Monday, December 31, 2007

Happy New Year

Currently in Ooty, a mountain town in Tamil Nadu, we celebrated our New Years a day early... and are still hurting. After visiting Jolly World to ride the gokarts with a fellow American traveler, we got a little too pumped up and started the festivities at 5pm. The night ended at a basement bar/lounge, with a dance floor that only allows men to grace its presence with a female partner. I kid you not. Apparently in this town it is unheard of for a man to dance by himself, or far worse, with another man, yet they found ways around that. Bevin helped out some of those poor souls by offering herself up as the world's worst dance partner. Kingfisher was the end of it all for us, and we autorickshawed it back to the YWCA at 11.30pm. We are such lightweights now.

In actual world news, we have seen nothing but media coverage surrounding the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. We were intrigued to see India and her people's reaction to news, but have had little luck. Indians really do not like to talk politics, especially Pakistani politics, and probably don't like to do it with tourists either. As our time in India is growing fairly limited, just shy of two weeks left here, we have been reflecting on what we have seen and learned. The best description of India was provided by an older German couple we met that had traveled here 8 times in stints of 2 months or more. They said you will never figure out why Indians do the things they do, but that is what makes this country so intriguing, and that is why we come here, to try and figure it out.

We close wishing you all a happy new year! Talk to you in 2008.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Christmas Greetings

So the sun came out today... and prior to our departure from Goa, we wanted to share our Holiday greetings (chances are few for a good internet connection in Gokarna, our next stop). We hope you all have a white Christmas, we will be enjoying ours on the white beach. If for some reason you can't view the video below, please check it out using the YouTube video link under Extra Special Links on the right side of the page.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Go Go Goa...


Stan, Bevin, and Bevin's stomach of steel made it to Goa, after a 10 plus hour bus ride. We can not even explain how uncomfortable these bus rides are... and how we hope to never have to take one again, until we get to Thailand of course. Our accomodation is a hut on the beach, complete with a mosquito net, cold shower and western style toliet. Within 2 hours of our arrival it began to rain... and has not stopped since. You all have to deal with snow, we can handle a little bit of a drizzle. The best sights so far: two cows chillin on the beach, a drunk Irish man rubbing Stan's belly and a beach homage to disco Jesus.

Will keep you up to date on our days of extreme excitement on a rainy beach.

Peace.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Stan's Birthday....



is today! That's right. Send him some birthday greetings, particularly since I have ruined big birthday plans by contracting my first case of Delhi belly. So we are are stuck in Hampi for two more days, which in the end has actually been a nice quiet break from all the air and noise pollution we encountered in Rajasthan and a way to prepare ourselves for the partying we will be doing on the coast. We should be able to make it to Goa by Wednesday... and then we will be celebrating STAN. Maybe we will get a decent internet connection there so we can get more pictures up.

Hope you are all enjoying the winter snow! Christmas greetings to come.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention... Stan has taken up the harmonica, what a delight!

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Mumbai, Jaipur, Agra and Honking Cars


So, to catch up all very quickly (since we have been very lazy about updating):

1. We were extras in a Bollywood film, with this guy who likes to check his hair every 2 minutes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahid_Kapoor We even got paid! Thinking we were so cool for being asked, turns out they ask any white person they can find, by the end of our stay in Mumbai, we had been asked to participate in 3 different Bollywood movies, and a music video. We said once was enough.
2. Stan got Dehli Belly on Thanksgiving, oh the irony.
3. We made it through Colaba Causeway without buying anything, although it took us until our last day in Mumbai.
4. We successfully bought train tickets, by ourselves. A HUGE feat!
5. We successfully took an overnight train to Jaipur. Stan didn't get very much sleep.
6. The car honking in Mumbai and Jaipur gave us headaches. We both almost killed autorickshaw drivers for failing to leave us alone.
7. We spent an afternoon at Jantar Mantar, a really interesting outdoor observatory. Stan was in heaven and Bevin got to take lots of photos of people who didn't know she was taking photos of them, or so she thought.
8. Bevin did not buy any silver, jewelry or fabric, despite Jaipur being the supposed capital of such things.
9. We survived a very scary 5 1/2 hour bus ride from Jaipur to Agra. Apparently passenger buses like to play chicken with truck drivers on one lane highways.
10. Stan finished "The Stand" and hated it. Bevin is on her third book (ok, they are all like 75 words per page).
11. We saw the Taj Mahal today. It was spectacular.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Mumbai and lovin' it


Arrived in Mumbai about 36hrs after leaving Dahab, Egypt feeling pretty good. Had a bit of trouble finding a reasonable room in the city so we stayed in Chembur, a northern suburb. Took a day to get our bearings and settled in a small fourth floor walkup, The Sea Shore Hotel, right on the water near the Gateway to India. Very convenient, cheap and just next door to Koyla, a posh sheesha bar. As soon as we figure out this blog site pictures will follow.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Are those bedouins sleeping?





A night hike up Mt. Sinai to see the sunrise broke up an otherwise lazy, relaxing stay in Dahab. Leaving the hotel at midnight we took a bumpy, security stop filled two hour journey to the base of Mt. Sinai where St Catherine's Monastery is located. We started up immediately under the night sky which was brilliant. "Shooting stars" were everywhere which we later found was probably the early part of the Leonid meteor shower. Three hours of hiking up the mount skirting camels, their touts and their mess we arrived at the summit to find people sleeping everywhere. A bit confused and tired Stan said "Are those bedouins sleeping"? We laughed and then joined them until the sunrise to find about two thousand people had arrived in the cold night. To this point the best experience we've had so far.