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Published: November 13th 2007
We always are behind the times with the blogs I guess.... a quick update to our current locale.
In Nepal, we went backpacking for about 4 days in the Annapurna range. Our Goal was a place called Poon Hill. I guess they call it a hill in Nepal because its very small compared to the other surrounding mountains, but the "hill" stands at around 11,000 feet. It took us two days to reach the top. The first day we stopped in a small town named Ulleri, and then we ascended to another town called Ghorapani that lies just below the hill. The morning after we arrived there, we walked for about 30 minuted to the top of Poon Hill to watch the sunrise over the Annapurna Range, which has many 25,000+ peaks. The view was blocked tby thick cloud cover as the sun rose. We almost gave up and walked back down, but stuck around for a few more minutes and were greatly rewarded as the clouds opened up and gave us the full panorama of the mountains. That same morning we decided to speed our pace up and walk all the way down from where we started, so we could have one more day to get to/spend in India. That day we walked for about 9-10 hours on some pretty hard terrain. Our legs were toast for days after that. In three days we ascended/descended about 17,000 feet.
After we arrived back in Pokhara, we hung out one more day and relaxed before we took our bus to India. The bus ride to the Indian/Nepal Border took about 6 hours. Once we got to Sonnali, the border town we crossed over, went through immigration and then caught a taxi jeep to Gorukpur, where from there we took a sleeper train to Varanasi. Varanasi lies along the Ganges river. Considered one of the most holy in India, the Ganges is where The Hindus come to wash themselves, do yoga , and cremate the bodies among the many ghats that line the river. I don't know how anyone could touch that water since so much raw sewage flows into it, but the people don't seem to mind. We just made sure we didn't get any laundry done at the place we stayed at because, it appeared that everyone washes their clothes in the river.
After a couple of days in Varanasi, we took a train to Agra. In Agra we spent the day seeing the sights by rickshaw. Our driver took us to the important places to see the, like of course, the Taj Mahal. The Taj really is an amazing thing. A picture could never serve justice to how beautiful the place really is.
Since we have been in India, we now realize that we hate rickshaw drivers, and have come to the conclusion that they are all completely un-trustable. You ask them to take you somewhere and almost every time they either take us to the hotel of their choice (where they get commission), or they try to take us to a Textiles, Marble or carpet dealer (where they get commission). By now we have gotten used to the flow of things, and know what kind of shenanigans to expect, but in the process Dan and I both have become very jaded to people addressing us on the street.
After Agra we took another train to Jaipur, another large city. After a few days there checking out some pretty interesting monuments and such, we took a bus to Pushkar. Pushkar is a small town that we had heard nothing but good about. It rests on the side of a small lake, and Hindus consider it a holy place similar to Varanasi. All the rumors that we hard were true and we both had a great time there. A really mellow place with genuinely nice people is what we found. The town is pretty much run over by hippies though. That made Dan pretty happy though because it reminded him of Humboldt. We relaxed, and ate at an Indian buffet restaurant quite a bit. On our last day we rode some camels outside the town and watched the sunset. Pushkar made us realize that all of India may not be like the big cities that we have been too.
Finally we are in Delhi. Another big city, but it's OK. It's OK because Dan and I leave for Bali, Indonesia tomorrow which has been on our minds more than the need for food and water. We both have had some of the most amazing experiences on this continent since we arrived two months ago, but now........I'm gonna so surfing.
This was a pretty brief explanation of whats happened, but I'm pretty tired, and you can see the pictures when we get home.
-PK
-DS
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Karen Kennedy
non-member comment
Peace
Great travel blog! Look forward to photos! Pushkar sounds like my place to be. A town,"run over by hippies" sounds good. Dan, from one HSU alumni to another, ...Peace! Hopefully, soon to be brought back by popular demand! And now Bali Ha'i it calls you... in your hearts you heard it call you, "come away, come away." Guys, Enjoy to the max! KK