Travels and more travels

I did not know what I was in for when we set out on our Christmas journey on December 9th. We stepped onto our first delayed sleeper class train at 1 in the morning and shared two berths because only two of our tickets were confirmed. The first people we encountered were a group of about ten bald guys who spoke loudly, laughed a lot, and smoked their cigarettes late into the night. It was a shock. But over the course of the last month, we have gotten comfortable jumping onto these gross trains where the mice run freely and the berths and walls look like they haven't been washed in 20 years. There is always someone playing indian music loudly from their cell phone and some guy walking down the aisle with his canteen and tiny cups yelling "chai coffee chai coffee!" (They always seem to pause a little longer at our berth...just checking us out). It is an experience I will never forget.

We have traveled a complete circle around India. I am currently sitting on our first AC 2 Tier class train that we decided to upgrade to for our last 20 hour train ride (let me tell you, it is plush!!!). In about two hours, we will arrive in Vijayawada where we jump on a bus for 10 hours that will take us back to our school! I honestly can't wait to get back. 

Our trip was a lot of fun. In summary, we started by spending a few days at the beach in Goa on the west coast of India. Here we cruised around on rented scooters and enjoyed the sand and the sun. Evan met up with us here. We then headed north to Mumbai for a day and a half where we saw the Elephanta caves and did some exploring of the biggest city in India. Then we headed to Jaipur in Rajasthan and saw the Amber fort, Jantar Mantar observatory, some camels, and some more cool Aladdin looking architecture. We continued on the golden triangle to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, then up to New Delhi. From Delhi we got on the longest train ride of our lives that took us to a town that was a few hours from the Nepal border. The train was six hours late to the station, so we didn't end up leaving on it until about 3:30 in the morning. This 12 hour trip turned out being about 21 hours long and we finally arrived at 10 pm where we crammed eleven people in a jeep and took off for the border where we woke up the officials (since it was the middle of the night) to get our visa and got on the first bus leaving for Pokhara, Nepal at 3:45 am in order to avoid the strike that wouldn't let buses through later that morning. Nine hours later, we FINALLY arrived in Pokhara, exhausted. Pokhara is great because its on a lake, and you can see the mountains. We spent Christmas here and even did small trek into the hills. We headed off on another long bus ride to Kathmandu for New Years and the next day, an even longer bus ride to the eastern border of Nepal. We weren't so lucky this time and got stuck in the strike creating another crazy long journey to reach the mountain town of Darjeeling, Inida. We made a nice German friend named Philip along the way and ended up hanging out with him for our time up in the hills of Darjeeling where we went to a tea plantation, a tea festival, tasted tea, bought tea, and then left in order to catch our train to Kolkata where Evan would fly home (Darjeeling is famous for its tea in case you were wondering). From Kolkata, Trevor, Sid, and I got on our last train and are almost on the last leg of our journey back to the farm land of Andhra Pradesh. 

I can't tell you how much I appreciate the small town that we are living in. The big cities are cool to visit, but being based in a little town out in the middle of nowhere is a blessing. 

The lonely planet was our best friend on this journey, but we wouldn't have been able to do it without the good friends we made along the way who helped us get from place to place. I learned a lot on this trip, but I am excited to be almost back. I have missed our friends and family at the school and can't wait to see them... Over the past month I have been reminded of how blessed we are to be surrounded by our Indian families during these seven months away from home. It's good to have a place to be taken care of. I spent about a week of our time traveling sick as a dog and wishing I could stay in one place and be taken care of. Now I can really appreciate all the pestering I get when I'm sick at the school when everyone wants to come and visit me or make me "porridge" or tell me to drink hot water (haha)... Friends and family are GOOD! And I love them. :)

More photos of our trip will be coming soon!!!

I don't know what the plan was for this photo!

Scootering in Goa :)