India and Nepal

India

Mumbai

AI arrived into Mumbai at 4 am and had NO CLUE where I was gonna stay. So I jumped into a cab and headed to the Salvation Army downtown. I heard they had dorms that you could stay in for cheap. I arrived around 5am and got a bed for a few hours. The one thing I thought was so strange was how driving in everyone is sleeping on top of there cars or just on the street.

I woke up around 8:30 grabbed some grub then headed to see the gate of India and take a boat to elephant Island.

Both were cool but India got condensed because of the Visa issues in Uganda so I didn't have much time. I went back grabbed my pack and jumped on a 20 hour overnight train to Agra to See the Taj!

Agra

Agra is a cool condensed town that's really main sign in the Taj. I took a moto rickshaw to the east gate and walked till I found a place I heard was good. Took a nice shower and went out to dinner and to see the Taj at sunset. I ended up eating at a great place, met some cool people. Also go to see for the first time kids flying Kites like in the kite runner. They were EVERYWHERE at sunset. It was pretty cool.

I woke up before sunrise and headed to the East gate to see the Taj at sunrise. Definitely worth the lack of sleep. Its very impressive and massive.

After that I left and met up with some Americans I had met the night before and we went out to get some food and book our train tickets. I was off to the holy city of Varanasi.

I took a 5 hr bus and became friends with a sikh high priest. By the end he was calling me his grandson, was pretty cool.

I got to the train and ran across the tracks to barley make my train. It was a 15 hour overnight train that long story short I got a ton of my stuff stolen on. Lesson learned and to others, watch your stuff on Indian trains!

Varanasi

Varanasi is a crazy place. Its where the Ganges river is which is one of the holiest rivers in India. Its is where bodies are burned and or floated down the river. It is very all the sewage from the city is dumped and also were all the locals bath. They also drink the water. Its pretty crazy.

I find my hostel and grab a room. Its a backpackers place so I meet a lot of cool people.

I

got to talk to my mom finally on Skype and she got to see how long my hair and beard have gotten :o)

I also got to talk to one of my best best friends Karen which was great.

We then took a sunset boat out and saw some of the ceremonies. Bodies are burned 24 hours a day here. Its a crazy site. Better if you see from the pictures.


The people who are burned are only those that die or old age. Anyone else is floated or sunk. When they are sunk the bodies sometimes get stuck on the sides. When that happens to the populated sides they are put back in the water. When it happens on the other side they are just left for the animals. We took the boat to that side and saw some nutty things. Skulls and bones scattered along the beach with kids playing. A dog eating a human body that was a few days old. It was intense.

We got back in the boat then went to watch the nigh time closing ceremonies that happen every night , 365 days a year.

We headed back after the ceremonies and hung out. Tomorrow I am attempting to cross into Nepal!


India to Nepal


Get up and get ready for one of the things I am MOST excited about, seeing if I can make it to Nepal. I start off on a train which is around 8 or so hours which gets me to a town that I have to take a bus from to the India Nepal boarder which is around 3 to 4 hours. The rides isn't bad except I arrive at the boarder at 1am. I walk to the boarder and have to wake up the immigration officer who was not happy. I walked across to the Nepal side and see the Army everywhere. There is a lot of issues going on in Nepal at the moment. I wake up the immigrant people and get my Visa and stamped in.

Its now around 1:30 am so I walked up to the army guys and started chatting with them. All SO nice. They tell me a bus doesn't leave for Kathmandu till 4 am. I end up chilling with them and sleeping in the Nepal army Barracks till 4 am, was awesome!

Nepal continued.....

The ride was unreal. The landscape is so different from India. India was flat and Nepal has mountains reaching to the sky covered in green with deep valleys dotted with Temples. The people are so nice. Its an a surreal place.

I get into Kathmandu and find my bed for the night. Kathmandu is marked by busy and narrow streets much like Zanzibar but with Rickshaws and motorbikes all over the place. I headed to the "Monkey Temple". The place in massive and there are monkeys of course all over the place and prayer flags. Seeing it at sunset was pretty cool.

I ended up meeting Justin from Canada after that and we paled around that night. We grabbed some food and then meet these awesome 20 something locals and went to a club that played live music. It was so much fun.


The next day we headed to Pashupatinath to see a famous temple that also did the body cremations and see some spiritual leaders called baba's. Very trippy!

Justin and I said our good byes as I headed back to Mumbai. I had to fly back to Mumbai because of the time crunch. The plane flys out as I get to see Everest peeking through the clouds.

I make a quick overnight stop in Delhi which was fun the Mumbai to Mongolia. Its been a crazy trip so far! I am off to Mongolia to build homes with Habitat for Humanity for the rest of the Month which I am really looking forward to :o)