A Passage to India.

A missed flight, some hamburgers and a few drinks later….

Well I’m back to the states and have been seriously neglecting my tumblr. I’ve had a few requests to finish up what I started with all of my travels so here we go: I believe I left off in Manali. After Manali, we headed to Amritsar, which is near the border of India and Pakistan to see the Sikh Golden Temple:

Then we headed to the border between Pakistan and India to watch the ceremony gate closing shenanigans. And I call it Shenanigans because that’s what it was. It was basically a weird Indian dance party with Jai Ho (that one song from Slumdog Millionaire) and then dude yelling into microphones to see who could yell the loudest. Not to mention the obcsene amount of high kicking, theatrics and serious marching. Look. He’s running:

Closing the gate:

We also went to this crazy Hindu temple that resembled more like a funhouse than it did a temple. It had mirrors and a weird little water pool thing that you had to walk through, all sorts of ducks and turns.

Liz walking taking over some obstacles:

Giant Kali:

After Amristar, we took a train (which was delayed about eight hours) to Delhi to catch our flight from Delhi to Pune. We got into Delhi super late, the taxi took us to the wrong air port, and we rolled into the right one about 45 minutes before the gate was closing. Apparently they had overbooked the flight and given up our seats already, but they found room for us. When we got on our flight, we had been upgraded to 1st class (except for Mallory, boo)! My first and probably only time ever. It was a good way to end two weeks of craziness.

The United States is too quiet.

Day 9: Rishikesh —> Dehra Dun, Day 10: Dehra Dun —>Chandighar—>Manali

Days 9 and 10 were somewhat of a pain in the bum bum. On day 9 we headed from Rishikesh to Dehra Dun in order to find a bus from there to Manali. It was an hour and a half ride in a giant rickshaw and then we arrived at a pretty nasty bus station. We had missed the luxury bus when we got there so we planned on taking a government bus that was at 10:30 pm. Well.. 10:30 pm rolled around and the bus was cancelled so we had to stay the night in Dehra Dun. Which, to say the least, is not the most happening place in India. BUT we did find a cute little restaurant with yummy shakes and a pizza hut across the street. Bright and early in the morning we hopped on a bus to head to Chandighar where we would then take a bus to Manali. The bus from Dehra Dun (which we nicknamed Didgeridoo) was a government bus and for lack of better words, hell on earth. At one point Whitney counted over 50 people standing. They were resting their bums on our shoulders, there was a dude singing Hindi songs completely out of key, but we trucked through it, played a few rounds of the Hat Game and finally got there 8 hours later. Let me give you a mental picture. We took a bus just like this one:

Isn’t she a beauty?

So once we got to Chandighar, we got a bus by the hair of our chinny chin chins. We literally hopped on it while it was still moving. That bus wasn’t so bad and we finally got into Manali around 1 am. We found our hotel, got in a went to beddy by so that we could continue our adventure in Manali the next day.

I am really not doing it justice just how bad the journey is. Let me give you an image of an Indian bus: people too close together, stinky men, sweaty men, way too many men in comparison to women crammed on a bus. There are not enough seats so at least 50 people are standing, try to rest their butts on the back of your seat, eavesdropping on your conversations. The seats only go halfway up your back so you cant lean back to take a nap. Sometimes there is vomitting coming out the sides of the windows. More and more people just keep getting on even though there aren’t enough places to sit or stand. Some people have half a foot on the doorway to the bus with the other foot and arm dangling out the window, cruising down the jenky mountain roads. We might have a flat tire. So we stop and keeping all the people in the bus, get a new tire. This takes almost an hour. More people get on the bus. More people get on the bus. 8 Hours of more people getting on the bus. Let’s just say… it was character building. WE WERE HAVING FUN! (That became our mantra whenever anything went wrong on our trip) WE WERE HAVING FUN!

Days 6, 7, 8, and 9: Rishikesh

The next day we walked the hour walk to the Ashram (shopping the whole way). The ashram, Parmarth Niketan Ashram, was absolutely beautiful. It was right on the Ganaga (The Ganges) with a huge garden.

Our daily schedule in the Ashram goes as follows:

5:00 Sanskrit Chanting, 6:00 Wonderful yoga OR 7:00 Loosening Yoga

1:00 Lunch

4:00 Yoga, 5:30 Ganga Aarti

The Ganga Aarti was wonderful. You praise the fire, thanking the gods for the day and for the fire that is alive in everyone and everything. They also praised the Ganga which is believed to flow from Shiva. The ganga is the holiest river in India and if you take a dip in it, you are freed from all of your past karma.

The Ganga Aarti:

The little boys are orphans that Swamiji (the holy man in the ashram) takes in. They learn regular subjects in school but they also study the Hindu holy books, Sanskrit, and have lessons on morals. They help Swamiji chant and sing every night at aarti.

Swamiji:

He’s magical. The second night we got to meet him after ganga aarti. We went into a closed off courtyard within the ashram that had a bamboo hut inside that he lives in. We sat around with about 20 other people and you could ask him questions or he would just generally talk about things. He had such good energy. You could feel yourself basking in this vibes. Everytime someone walked in he would acknowledge them and touch his heart.

These are the tamhan they use to praise the ganga. They are dishes that hold little cotton laterns that you light on fire. You move the dish clockwise around what it is that you’re worshipping:

On the second day, we took our first dip in the ganga. We found the ladies bathing ghat and Whitney, Liz, Mallory and I all got in (with clothes on) while Sarah took a video of it. It was incredibly incredibly cold and so we each dipped once, but once you dipped once it was actually really warm. I have never felt so clean and refreshed. The river had such good, calming energy. Here is the after picture:

The yoga teacher at the ashram was great. She was this beautiful Indian woman with the most amazing chanting voice. We took two yoga classes with her a day, which was about 3 hours of yoga. She was just wonderful. In the afternoon, you could hear chanting all throughout the ashram and Liz and I took the most wonderful nap, falling asleep to it. The ashram also provided us with three meals a day which were all vegetarian and pretty decent food. On the last day, it was the first day of diwala, which is the festival of lights. We sat outside near the ganga and all had a feast to welcome in the festival. The aarti for diwali was also much longer and really wonderful. People buy these baskets made of leaves full of flowers and a latern that they light and then float them down the river:

Watching all of them float down the river is pretty magical.

We were originally going to only stay in the ashram for two days, but after the first day, we decided to stay for three because we liked it so much. Then on the last night, we went to meet Swamiji. I asked him a question and he requested to meet with me tomorrow in private so he could ask me more questions to help answer what I had asked him. Since he didn’t have time to meet with me during the day, we decided to stay one more night. I didn’t end up meeting with him, but I met with his wife (maybe… we’re not sure if she is) and she hooked me up with some connections with ayurvedic doctors in the United States, which is pretty exciting. She also invited me back to work at their free medical camp once I had some medical training, which would be an awesome opportunity. We finally left the ashram on the 9th day. It was definitely the highlight of the trip for me and I definitely want to go back there someday.

Days 3, 4, and 5: Agra, Agra —>Haridwar—>Rishikesh

Oh Look… I’m grabbing the top of the Taj: (gotta do the typical tourist pic, right?)

So then after the Taj Mahal, we went to Agra Fort where the guy who built the Taj was imprisoned by his son for the debt that he made from the Taj. So he could see it from where he was locked up. It was a real treat:

The room where he was imprisoned:

The view of the Taj from the fort:

That night we had dinner on a rooftop restaurant with a view of the Taj during sunset which was great. The next morning we hopped on a train to head to Haridwar. We got into Haridwar around 10 pm and then took a GIANT rickshaw from there to Rishikesh where we stayed overnight at a hotel for one night.

Days 1, 2, and 3: Pune —> Mumbai, Mumbai —>Delhi—>Agra

Our (Whitney, Liz, Mallory, Sarah and me) adventure began with traveling from Pune to Mumbai. We took a pretty shaky bus from Central Pune Station to Mumbai. It took about five and a half hours to travel what should have been a two and a half hour journey if we hadn’t been on a sketchy public bus. When we got to Mumbai, we had to make our way from where the bus dropped us off to Whitney’s host brother’s flat. We finally tracked that down with the help of a random man on the street. After we were acquainted with her host brother (who is in his 40s), he suggested dinner and we set on our way. So we cruise down to this giant mall complex and head inside and what restaurant do we sit down at? TGI FRIDAY’S! No big deal or anything. So apparently it was happy hour (buy one get one) and so we were just having drinks and “snacks” before dinner. So we loaded up on nachos, french fries, and a few drinks. And so then when we pulled our wallets to pay, Mr. K took care of the bill. Next, we headed for our “real” meal at Punjab Grill. Keep in mind that we were fresh off a bus and sporting some sweet sweatpants and tees. But Mr. K takes us to this fancy schmancy restaurant complete with chandeliers and people wearing business attire inside. Needless to say, it was pretty awkward. But Mr. K is a high roller and a regular there, so there was no issue with letting us inside. He ordered for us: tandoori chicken, giant tandoor rotis, and the last bottle of his favorite wine.

Day Two: We woke up ready to take on Mumbai and headed out to the Colaba area down by the ocean. We saw the gateway of India:

We also saw the Taj Mahal hotel where Barack stayed while he was in India. It was beautiful inside:

We also spent some time at Leopold’s Bar and Cafe, which is a famous spot in the book Shantaram. It’s also famous for the massacre that happened a few years back when a bunch of tourists were killed there. You can still see the bullet holes.

That night we repeated our ritual at Friday’s, but then went out for delicious Chinese. The best Pad Thai and Dim Sum ever. Then early morning we sent out for the airport for our flight with the 5-Star KingFisher airline. The flight was lovely and we arrived in Delhi a couple hours later. From there we set out for the train station and hopped on a train to Agra to see the Taj Mahal!