travels

Share it now!Yesterday at 7:15 pm, we boarded our slightly delayed train toward the border of India and Nepal. We were scheduled to leave at 11:45 am, so it was only just a 7-hour delay. “It’s no problem,” most of India would say. It’s a phrase they use often. Cows sharing the streets with cars, bikes and pigs? It’s no problem. Arranged marriage? It’s no problem. A 4 foot 8 tiny rickshaw man pedaling up hill with two not so tiny Americans behind? It’s no problem. You want to try to drive rickshaw, tourists? It’s no problem. You want to eat authentic Indian food that will put any mere mortal on his knees for two days? It’s no problem (no no, it no spicy). Food to go? It’s no problem (we will just wrap your oily noodles in newspaper and send you on your way). Have to go pee pee? It’s no problem (when there’s a wall, there’s a way). Oh, no wall around? It’s no problem (just drop your pants anywhere. Poo poo okay too.) One crazy thing in India never outweighs the next. We had an X-rated driver the other day who, after affirming Greg was my boyfriend

Read more »

Share it now!Today, opposite of Delhi-belly stricken and most miserable yesterday, was a relieving and wondrous day, unveiling India’s beauty at every holy cow-inhabited turn. The city of Agra, home to the Taj Mahal and former Capitol of India, is less crowded, polluted and hectic, relatively speaking, though still housing as many cows, pigs, goats and monkeys. A second sight aside from the Taj Mahal is the Agra Fort, where the Indian emperor lived before the British took control of the country. The Taj Mahal, built in 22 years, is perfectly symmetrical from every angle. Many an architect have come to disprove that fact and are slapped in the face by its repetitive truth. Made of marble and encrusted with semi-precious stones of onyx, topaz, turquoise and beyond, the monument was built as a commemorative token of the emperor’s love for the most beautiful of his three wives. In translating her beauty, the Taj Mahal is a flawless manifestation. Again, we white folk stood out in a crowd of Indian tourists and locals, attracting only smiling attention. In the midst of tourist hustle, we feel sometimes slighted, but once that barrier is passed, the Indian people have been nothing short

Read more »

Share it now!People are absolutely fascinated by Greg and I. Most of it, I blame on our natural good looks; the other parts of it, I blame on being white. Okay, maybe the latter takes the lead. Either way, I expected a lot more westerners to be here. In our first 3 days of being surrounded by millions of faces, I could count on my head, shoulders, knees and toes how many of them were white. We got so many stares, some which seemed to turn into fixations. I thought for sure Angelina Jolie was standing behind me (to adopt a 19th baby) for the amount of time people spent looking our way. At a park Greg and I were sitting at, an entire Indian family (extended relatives and all) came up to us in awe. Only one of the women spoke very broken English. The others had intent stares, friendly ones of course, but also pensive and perplexed. It seemed they wanted to say or ask so much, and we felt the same. One of the kids really got Greg’s attention, or maybe it was the blue, blow-up ball the kid had. All the while they were playing, the

Read more »

Share it now!I am seriously trying to tough this one out here. I have always had this really big nightmare where a cockroach runs across my body when I’m sleeping. I honestly shiver hard just thinking about it, and I’m in the middle of sweltering India. So tonight, after a long, long day of sightseeing and absolute craze, we open our hostel door hesitantly. It isn’t the most appealing room, in fact, even Oscar the Grouch would call his garbage-can living quarters The Hilton compared to this room. We cringed as the dripping dirt became overtly apparent against the tacky pastel-colored walls. The florescent light, which flickered for seconds before turning on fully, lit up the crevasses where tiny bugs made their colonies, and it revealed sheets that were stained in more places then they were white. Greg stripped the pillow cases and ran them downstairs, hoping to swap them for a pair that wasn’t predominantly filthy. In the 3 minutes it was just myself in the hostel room, I’d never felt so disgusting and alone. When Greg came back, we sat on the edge of the bed- my head hit his chest and and it stayed there as I

Read more »

Share it now!We woke up at 10 in India’s capitol city of Delhi. Our flight had landed at 3 am, so driving to our hostel, it was too dark to realize anything about the city. Our first mission that blind morning was to find another hostel. The one we were staying at was overpriced, relatively, and had annoying construction. The second one we picked was cheaper, though dirtier, and had no interrupting workmen. We dropped our bags and headed on our sightseeing way. We had made no plans, just as I’d done in Southeast Asia, so we had no clue where to start. A young, chipper man approached us and asked where we were from. He said he had many friends from America, too, and asked where we were headed. He seemed sincere so we told him our lack of destination, and Raj offered us advice to go to the government office of tourism, since the other travel agencies take advantage of non-Indians and bump prices up, up, up. He said, come this way, I get you taxi for Indian rate. A fourth of the price later, we were on our way. The spirited man at the tourist desk sat

Read more »

Share it now!It’s about time I saw The Social Network. During the 11+ hour flight, I slept eight hours and watched this movie for two, of course enjoying every minute. A historic depiction behind the addiction I’ve been slowly, but very slowly, weening off since college graduation plus sly Justin Timberlake intimidatingly taking charge- what’s not to enjoy? It’s also about time any of the US’s airlines step up their game like Qatar has on Qatar Airways. We were not in first class, though with all the fine treatment we received just five minutes into boarding, you’d think we were front row on Air Force One. Getting handed a hot towel and a travel pack of a toothbrush and toothpaste, ear plugs, an eye mask, wet wipes, candy and an ultra-soft pair of socks, we felt fully pampered. The real kicker was that the plane, a Boeing 777 which could fit 300 people, only had 80 people on it, and we basically had the entire back cabin to ourselves. There were a few other people so it’s not like it was a honeymoon suite, but the emptiness allowed each of us our own row for sleeping, hence the 8 hours

Read more »