arendes
Anna Rendes Joined: October 12th 2009
Logged in: December 22nd 2009
Logged in: December 22nd 2009
Travel Blog Posts
Lauren and a tiny tailor
It looks like I've let 20 days pass without an update to the old blog! So much has happened throughout those days, as you might be able to infer from the title. So, here is the Reader's Digest re-cap of a very action-packed month: When Lauren and I arrived in Bangalore from Kolkata, it was like we were entering a different world. Bangalore is the land of the high tech industry, so there was clearly plenty of money and opulence in the area; a very "westernized" city. There weren't even any pot holes in the roads, we really weren't sure where we had ended up because it wasn't like the India we knew. It was simply a point of transit for us, but did provide some of the comforts of home after our days roughing it ... read more
Baxter!!
This story is really told best through pictures, (and I have finally achieved an upload!) but words will be a nice supplement. Darjeeling proved to be a land of creature comforts and cool weather; a completely different world from the India Lauren and I have experienced up to our point of arrival. One very long and hot overnight train and one three-hour bumpy, winding, and crowded jeep ride was all it took to deliver us to the doorstep of the Himalayas. It was quite the journey, but very worth it. We spent about 3 days exploring Darjeeling with our newest travel buddy Omri, (who we now consider our pseudo-little brother.) It is a truly charming place and very popular stop on the backpacking circuit. I even learned that the Ducks "squelched" USC from a guy in ... read more
Today marks the sixth day I have been in India. If I were to gauge my comfort level, I would say that I have been here much longer. To me, that is the most bizarre part of everything so far: this place doesn't feel as foreign to me as I thought it would; I feel comfortable here. Six days and two cities really isn't a perfect gauge for the whole country, but even amongst scams, beggars, pollution and squat toilets sans toilet paper, I feel like I am a part of the ebb and flow of India. I could easily have written exorbitantly long entries for every day I have been here, but I'm going to keep these as short and sweet as possible. In these six days I have visited two cities: Kolkata and Puri. ... read more
This is my last day in the United States and I thought it appropriate to introduce you to my philosophy for this journey before I actually embark upon it. I have contemplated this trip for a while, and to me the approach my travel buddy Lauren and I are taking seems to be just right; particularly in dealing with traveling in a place like India. I'm going to call this approach, the "Happy Accidents" approach. "Happy accidents" in this context is in reference to one of my favorite musicians, Neko Case. It's a term she uses to describe one of the underlying elements of her music-making method. She does not describe her unique songwriting process as organized or as having a clear result in mind. One word she often uses is "collage". To me, through her ... read more
