Hindus, Heathrow, and Home

Despite all the adventuring, Chris and Kate are quite happy to be coming home. India was a wonderful experience but we hear the siren song of Washington calling to us from across the Atlantic.

We ended our stay in Varanasi buying up the last few presents, walking along the ghats, and doing our best to get over our colds. (Who goes to India and gets a cold? We do.) We took an overnight train to Delhi and actually got a decent amount of sleep. There was an incident with some Russians, but that was between them and our Australian companion.

We spent our last day in Delhi and took in the Red Fort and the India Gate. We encountered one of the trickiest scoundrels/rickshaw drivers who tried to guilt us into visiting his friend's store. He told us that if we went there the store owner would give the driver's daughter a present? "Doesn't madam want my daughter to get a present?" No. Madam wants to go home and take a shower.

We got off the rickshaw and took the Indian subway. It was surprisingly clean and efficient. (Remind us to tell you about the Varanasi restaurant disaster of 2009 at a later point.) The train was about as crowded as you would imagine, and they use plastic tokens that you might find in a board game to get in and out of the trains. (Kate REALLY wanted to buy an extra one to take home.)

For the evening we were supposed to see the "Dances of India" show with our Danish friends. We got there and... no show! We are still not sure if we were in the right place. We did not trust our rickshaw driver. Instead of giving him the satisfaction of driving us back home, we took another rickshaw to the downtown center of Delhi and ate at a nice restaurant. (It cost about $20 total for our meals, including beer and dessert. For India, that is the equivalent of a semester at NYU. I think.)

But now we are in London waiting to board our flight home. We are worried we may have to read the books we brought along because we have exhausted the movie selections Virgin Atlantic has to offer. Well, you can never watch "Mamma Mia!" too many times, according to Kate.

We should end by just saying what an important experience this was for both of us. It has been a dream of Chris's to travel to India, and it took a lot of courage for Kate to travel this far. We don't even think we have realized the full reward of taking this journey yet. Meeting the people and sharing their world will stay with us for the rest of our lives. Our home, our health, and our friends and family are blessings and riches. Thank you for sharing our world and for taking this journey with us. We look forward to seeing you soon and bringing a little more of India your way.

Much love,

Kate and Chris

Hello Dalai!

That's right, folks. The Dalai Lama is in town and yesterday we saw him. After visiting Sarnath, the birthplace of Buddhism, we stopped off at the Tibetan Research Institute to see if we could catch a glimpse of his holiness. Turns out for only 60 rupees and copies of our passports we could sit in on his sermon! Unfortunately, no cameras allowed so you'll just have to take our word for it. We have the I.D. badges so we can always remember...

Last night we went on a boat ride down the Ganges to participate in a flower ceremony and take in the many Ghats. We saw cremations and several puja ceremonies (daily Hindu religious rites).

What Kate really wants to talk about is her newest boyfriend: Aamir Khan. The movie was a rip off of "Memento" where a man suffers from short term memory loss and is hunting for the killer of his true love. Throw in a couple of songs and dances and you've got yourself a Bollywood Blockbuster. For some reason (jealousy?), Chris thinks Aamir is not a very good actor. Kate knows better. Rent the classic "Lagaan" and you be the judge.

We are getting ready to say goodbye to Varanasi. It has been interesting to stay in one place for so long. There have been many ups and downs. Today we will walk along the ghats, do a little more shopping and have a big dinner before getting on our overnight train. We hear tell of an oil strike causing flight cancellations. Will we have an extended stay in India? Stay tuned...

Varanasi: Fast and Furious

We are in the underbelly of Varanasi, unsure how we will manage to resurface. If we do, we will head to the movie theatre to see a Bollywood movie. It stars Aamir Khan, the "Tom Cruise" of India. (With less crazy.) Other highlights of the day include taking a bicycle rickshaw, buying more clothes for Kate (Chris tries not to wince), and and visiting the Ganges. We are told there are dolphins in the Ganges. Freshwater dolphins. We'll believe it when we see it.

Gotta run! Bollywood calls!

Kate asks, "When do we get to Chitrakoot?"

Hello, movie stars! We say that because it turns out all Americans are movie stars. At least that is how we are treated. After Khajuraho we headed to Chitrakoot. Well, that is what Kate has been told. Unfortunately, Kate took some dramamine and ended up sleeping the WHOLE DAY. So now Chris will report on Chitrakoot. Take it away, Chris:
Thanks, Kate. We are told that Chitrakoot is a "mini-Varanasi," but not having been to Varanasi yet, I can't say for sure. Chitrakoot is famous for being the spot that Rama and Sita spent 11 of their 14 years in exile. We'll tell you the whole story later. Preview: It involves a monkey-king. Appropriately enough, Chitrakoot is full of monkeys. It has a quaint bazaar where monkeys seem to annoy merchants to no end. The town also has a series of "ghats," or steps down to the river for bathing, washing clothes and religious ceremonies. We will see much more of this in Varanasi, which is the holiest city in Hinduism. Anyway, in Chitrakoot, I took a boat ride down the river and strolled along the bazaar. Kate joined me for dinner. Back to you, Kate.

Thanks, Chris. Now we are in Allahabad (pronounced Allabad) and are living the good life. We went to Nehru's house and were stopped by several students who wanted to practice their English on us. One young man told Chris that he wants to marry a girl like Kate. Aw shucks. Then we went to the spot where the Yamuna, Ganges and Saraswati rivers meet. This is considered a very holy place and people take boats to where the rivers meet. We observed several religious ceremonies but could not find out exactly what they signified. Then a young man took pictures of us and two more groups of students stopped us for conversations and pictures. (Alas, no more compliments about Kate.) Tonight we may go crazy and go to McDonald's or an Italian restaurant.

There is no USB port so we cannot show you how nice our hotel is. We regret not taking a picture of every hotel. Last night we stayed in a freezing hotel that did not have toilet paper. Now we are staying in a hotel that is nicer than any place we could afford in the U.S.

Next stop: Varanasi.

India: They invented love

Here we are in lovely Khajuraho. It is most famous for the 1,000 year old temples. The carvings include many beautiful gods, animals, and depictions of the kama sutra! Chris's knee is not doing too well so we opted to rest after the temples rather than take in a light and music show. We are going to take a painting class with a local artist who had us over for lunch this afternoon. He calls his little daughter "gudyeh" which means babydoll. Has Kate discovered Chris's newest nickname?

Tomorrow is the big TIGER SAFARI! Kate is hoping to catch a tiger for her dad who is an LSU alum. Geaux Tigers!

One more thing: Never pay more than 20 rupees for chai masala. Trust us.

No USB port for me = No pictures for you

No pictures today unfortunately. I (Kate) only have a few minutes so try to make sense of the typos. We are still in Orchha. We took a cooking class today at a local's home. Her name is Vandara and she was very patient when I tried to make chapatis. We visited a castle in the morning and sqaw the six rooms of the king's concubines. (One for each day of the week and one day for rest.) The king made a secret passageway to each of their rooms so the queen wouldn't know what was going on. I can't imagine any wife would not know her husband was keeping concubines in the house. I imagine she didn't mind because she had a few secret passages of her own.

The other interesting story is that yesterday I bought a charm for a friend. We showed the charm to Vandara and she shook her head. "No! Not for you!" It turns out this particular charm should only be worn by Hindus. If my friend had worn this charm and met a Hindu, it might have offended that person. We went back to the silver merchant and traded for a new charm (one that was recommended by Vandara.) I hope the gods will forgive us.

The Taj

Look! We went to that place where people go! It was especially exciting to see the Taj from the Red Fort with mist surrounding it. I know what you all are thinking. "That's great Kate, but what we want to know is are you sick yet?" No, Chris and I are well... so far. Unfortunately all of our traveling companions have been hit with digestive troubles, so we know our days (hours?) are numbered.

Now we are going to tell you about the most charming town on the planet. Chanderi is a tiny village of 40,000 people (that is small by Indian standards of course.) Very few tourists ever go there. As a result, the tourists who do go there are ROCK STARS. Children follow you everywhere and want to shake your hand. Chanderi is famous for the fabric that is made there so of course we did some shopping. The highlight of Chanderi is Kalle Bhai. He was our tour guide and is quite the man about town. He is a Renaissance man in the truest sense of the word. He taught himself how to speak English and knows seven languages. He showed us the cave paintings he discovered, took us to a Jain temple, a mosque, and a fort on a lake. His wife made our dinner and lunch and it was the best Indian food we have ever had. We got to visit Kalle Bhai's house and meet his family. While we were there his fourteen year old daughter gave Kate a henna tattoo. When we got back to the hotel there was a troupe of musicians and a dancer to help us celebrate New Year's eve. The dancer got both of us to try some new dance moves. It turns out there is a reason why we are in theatre.

Now we are in Orchha. This is a holy city and since it is New Year's it is crowded even by Indian standards. Our tour guide gave up trying to show us the town. We stopped by the tailor's to have some clothes made and he recognized that our cloth was made in Chanderi. Then we bought some MORE gifts and began the quest for internet. Many places were without power (we learned there is a power cut every day from 1:00 to 6:00). Fortunately we found a place with its own generator so that we could contact our favorite people.

I (Kate) just need to add that if you are going to travel anywhere, make sure you bring Chris along. He learned some Hindi before we came here. Even though his proficiency is limited, everyone loves him for trying to communicate with them. Tour guides, bellhops, everyone. When we went to Italy, he learned Italian. If you are looking for an interpreter for a good price, contact me and we'll negotiate.