Varanasi and the Holy Ganges River

Varanasi was one of the most interesting places I have ever been. It's the holiest place in the world for the Hindu religious. The Ganges river flows through the city and the Hindus believe that bathing in the Ganges remits sins and that dying in the river ensures release of a person's soul from the cycle of its transmigrations.

I took an evening and morning boat ride down the river and everything is done at the river, from bathing, washing there cloths, dishes, praying, yoga and even cremation ceremonies. The Hindus are cremated in public after being dipped into the river 3 times, then placed on a pile of logs and cremated. It was really strange for me coming from America were death is such a behind closed doors and sad experience. In India I saw several funeral precessions coming down the small alleyways of Varanasi, and the family was not crying, even during the cremation, they believe if you cry the soul feels bad and attaches to you, then doesn’t fully make it to heaven. The first day there I purposely avoided walking past the burning ghat because I didn’t want to see the cremations happening. On my second day in Varanasi, with a guy I meet we walked by and I decided to watch some of the ceremony, it was shocking to me but an amazing experience I’ll never forget.

In my mind Varanasi was what I thought of India. It’s a very old city with tons of history and culture. Walking along the banks of the Ganges, I was able to experience all that amazing India has to offer.

Agra and the Taj Mahal

I went into India hearing a lot of bad things about Agra, I read only spend a few hours going to the Taj then get out of Agra. I felt different after spending a few days there. Maybe it was because I was hanging out with an Aussie couple Mark and Adele that I really enjoyed. But overall Agra was a nice place, and the Taj Mahal lived up to its hype and was an amazing place. Near any major tourist area in India you have people trying to milk money out of you, but if you can ignore that you will really enjoy Agra and India.

Ranthambore National Park

I went on a so called Tiger Safari in India at Ranthambore National Park. I didn't get to see any Tigers but the park it self was cool. I did see a Leopard, tons of deers, peacocks, crocodiles and 600 different species of birds. I took an all day safari which was a rip off, they pick you up at 6:30 till 10:00, then you have to sit in the middle of nowhere for four and a half hours, were there was no food or anything, then you can go back out from 2:30 till 6. The wait sucked but what pissed us off was they didn't say anything about this, and we didn't have any food and were starving. After a few hours the driver offered us to take us to a small village for 4oo rupees which is more than I payed for a 12 hour train ride, we eventual broke down and made a deal for 300 rupees split 3 ways. They said the village was really far which only ended up being 2.2 KM away, we'll we did end up getting to eat in this little tiny village that doesn't see foreigner all that ofter. I also meet Mark and Adele from Australia which I ended up spending a few days with in Agra.

Enough rambling on. If you end up going on a Safari in Ranthambore just do the morning jeep safari and you will enjoy the park.

Getting back into the swing of things

Things have been really busy since I have returned. It took me a few days to get adjusted from the jet lag. The weekend after I returned I had to go to Monterey to Dive with the kids from Carson High School that I helped get certified last fall. It was a great time but I was still worn out and really wasn't in the mood to be gone already. The diving on Saturday of the Monterey Express was the worst visibility I have ever had, you could only see 5 ft max, which was stressful since I had 4 kids I was in charge of keeping safe. We managed to make

two dives and the kids loved it. The next day we dove at the Point Lobos Sate reserve and lucked out the visibility was about 40ft and calm. My friends from the Bay Area Brad and Chris joined use which was nice being able to go on my own and enjoy the dive, the water was cold about 47 but besides that it was great.

This week I have been working and playing softball, next week spring season starts so we are trying to get warmed up. I hurt my elbow snowboarding a few months ago and I thought I had recovered, but playing softball has really aggravated it, I am going to get it looked at this week.

I still have a ton of pics from India I am going to get up. Sorry for such a long delay in posts, hopefully I can get back in the swing of doing updates.

My Favorite Shots from Jaipur

Jaipur was a great place. I was there for Holi which is a Hindu festival were everyone runs around town partying and putting colors on each other. That day was so fun, I meet a lot of great people from all over the world and really enjoyed celebrating Holi and going to the Jaipur Elephant Festival.

My Favorite Shots from Delhi

Home Safe

Hi everyone

Just wanted to let you all know that I got home late last night. I had a great trip and am worn out, not motivated to do anything yet. I'll do some more post with pics soon.

Broke In Paris

Just wanted to let you all know that I spent the day in Paris today. I froze it was really cold and windy and rained off and on. This city is really expensive, I got 120 Euros out the ATM and blew that all today. I decided to head back to the airport and sleep on the floor tonight, I am having a hard time finding anyplace cheap to stay. I went to all the major tourist sites today and really was impressed with the city. I went to the Louvre for 3 hours today to warm up and I barley saw anything, it's huge, you would need a few days to really see the whole museum. I post pics from Paris when I get home.

I'll be back in Reno tomorrow night.

Leaving India to Paris France

Well my trip in India is about to end, I head to the airport in 2 hours. I am going to be in Paris for 29 hours, so I am going to make the most of it. The trip has went by really fast, I can't believe it's already been 3 weeks, but I am happy to get back home I miss Danielle.

I have had an amazing trip, and really enjoyed all the sites and people I've meet in this country. I have made some great friendships that I hope will continue when I return home. If anyone is thinking of going to India do it, you will have the trip of a lifetime. In my three weeks in India I have only spent $450 USD and I could have done it for half of that but I splurged here and there.
When I get home I am going to do some more in depth post with a lot more pics. Thanks for all the comments and emails I have received.

See you all back home.

Back In Delhi

Well I'm back in Delhi at the Smyle in were this whole trip started. I really enjoyed Mcleod Gang yesterday I did a few hikes to a small lake and a Monastery. Last night I caught the overnight bus from Dharmasala to Delhi and 11 hours later, I'm back at the Smyle Inn, and I am worked. I didn't get much sleep on the bus and am barely functioning. I am off to take a nap. I fly out tomorrow night, just have some shopping to do. See you all soon.

Mcleod Ganj

I left Shimla in Route for Dharmasala which was a 10 hour bus ride , then to Mcleod Ganj which is were the exiled Tibetans have made there home for the last 50 years. This is also were the Dalai Lama lives .

It is a very relaxing place, there are monks walking all over. I went to the Bhudist Temple were I saw munks debating, no clue what they were saying but it was funny. I also hiked to a little waterfall. On the way to the waterfall I meet a Tibetan man living in nepal that is here to learn english we hung out for a few hours he was happy to practice his english.

In the eveing I went to a candel light vigel at the Temple to morn all the lives lost in Tibet. They showed a video of the Chinese beating munks for having peacful protests it was sad, there were a few thousand people there and most were crying. It is a very sad.

Overall I am really enjoying it here. I am here all day tomorow ten a night train to Delhi. My trip is slowly winding down and this is a good place for that.

I love and miss you all.

Shimla Hill Fort

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So when I booked my train from Kalka to Shimla I knew it was on the small gauge train but I didn't know I booked the single engine in car combo. It was one of the coolest little trains i had seen. There was only 14 passengers and I was the only non Indian tourist. The ride was crazy i am not exact because I don't have my book in front of me but we went over 200 bridges and 80 tunnels. It was the coolest train ride I have ever been on.

When we arrived in Shimla I was amazed of the beauty. It is at about 7400 ft so it was about 30 degrees cooler than Delhi. The city itself is very peaceful and relaxing, there are no cars aloud in the main city. Today I took a bus tour of some of the local villages. It was pretty lame but I got to see a lot of the different valleys. We did go to Kufri elevation 8700ft that had a little snow from a storm last night. All the Indians on the tour were going crazy, none of them had ever seen the snow, it was cool watching there faces light up. They couldn't walk in it, I saw 3 of them fall hard.

Tomorrow I am off to Dharmsala on a 10 hour bus ride. I'll do a post when I get ther. Might not bee for a day.

I love and miss you all.

The Road to Shimla

Well it took me about 26 hours on a train to get from Varanasi to Shimla. I also had about ten hours in Delhi to kill so I went to the Red Fort, The Gandhi Memorial and the Jama Masjid Mosque. They were all amazing sites. I was not as impressed with the Red Fort I thought the Agra Fort was much nicer. I was really tiered after spending the whole night on the train then all day touring the sites.