Before ever deciding to go to India, our friend Kendra said this city, Varanasi, was life changing and a must do if we ever traveled to India. Once we decided to go to India we knew we had to see this city. So what is it about this city that is so crazy? A few facts first: a holy city for Hindus, Buddhists and Jains (3 major religions in India), one of the oldest continously inhabited cities in the world and probably the oldest in India (per Wikipedia). The Hindus believe if they have their funeral here it is a direct road to Heaven and all followers must make a pilgrimage once in their life to dip in the Ganges River. We witnessed multiple funerals while we stopped at 1 of the 2 burning ghats. What ... read more

We were headed to Agra and our group leader, Danesh, had warned us that the accommodations in Agra were going to be very, very, very basic. We were all worried what this meant since we’ve stayed in some pretty bad places already. As we arrived at the bus station we saw the bus that we were supposed to take. There were three seats on one side and two on the other which is one more seat that normal. Waiting around we saw one man lean out the window and vomit out all over the side of the bus. Elyse likes to come up with catchy names for each mode of transportation and naturally this instantly became the vomit bus to Agra. We all looked at the group leader and said you might as well just book ... read more

It was a rough morning as Elyse felt ill on the 2-3 hr bus ride from Pushkar. She felt like she could vomit just looking out the window, plus other passengers on the bus were vomiting and hacking like crazy. Lorin, fellow American, thought the passengers had tuberculosis (TB) as they coughed the whole ride. Elyse also witnessed a dog eating the carcass of another dog (told you India isn’t for the light hearted). Driving into the city we passed though a small section of town that looked like a nice residential neighborhood. This was one of the only ones that we had seen on our trip. Despite the fact that all the television commercials showcase clean western style homes and neighborhoods in their advertisements we had yet to see anything even close to this in ... read more

We headed to Udaipur via private van because the bus ride takes about 8 hours and traverses some pretty small mountain roads. The previous bus ride was long enough and the group thought it best to avoid these when possible. The driver strapped our bags to the roof and we piled into the van. Along the way we stopped by a Jain Temple that was highly recommended by our guide Danesh. The landscape changed along the way moving from a pure desert environment to more tress and plants and the occasional farm. After the temple we headed up and over the mountains where we encountered a different species of monkeys than we’ve been accustomed to seeing along our journey. These monkeys had black faces and seemed to be a little more vicious since they screeched at ... read more

At 2:30pm, we departed for our camel safari which included a 2 hour camel ride, dinner in the sand dunes and a night of camping under the stars. After an hour ride in a jeep to the desert we arrived at our camels: 5 for us to ride and 1 pulling a cart with our bags and tour guide. Getting on the camel was easy but when the camel stood up it was quite daunting. One must lean back as far as possible in the saddle so you don't fall forward onto the neck of the camel. I thought I would be more scared but I must have gotten past my little fear as I never have even gone horse back riding (Aaron & Amanda would be ashamed of me). The camel ride was very peaceful ... read more