Incredible India... what an experience

First off sorry for not blogging for the past few days. We've been on overnight trains, tons of sightseeing, and for a short time, a kind of broken computer, but now we're back sitting in a hotel room in New Delhi getting ready to spend our last night before heading back West.

Where I left off we were in Jaipur. We got up early that morning and headed to the Amber Fort. It was pretty incredible. There are Elephants that take everyone up to the fort but we decided to pass since the line was 2 hours long. Pretty much like Disney land with no fast pass so we had our taxi take us up to the top. The fort was huge and there were so many cool secret areas where you could disappear. Will especially like the hall where the leader could sneak down and enter into any of his concubines room without any of them knowing. Of course that would interest him the most. Anyway Will, Dad, and I got separated from the group and got to see some pretty cool areas of the fort that were empty. What we did miss was a blessing ceremony which the moms experienced.

After the fort we headed to a little temple and then it started getting pretty hot. I mean it gets hot here at 9:30 so Will and Dad headed back to the hotel to hang out by the pool and nap while the rest of us went shopping. WOW the shopping. We had the best time. The quilts, clothing, shoes, and tapestries here are amazing and finally around 4 we took my mom back and then Sue and Deborah and I headed back out for jewelry shopping and we saw some awesome stuff, none of which I could afford. That night Will and I choice a localish place out of the lonely planet to take everyone for dinner and it turned out to be great.

We were up early again that next morning for our train to Agra. This train was a little different since we were all in the sleeping cars and it turned out to be a lot better. We all spread out and were able to sleep for most the train to Agra. When we got off of the train we were thankfully met by hotel cars since trying to negotiate taxis for 6 people with 8 bags is ridiculous. (Sue and Deborah now have an extra duffel each of treasures). So we headed to our hotel and then all of the sudden we see the Taj Mahal. Even from a distance it's incredible. It dominates and pretty much is the Agra skyline. We arrived at the most incredible hotel, thanks again parents, and were taken to our rooms with balconies looking at the Taj. At this point it was about noon and the heat had set in so we headed to the pool for lunch and a swim before braving the heat and crowds at the Taj. Our hotel was close enough to the Taj that they drive guests to the gates in their golf carts, so we headed out to the Taj and entered in the horrible heat. We walked around and ended up spending a good 30 minutes taking pictures, and trying to get at least one group pic, which absolutely drove Will insane, but oh well we luckily got one. After walking around for awhile we realized that we had lost Deborah and Sue and when we found them again they told us not to even attempt to go upstairs to the main stupa because there were too many mr. stinkies, what Sue was calling the Indians. We decided to brave it anyway, because there was no way Will and I were getting up for sunset at the Taj, and it turned out being just fine. Actually Will and I are so used to the now deodorant smell that we don't even notice. Then it was back to the hotel for happy hour while watching the sunset over the Taj. Then that night we had dinner with traditional Indian music and poor Dr. Sue was so tired she fell asleep at dinner.

The next morning Will and I had planned to sleep in, while the others hit the Taj for sunset, but were woken up at 8:15 because the others were ready for more sightseeing. So we got up and headed out to see the Agra Fort and this was when the fun began. My dad had thought of this fun idea to have our auto-rickshaws race to the fort so he explained to the drivers that whoever got us there first would get 50 rupees and at that they were ready to pretty much run over anything to be the first. In the first auto-rickshaw was Deborah, Will, and I and the other was my parents and Dr. Sue. It was so much fun. Before we knew it we were off darting between cars, buses, dump trucks, cows, goats, people, etc. For most of the time my rickshaw was in the lead but when the other took over we ended up following them down the wrong side of the road to try and get ahead. We really did have a blast, at least my dad, Will, and I did. The others didn't really think it was that great, but oh well. Mine ended up winning and our guy was so excited about it.

The Agra Fort was interesting but so huge that it took a good hour to get around. Then we went to see Akbar the Greats mausoleum and probably the best part was the surrounding grassy areas with monkeys. Will ended up just sitting down next to this one monkey to kind of relax. Then the next thing I know Will is poking the monkey with a stick and then glaring and semi-growling at it and when the monkey responded Will got so fast it looked like he was about to run a race. I guess the monkey one that fight. Why he would try to face off with the monkey: "Because I'm bigger" (Will Coleman). At that point it was about 105 degrees and we had a good 30 minute ride back with no ac so we decided it was time to head to the hotel and relax before our over night train. We pretty much spent the afternoon just hanging by the pool and relaxing. And before we knew it the time had come to head to the train.

Will and I were prepared for the train, my dad was SO excited, and the moms were so scared, so we had an interesting mix of feelings when we arrived at the station. We got all situated with our bags and that's when their fears grew. There were so many people waiting for trains and we had just found out ours was delayed and the next thing we know this little boy standing next to us is drops down his paints and starts peeing on tracks, all while dogs are running around and beggars are asking for money. What a station!!! Also there was a bit of nerves about the fact that we all had different bunks around the cabin. Our train is set up with two bunk beds on one side facing perpendicular to the aisle and then one bunk bed parallel to the aisle. So its 6 beds per area with 60 beds on a coach. Unlike the Vietnam trains these had no doors to lock yourself in and pretty much your only covering was a small curtain. The bummer was if you were stuck in the area with 2 bunk beds you only had one curtain blocking off the aisle, unlike the single bunk bed that each bed had a curtain. We ended in all single bunk beds which worked out with Deborah and Sue together, Me and Will, and My mom and dad. Pretty much perfect. Deborah was the first asleep which ironically she had heard how horrible the trains were and it didn't seem to bother her a bit. I had a horrible night sleep because my allergies are horrible right now from the pollution. Everyone ended up sleeping through the night and we made it safely to Varanasi with all of our bags and belongings and as Deborah has said "I would say the train was fun". So we ended up having a great time and everyone liked the experience.

We added Varanasi to our itinerary because Sue had heard that its a MUST SEE and it really was. It is the oldest living city in the world dating back 800-600 BC. It also is a major Hindu city since the Ganges runs on the edge and everyone uses it to bathe in to cleanse away their sins. We had pretty much expected the worst from the place... cow poop everywhere, since cows are holy and can do whatever they want in India, trash, pollution, and especially in the Ganges we had heard about floating body parts, bones, ashes and trash. I was really surprised by how different I had imagined it. In my opinion the rodes and the city were no dirtier than other places we had been which had really made me nervous about how dirty the Ganges had to be and when we actually saw it I was shocked by how clean it seemed. I really had expected there to be trash covering the whole thing... not the case at all. In some areas I really could have seen myself getting in. The area on the water was amazing and you really could look down the river side and picture yourself somewhere exotic in Europe like Sicily or Venice. The architecture was beautiful.

Alright I've gotten a little ahead of myself... before we arrived in Varanasi Deborah had emailed an American woman that was actually living in Varanasi and we had decided to meet up with her to get some advice about to what to see. She, Liza, ended up planning a boating excursion for us that night on the Ganges, which we were really excited about. Before getting on the boats we got to walk to the small burning Ghat (a Ghat is the stairs that lead down to the river and there are tons all up and down the river). A burning Ghat is pretty much an outdoor crematorium right on the river. Most Hindus are cremated and then their ashes are poured into the river. There are 2 burning Ghats on the river. The smaller one is for the lower class people which allows some women to witness the ceremony. The main Ghat is a huge crematorium with an eternal fire. No women are allowed to watch this since, 1. the women are too emotional and sometimes in the past have been so upset have run and jumped onto the fire with their husbands and sacrificed themselves or 2. they are thought to be too emotional, trapping all of the spirits instead of letting them free. After viewing the small Ghat we got on our large canoe and got to experience burnings at the large Ghat. It was pretty indescribable. There were about 6 different fires going on and we watched them bring down bodies and soak them in the river before placing them on the fire. Its amazing how peaceful the experience seems, almost surreal that we were watching these burnings. I really am doing a horrible job of explaining what it was like but I really have no idea how to explain it.

At this point the sun had pretty much set and we were headed in our boat back to the main area for the fire ceremony. On our way we all lit our candles that placed them in the water with our prayers and blessings. The river looks so beautiful with all of the floating candles and it was nice to be a part of this tradition. The ceremony was really nice too and it goes on every night. We all got off the boat and walked through the small alleys of the old city to this great little restaurant, recommended by Liza and the lonely planet, where we sat and listened to a Sitar player while eating a great dinner.

We got home late and were up at 4:30 this morning headed back the Ganges for the sunrise boat ride. I really would recommend doing both. The lighting makes everything seem so different and in the morning its so much calmer and is really quite nice. After an hour an half on the river we headed to breakfast before going to our last tour spot, Saranath. Saranath is the founding city of Buddhism. This was where Buddha gave his first lecture and it was really nice to be out of the craziness of the city and into this smaller area of town. I also think it was cool for our parents to learn about Buddhism, since we've been overwhelmed with it this trip. It ended up being a great last spot for us.

We then were back to the hotel to pack and relax before our flight to Delhi. We arrived in Delhi and came to the airport Radisson to relax before our flights. Will and I actually just said goodbye to everyone since they have a midnight flight and ours isn't until 8:00am. We had a great time with our group and I'm glad they got to have a taste of what its been like for us for the past 3 months. I did learn from this week that its SO much easier to travel with two and I really think that any kind of trip like this should be two people. I'm actually pretty sad writing this blog right now since our travels are pretty much done, and I just tried to convince Will that we should stay a few more days and go to Mumbai but he's ready to be back in the States. I would come back to Southeast Asia again in a heartbeat so if anyone needs a travel companion PLEASE let me know. I cant believe how fast our time here has gone and that Will and I are still having fun with each other. He really is great to travel with.

That's all for now as I head to bed for my last night abroad. More from us soon...