Varanasi, India December 19th – 21st 2010 One of the oldest cities in the world and one of the most popular destinations in India, Varanasi did not disappoint when it came to the topic of life and death, especially the latter. All Hindus try to come here to die so they can achieve “moksha”, basically…
Tag: India
New Delhi – Part Two
Delhi, India Part Deux December 7th – 9th 2010 What have I learned about bus rides in India? Avoid them whenever possible. I specifically told the bus-booking service I did NOT want a window seat. If anyone here remembers, I had encounters with small roaches along the walls of the bus during my Aurangabad to…
Amritsar, Punjab, India
Amritsar, Haryana & Punjab December 5th – 6th 2010 From McLeod Ganj, I had to take a 3.5 hour bus to Pathankot to catch a 3-hour bus to Amritsar where the famous Golden Temple was located. The Golden Temple is the Mecca of the Sikh faith; every Sikh tries to make the pilgrimage here once…
McLeod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh, India
McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh December 3rd – 4th 2010 BEWARE OF ESSAY. My bus from Shimla was supposed to be a deluxe. It was supposed to take 10 hours to get to Dharamsala. My plan was to sleep through the journey on a reclining chair, in the warmth of a bus, and arrive around…
Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India
Shimla, Himachal Pradesh December 1st – 3rd 2010 I’ve never seen a torn-up dead body before. Until today. Leaving my guesthouse around 5 am, I took an auto-rickshaw to a train station that had my train to Kalka, which would take around 5.5 hours. From Kalka, I would take a ‘toy-train’ to Shimla, which is…
New Delhi, India
Delhi, India November 25th – 30th 2010 Notes: Trash everywhere, especially on outskirts. The colors from trash colored the landscape. Lots of pigs running around in the trash. Had steak and eggs with a Coke for Thanksgiving. Cut of steak was like the one found in pot roast. Not the greatest but it’ll do. I…
Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
Agra, Uttarpradesh November 24th 2010 Saw the Taj Mahal. It was very beautiful. The most beautiful building in the world? I would agree. At the end, I couldn’t leave. I just stared and stared at it, wondering how such a beautiful structure could exist. It rained that day. Walked by a restaurant that had a…
Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Jaipur, Rajasthan November 21st – 23rd 2010 Notes: Tried to fake being Japanese because I was tired of having to answer ‘Malaysian’ when every Indian person assumes I’m Japanese, Korean or Chinese. So at a restaurant, an Indian came up to me and asked if I was Japanese. I decided to say ‘Yes’ but then…
Udaipur, Rajasthan, India
Udaipur, Rajasthan November 18th – 20th 2010 I woke up freezing in the train from Ahmedabad. Now I know what it means to be in the Indian winter. As I move north, it’s going to be chilly compared to the hot and humidity of Mumbai. (The lake at sunset.) (Fireworks almost every night.) Udaipur has…
Ahmedabad, Gujerat, India
Ahmedabad, Gujerat, India November 15th – 17th 2010 The 15-hour (really, 17.5 hours) bus-ride from Aurangabad was quite brutal. As I couldn’t get a sleeper, I had to sit in a chair that, despite its ‘luxury’ status, had small roaches crawling on the walls beside me. I spent some time battling them but I soon…