Hello India



Namaste!!



We were kind of nervous about our arrival into New Delhi, expecting it to be chaotic, but it was really quite easy.  We arrived around 5am and had arranged for a driver from our hotel to pick us up.  At that hour in the morning, there was almost no traffic in New Delhi so we arrived at our hotel in the new bazaar in about 20 minutes.  We checked in, but since it was so early our room wasn’t ready.  We were escorted to another building down a little dirt alley, where we given a little room to relax in until our room was ready.  We did not stay at the most luxurious part of town and were only spending $7 a night on a hotel room so our expectations weren’t that high, but once we were moved into our room it really wasn’t that bad.  It was clean and had we had our own bathroom with 24 hour hot water.  It was our first room with a squat toilet that doubled as the only drain in the bathroom too.  You took a shower, it drained into the toilet.  You split toothpaste into the sink, it came out the tube on the bottom and drained into the toilet. Very efficient!    

Jeff and I took a little a nap and then woke up and wandered around the bazaar area.  We were so hungry, but completely freaked out to eat.  Everyone who has visited India has gotten ‘Delhi belly’ and we weren’t looking forward to it.  But hunger got the best of us and we ended up eating a very delicious tasting meal. 

 Jeff had friends from college visiting Delhi the same time we were there, so we met up with Chris and Amanda to ring in 2011.  We meet for drinks first and then relocated to the bar across the street.  There was music blaring and a dance floor.  However, when I tried to ‘cut a rug’, I was asked to sit down because I was a girl.  Yes, that’s right, the crowded dance floor was a huge sausage fest and no we weren’t in a gay bar.  But no matter, we counted down the new year and then walked back to our hotel room.

We agreed to meet Amanda and Chris a one o’clock for lunch, but Amanda wasn’t feeling well.  Jeff, Chris, and I had lunch and discussed how we were going to travel south to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.  We walked to the train station to book tickets.  At the train station, this ‘nice’ guy came up to us and was helping us figure out the train schedule.  He’s was very friendly to us, somehow had us climb into an auto-rickshaw (tuck-tuck) and we were driven to a travel agency to book our train tickets.  The guy at the travel agency told us the trains we wanted to take to the Taj Mahal were all booked.  We told this guy we wanted to eventually get to a city called Amristar.  Well next thing we know we have an early train booked to Agra to see the Taj Mahal along with hotel accommodations.  He also arranged further train travel for us to go to a town in the north called Haridwar with hotel and a train from Haridwar to Amistar with hotel there too.  We got 4 trains and 5 nights of ‘nice’ hotels for $139/person.  We take the deal, almost instantly knowing it is too good to be true.

Our train was schedule to leave around 04:30, so Jeff and I meet Chris and Amanda at their hotel at 0330 and take a cab to the train station.  The train is almost 2 hours late and when it arrived and we climbed unto our car.  We were booked in sleeper class which isn’t quiet the bottom class but really close.  The windows wouldn’t close, so it was cold and it sort of smelled.  Fortunately, since it was the butt-crack of dawn it wasn’t crowded.  Jeff and Amanda somehow are able to take naps while Chris and I played games on the iTouch.  We arrive into Agra and get to our hotel.  It is not nice.  There’s only hot water between 0600-1000 and the rooms smell like moth balls.  But the four of us are so tired, we didn’t really care at that point.  We decide to take naps before going to the Taj Mahal. 

As we walk towards the Taj, there are huge lines to purchase tickets and to clear through security.  We decide to get up early to go into the Taj and take a tuck-tuck across the river to get view of the Taj during sunset.  It was really foggy or smoggy, not sure which, but the Taj didn’t sparkle in the setting sun like it does in pictures.

The next morning, Amanda still isn’t feeling well and they decide not to get on the train with us to Haridware.  Before Jeff and I get on the train though, we make it to the Taj Mahal which unfortunately was still hiding in the smog/fog.  The marble work and carvings are amazing.  Even though the viewing conditions weren’t ideal, it was still a magnificent  building to see.  We spent about two hours around the Taj Mahal and then went back to our hotel to check out and say goodbye to Chris and Amanda before our train left. 

We hope that everyone had a safe and happy new year.  Best wishes to everyone for a great 2011!

New Year Crew

The Morning After



The Taj







One last look at an amazing building

Wadi Rum, Jordan (Dec 29 & 30)

We got up bright and early the day we left Petra to catch the bus to Wadi Rum.  This mountainous desert area was where Lawrence of Arabia was filmed.  We booked an overnight tour into this desert from the Valentine Inn.  Arrived into Wadi Rum, left our packs at the tour office, and were loaded into the back of an open aired Jeep with six other people.  The Jeep stopped at the supermarket so we could buy some snacks before heading out.  Next to the market, was a shop that sold falafels, hummus, and bread.  We stood in line as a rowdy group of school children were there buying their lunches.  They only had 20 minutes for lunch so they were quiet aggressive in line.  It was kind of funny actually listening to them yell.  We got back into the Jeep and bounced along for the rest of the day.  The Jeep stopped at the highlights of Wadi Rum.  Lawrence’s Spring, Burdah Rock Bridge, the red sand dune, and the Umm Fruth Bridge.  We spent most of our time chatting with a couple from San Francisco, Traci and Rick.

 So when we got to our Bedouin camp, we picked places to sleep next to each other.  This camp was more permanent than the camp we had in the White Desert of Egypt.  The tents were more permanent and the camp could probably accommodate around 50-60 people.  There were mats and blankets and although there were tarps over the top, we would soon find out they were not waterproof.   

After dropping our stuff on our mats, Jeff and I took a walk out into the desert.  We climbed up a little rocky hill and watched the sunset.  Back in camp we enjoyed some Bedouin tea outside as it started to sprinkle.  Everyone moved inside the big main tent and we chatted with the others around our table.  Dinner was brought in and as we started to eat, we heard the wind start to blow.  I got up a one point to use the W/C, expecting to go outside and be blasted in the face by sand, but instead it was raining.  Not just sprinkling, but raining really hard big drops.  As dinner conversation wrapped up, the rain was drumming on the tent top.  Traci, Rick, Jeff, and I were the first ones back to our tent and tucked ourselves into our sleeping bags and blankets.  Traci and I started worrying that maybe our tent was leaking.  We turned on the headlamps and inspected our ceiling and walls.  Everything was dry until we looked over in the other corner of tent were water was streaming out of the ceiling and onto a mat.  Thankfully, no one’s things were there.  After laughing about how wet it was, we all went to sleep and just hoped our ceiling would ‘t start leaking.  The four of us woke up dry, but others in the camp weren’t so lucky.  Some people were getting up every couple of minutes to move their mats to avoid drips, others moved tents completely in the middle of the night. 

So we experienced a sand storm in the White Desert in Egypt and a rain storm in desert of Wadi Rum, Jordan; Jeff and I have decided that maybe desert camping isn’t our cup of tea.

The Falafel making guy trying to kept up with the school kids demands

J on the Umm Fruth Bridge

Traci and I settling into our tent

Watching the sunset

Jeff jumping for joy

Yes thats rain in the distance

Days done and here comes the rain

Petra, Jordan (Dec 27 & 28)

After waking up and relocating to the hostel we originally wanted to stay and where the taxi drivers wouldn’t take us, we spent two days exploring Petra, Jordan.  Petra by popular vote in 2007 became one of the ‘new’ seven wonders of the world.  It is an old city that was carved into the sandstone in the 3^rd century BC and was a major trade center.  You enter Petra through the Siq, which looks like a slot canyon, but is actually a rock landmass that has been pulled apart by tectonic forces.  We spent the day hiking with Beck and Lena, the Australian sisters we had meet on the ferry over from Egypt to Jordan.  As we exited the Siq, we came in site of the Treasury.   For those of you who have seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade know what this site looks like.  It’s the temple that Indiana gallops around at the end.  From the Treasury, we broke off the ‘main street’ and the packs of tourists and hiked up the sacrificial view point of Petra.  From there we got amazing views of the old city.  We descended down the opposite side of the mountain and saw the ruins of Lion’s head fountain, the Garden temple, and the Roman soldiers’ tomb.  We ended the day by climbing around the Urn Tomb.

We decided to pay an extra 5 Jordan dinars at our hostel, the Valentine Inn, for the dinner buffet.  It was amazing!  There was so much food.  I had decided to call my mom just before dinner time so we were a little late for the dinner bell and had to wait at the end of the line.  There were over 20 different dishes to sample and Jose (our Pilipino friend we had also meet on the ferry) was sampling as he went down the line until Beck caught him red-handed.  There was a lot of laughing and teasing during the dinner conversation as we stuffed ourselves. 

The next day our hiking group grew.  Besides Jeff, me, Lena, and Beck, Jose joined us and one American named Alice, and two Swedish guys Nick and Dave also from the hostel added to our numbers.  We hiked up the structure called the Monastery which was originally used as a tomb around 86 BC but was used as a church during Byzantine times. It took us about an hour or so to climb up; we kept losing Jose who would stop and talk to everyone.  Jose is a friend of the world. We climbed up into the Monastery and ate some snacks enjoying the view.   Jeff after seeing a picture in Lonely Planet of someone walking around the top, was determined to do the same.  The stairway that lead to the top had been walled off because as we found out later two people fell off a couple of years ago.  But Nick was also a rule breaker, so off Nick and Jeff went to find a way to the top despite the warning signs.  The plan was, if they got caught, for Nick to pretend he didn’t speak English and do a Swedish chef impression.  Well, they did make it to the top, and after snapping a few photos were yelled at to get down.  There was no Swedish chef impression, but no one escorted them from the park either.  We spent the rest of the day exploring the few sites of Petra we had yet to see.  Beck, Lena, Jose, and I decided to go back earlier than rest of the group.  Jeff, Nick, Alice, and Dave did some more exploring and got yelled at again for being in places where they shouldn’t have been.  We all meet back a Valentine Inn for the wonderful dinner buffet and fun conversation.

Even though we had only just meet Jose, Beck, Lena, Alice, Nick, and Dave, it was still sad having to say goodbye to them.  We had a wonderful two days in Petra and although Petra is beautiful, the people we spent our time with made it the most memorable.  We wish everyone safe travels and maybe someday our paths will cross again…. En’shallah!



Leaving the Siq towards the Treasury



The Treasury

At the top of the sacrifical view point with Lena (left) and Beck (right)

J at the Lions Head Fountain

Our hiking group the second day

The Monastery (the round center on top is what J & Nick where climbing around on)

J on top of the Monastery

Dinner at the Valentine Inn.  Yumm!!!