was soaked the entire 20km trek. Lastly, Nagarkot is absolutely an amazing town! From here, you get breathtaking views of the surrounding area and Kathmandu valley as well as a partial glimpse of Mt. Everest. Unfortunately, it was too hazy and I did not see it. But nevertheless, it was a great city and I liked it a lot.

The last day, I got up at 630am again for the last time to trek the last 8km. Nothing too exciting happened, but I’ll post up pictures soon and show you the gorgeous views!

I have a confession to make. I’ve been going to a chained cafe called Cafe Coffee Day in India in so many different cities. It’s similar to Starbucks and I mainly go here because it serves iced coffees. If you know anything about India, it’s that people love tea. Coffee is hard enough for people, but iced coffee is just a completely foreign concept to most Indians. Okay, that was it. 

Second, I’m in Nepal safe and sound now and will depart for a 3-day trek tomorrow. Most to come soon! 

To recap, I have spent each of the last four nights in a different city and traveled at least 5 hours each day to get to a new city (Jodhpur to Jaipur - 5 hours by train, Jaipur to Agra - 5 hours by train, Agra to Delhi - 6 hours by bus, Delhi to Shimla - 9 hours by train). So yeah, it’s been hectic. 

Shimla

I was glad to arrive in Shimla for three reasons. First, the crazy first half of the trip was over. 13 different cities in 3 and a half weeks and at least several thousands miles of travelling. Second, this is the first hill station I’m going to, which was exciting considered what happened last time I tried getting to a hill station (read: Ooty). And finally, the weather was absolutely wonderful. Honestly, anything lower than 110 looked pretty good at this point. 

Spending three days in Shimla, I mostly wanted to rest and catch up and take in the scenic view of the Himalayas. Look here, here, here, and here. Honestly though, these pictures do not truly reflect the beauty and terrain that is Shimla. 

The first day, I trekked 2km up to Jakhoo Temple. I had to freaking rent a walking stick to thwart away wild monkeys because it was recommend that you do so. It was probably unnecessary, but you never know. At the top, the view, again, was absolutely gorgeous. Like a good tourist, I went around the temple ground, prayed, received a blessing, and ultimately started asking around for free temple food. Seriously, I felt very ghetto asking several people where I could get free temple food. But the thing is, I’ve read on LP that they serve you very good food (rice, dahl, channa, curd, etc.) all for free. Obviously I wasn’t going to miss out on it. Plus I think my sense of shamelessness had disappeared about three weeks ago when I started stealing toiletries from hotels, toilet paper (not really), and looking for meals that do not cost more than $1 per day.

After locating where they would serve me food, I waited for approximately 30 minutes before they opened the doors. And wow, it was such an interesting experience. Everyone sat on the floor in rows of about 50 people. The temple staff would give us metal plate, and then food would come around served to us. Since I don’t know how to eat with my hands, I was one of the only two who asked for a spoon. The other person being Christina. 

After eating temple food, we hiked back down to the main area of town, called the Mall and Scandal Point, though with a interesting name makes a lot of sense. I won’t ruin it for you by telling you about it. The area was really cool with lots of tourists and locals. I could have sworn I saw Michael Moore walking around, but then I realized it wasn’t. After that, it started raining so I didn’t spent much more time around there. 

The next day, I went on a 6km trek up to see the Tara Devi Temple. It was just honestly an excuse to trek and be outdoors. It took about an hour and a half to get to the top, but the last 300 meters were by far the worst and took nearly 30 minutes to complete. It was just all steps at a very steep incline. However, the view from the highest point of Shimla was absolutely gorgeous. But of course, it wouldn’t be complete without seeing monkeys and getting some free temple snacks. Unfortunately they only served food on Sundays. 

The next day, we headed out to catch our bus to Chandigarh, a 4-hour journey on a very uncomfortable bus. By far, it was the worst. And I’ve taken at least a dozen buses in India. I felt nauseated and dizzy for most of the trip. 

Chandigarh

Chandigarh was truly a European city more than an Indian city by any measure. It was designed by a French architect during the 1950s after the separation of Pakistan and was supposed to act as the new capital for Punjab. The city is divided into approximately 60 sectors, very much like arrondissment in Paris, and roundabouts divided one sector from another. Streets were chaotic, but a sense of order was present. There was even a sidewalk and a cycle lane. It was a very different feel. 

I decided to have a very American time in Chandigarh, mostly because I think I’m missing home. I ate Italian food at a place called Pomodoro and then went to see the Amazing Spider-man in 3D. That was honestly the highlight of Chandigarh since I had only about 12 hours there. There aren’t a lot of things to see, and it serves mostly as a connecting point for travelling. 

Amritsar

In retrospect, I should have spent one more night in Chandigarh. After arriving in Amritsar, I learned there were rolling blackouts. Literally every other hour, the power would go out for about half an hour. This would happen every day for hours and hours. Compared to Chandigarh, this was such a huge difference.

I went to the Golden Temple on my first day. It is the holiest shrine for the Sikh faith and it did not disappoint. I had to cover my head, wear pants, cover up, wash my feet in water before entering the ground, and wait for nearly an hour before actually seeing the temple. It felt like a very elaborate process, but it was worth it. There were people taking holy dips in the pool surrounding the temple. I still cannot get over the fact that there are about 750kg of real gold on top of the temple. 

Of course, the Golden Temple is home to the world’s largest free eatery. The dining hall here serves free food to about 60,000 to 80,000 people a day!!! It was just rotis, dahl, and coconut rice, but it was absolutely delicious! I ate here twice during my three days in Amritsar. There were two floors of the dining hall with about 1,000 people eating on the floor in rows of 100 or so. There were hundreds of people chopping onions and garlic, washing dishes, handing out clean plates and cups, serving food, and just doing all sort of tasks to keep the operations going. It was an amazing site to see! 

Because the weather was excruciating and I didn’t want to see that much in Amritsar, I just mostly spent my time here for the first day. 

The next day, however, I went to the border of Pakistan and India (Wagah) to see a ceremony commemorating the closing of the border. It happens every day 30 minutes before sunset. There were thousands and thousands and thousands of people there. Honestly, it was just a very overwhelming, crowded, and lively experience. People on the India side were cheering “Hindustan Zindabad,” meaning long live India, while on the other side of the border Pakistanis were cheering a similar phrase. Guards frolicked around, flags went down, music played, and much more. I really don’t think I can describe it in words, so I’ll post up some pictures later. 

So I haven’t blogged in about two weeks, but to be honest very few things have happened since then. I’ll be brief. 

Jaipur

After leaving Jodhpur and taking an overnight train (which got in at 130am…), I arrived in Jaipur only to be surrounded by an influx of taxi drivers here and there to take us to our hotel. I prepaid for a rickshaw and met this really nice driver named Arif. He was extremely talkative! It was nice and friendly at first, but at 2am it got old very quickly. He said that he could driver us around to see sights in the morning if we wanted. Iagreed just so we could go to bed. 

The next morning, he arrived and said that he would take us to see different sites around the city at no cost to us. We would pay him what we think the service is worth. That was really nice! I saw the Madhendra Palace, Nahargar Fort, and Jantar Mantar before lunch. Jantar Mantar was really cool before it was a very well-preserved monument displaying old astronomical measuring tools. They were massive, ridiculously odd looking, but at the same time very fascinating. I could even named some of them since I just took a class on the history of time and measurement. 

Afterwards, I climbed quit a few number of steps up to Amber Fort, only to be disappointed by the structure. I really do think it’s because I’ve been only seeing forts and palaces that this one was not as impressive not interesting. It was beautiful, don’t get me wrong. But I just had no desire to see it. After sitting down for about an hour just relaxing there, our driver took us to the Monkey Temple to see the sunset. There are supposedly 10,000 monkeys living around this temple. While I saw no more than 100-200, it was still a very…interesting experience. There’s even a BBC documentary about the lives of these monkeys! They weren’t aggressive or scary, but they just felt so human-like it’s scary. There were two monkeys trying to ride a bicycle, two just sitting and watching the sunset, and a few just napping here and there as I make our way up the temple steps. They looked so much like me, not that I ride a bicycle, stared out into the sunset and napped at the same time. Anyway, it was a great way to end the day or sightseeing.

I also forgot that we would technically only get one night in Jaipur before leaving for Agra, meaning we returned home from sightseeing only to depart the next day. 

Agra

First of all, most people go to India for about a week and they see one freaking damn thing: the Taj Mahal! Obviously you cannot go to Agra without seeing the Taj Mahal! That’s such a sin and blasphemous. 

To my planning, I arrived in Agra on a Thursday night so that I could wake up and see the Taj at sunrise with not a lot of people around. It’s suppose to be an amazing site. Again to my surprise, the Taj is closed on Fridays!!! Even my governor (the Terminator) was turned away when he tried to visit. FML is all I could say.

The bad part: I couldn’t see the Taj as planned. The good part: I have a reason to go back to Agra. All I was telling myself is, “I’ve come all this way to India. I’m going to see the damn Taj Mahal, one way or another.” 

Delhi

Again, I only spent one night in Agra so the next day it was one my way back to Delhi to see Rajiv and Nina. The bus journey was okay but it was nerve wrecking not to know their address until 15 minutes before I got off the bus. Luckily, Rajiv emailed me just in time. We chatted and caught up with him on our journey. 

Being back in Delhi marked the exact halfway point between the time I arrived in India and the time I leave for the U.S. And in those three and a half weeks, it was anything but ordinary. 

Oh, and again, we only stayed there for one night. Seriously, in retrospect, we should have spent more time in Delhi. 

I arrived in Jodhpur at around 530am, went to the guest house, and just knocked out for several hours. After waking up, I had breakfast and went to see the Mehrangarh Fort. It was a ridiculously difficult climb since the fort was on the hill overlooking the entire city. However, it was not due to the hill nor the distance. It was primarily due to the temperature; it was about 42C (or 110F)!!! I was just sweating and sweating like there was no tomorrow. I had to stop several times in the shade just to catch my breath! Once inside and on top of the fort, it was an absolutely breathtaking view! I can completely understand why they call Jodhpur the Blue City (picture to come soon). 

After seeing the fort for about 2 hours, I had lunch at a nearby guest house. I met a fellow traveler from Wales who’s going around India for three months before starting university back in England. I was really impressed since he was only 18 and was travelling by himself. I don’t think I could have done that. It was really nice to have a long conversation with him and hear what he thinks about India, the U.S., cultural differences, politics, etc. Heading back to the guest house, I ran until a man and talked to him for another two hours. He was running a shop where he receives subsidies from the government to buy supplies and then sells it back to the community. We talked to him about his family, what he thinks of travelers, etc. From the long conversation, we primarily focused on talking about cultural differences and marriages. I’m not entirely new to the idea of arranged marriages, but it still shocked me. He (like most other Indians) did not meet his spouse until the day of their wedding. However, he believes that it was the best thing that has ever happened to him and that his parents made the right choice. Similarly, he still could not understand how a man could be traveling around with a woman and still be friends. 

The next day, we went to see the Jodhpur Palace and Mandore Garden. I was really surprise that the Palace only took about 30 minutes to complete. It was even more surprising since the Palace was only built very recently. The tour was mostly focused on how the royal family has given back to the community and not on the history and influences of the family. This was such a sharp contrast to the City Palace in Udaipur, where the tour focuses on the 2000-year history of the family and how they built their empire. The Mandore Garden: just monkeys everywhere.

Later that evening, we attended a cooking class and let me tell you, it was one of (if not the) best experiences I had so far. We went to a place called Spice Paradise, run by this amazing woman and her husband. We made my all-time favorite Indian dish, Biriyani and Raita (Maritza, I cannot wait to make this for you next year!), and everything from Channa Masala to Dal to a Saffron Lassi. Everything was absolutely delicious and easy to make at home. However, what I got most out of the cooking lesson was her personal story of success and life story than the simple recipes. She started out with just a stand selling a few spices to now offering cooking lessons and selling racks and racks of spices. She said that she only has god to pray to and her integrity and image to maintain. During the peak season, she would offer 2 cooking classes a day and working until 2am to clean up only to wake up at 5am to prepare for a 7am cooking class. Her story is absolutely a remarkable one and inspires the entrepreneurial spirit in many. I can totally see how she reaches the number 1 spot on TripAdvisor of things to do in Jodhpur. The only downside: I was so full I could barely walk after…

Here we are now as I’m writing this, my last day in Jodhpur is spent relaxing and just getting ready for another overnight journey to the city of Jaipur. This time by train instead of by bus so the experience may be different. I’ll let you know soon enough. =)

So I arrived in Udaipur at around 1pm only to be surprised by a very large festival happening that day, called Hare Krishna Festival. I was very lucky to stay in a hotel that directly faces the Jagdish Temple, the location where the festivities occur. We were able to check in to the room, rested a little bit, and then went outside to see what was happening. There were loud drums, people dancing, free temple food (sweet rice and curried rice), and a very big chariot where the statues of the gods were to be placed. It is the one day of the year where the gods would make their way around the city. Everything was so interesting. Most women sat on the steps leading up to the temple and they would rub the feet of priests for good luck as they make their way up to the temple. Men were wandering about from one place to the next. Though I didn’t see him myself, rumor has it that the Kind of Udaipur was present. 

After an hour or two of standing outside in the sun, it was time to go inside for a little bit and rest. The festivities were over and would begin again at around 11pm, after the gods have made their way around the entire city. I did laundry, read a little bit, and then went to get dinner at a rooftop restaurant at the hotel. People began gathering around 10pm and by 10:30pm, there was already as big of a crowd as in the afternoon. At first, I just sat on the rooftop and observed what was going on. However, when a truck blasting techno/dance/house music passed by, I ran downstairs to join the many people who were raging in the courtyard. Unfortunately, the truck left by the time I got downstairs. Instead, I just wandered from around the temple ground. There were free mint milk given out, a dancer with a jug on his head with water inside (he was trying to get as much water out as possible), and loud drums, again. The most surprising thing for me to see was once the chariot was back in front of the temple. On the left, there were many people trying to touch the chariot and then rubbing their head. They were praying to holy music. On the right, there were many teenagers (all male) dancing to the loud club music. The two groups somehow did not bother each other. I think this is the one day of the year where it’s okay for that to happen. I’m glad I was there to see it as we hadn’t expected to get to Udaipur until the next day. 

After sleeping in, I decided to go see several sites in Udaipur: City Palace, Pichola Lake, Taj Lake Palace, the puppet museum, and some other sites. My favorite was probably taking a boat ride around the lake. Later that evening, I went to see an Indian dance performance. Since I couldn’t take pictures, it is somewhat hard to describe what happened since I don’t remember many of the styles of dance. I saw everything from puppetry to typical Rajasthan dance to North Indian dance. The finale was amazing with a woman holding about 10 large vases on top of her head and dancing. 

The next day, I went to the Udaipur zoo and the Rose Garden. To be honest, I just really wanted to walk around. The garden was nothing spectacular and the zoo did not have the most exotic animals, but the walk was very refreshing. After that, I just headed back to the hotel, rested for a little bit, and then departed for my overnight bus to Jodhpur.

The overnight experience on a bus was…interesting. First, thank goodness I had a bed. Second, I barely slept at all since it was bumpy and I was on a bus. Lastly, it was scary as hell to look outside at where you are. At several points during the night, I was curious enough to take a peek outside. We were literally in the middle of nowhere. All around there were just cliffs and desert and no other cars. However, the sky was absolutely amazing! I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many stars that close up before. All in all, the overnight bus experience was not the most comfortable, but it was not as bad as I had expected.