So I made it to Pushkar. Its very nice and relaxing here and the lake is beautiful. I am now traveling with a girl from Uruguay named Cecilia. We went on a camel safari yesterday which was supposed to be all day and overnight, spending the night in the desert. But it turns out we weren't allowed to do that so we only went for about 6 hours during the middle of the day. It was still very nice, riding a camel was fun and the scenery was beautiful. However, when we got back I didn't want to pay the guy [View Full Entry]

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Actually, now I'm feeling much better. But two days ago I was terribly sick with what was apparently a bad stomach/intestinal infection which kept me up with a fever and making relatively frequent trips to the bathroom all night. A wonderful woman from Austria who I had been travelling with helped take care of me, without which I don't know what I would have done. So we called the doctor in the morning and he came and checked me out and gave me some injections (of which I've now had a few more, all in the buttocks, which are now becoming [View Full Entry]

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I've been kinda lazy on updating lately. Amritsar was nice, had an interesting time getting there too. When I was waiting for the train in Rishikesh, I met some Sikh men and talked to them about where I was going and how I was planning on getting there. They told me they were also going to Amritsar and that they were going in a much quicker way and that I should come with them. After a while I decided it would be a good idea and agreed to get off with the at Midnight which was four hours before the stop [View Full Entry]

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My stay in Rishikesh, which turned out to be considerably longer than I had originally planned, has come to an end. Tomorrow I leave for Pathnakot on train to get a bus to Amritsar to see the Golden Temple and make a trip to see the extravagant border closing ceremonies on the India-Pakistan Border. From there I am planning on going to Dharamsala and then Manali. However, it seems to be quite cold and rainy there lately, not my favorite combination. So I am beginning to consider other opportunities. Maybe I'll make a trip to Rajasthan instead. I have really enjoyed [View Full Entry]

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Yep, finally put a few pictures up yesterday, enjoy. My weeklong Yoga class starts tomorrow. I think I'll have to suck up some serious soreness. [View Full Entry]

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Arrived in Haridwar after a smooth 18 hour train ride yesterday morning, but since the train was late, instead of arriving at 4, it arrived at 5:30, which was good because that's exactly when I woke up. Got to Rishikesh easily and cheaply by taking a bus which was cheaper than my half of an autorickshaw to get close to where I wanted to be after arrived at the bus stand in Rishikesh. Met a girl from Michigan named Jen at the bus stand in Haridwar who looked just as confused and lost as me (none of the destinations of the [View Full Entry]

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Hello again from Varanasi. Soo, when I booked a train ticket from the hotel a few days ago. I told the guy to book it for the fifth. He said there was one emergency seat left, which was lucky, and booked it for me. I double checked that I was going to the right station, that the name of the train was right and came to the right platform, actually it moved, but someone let me know, which was good. Oh, I was also basically swarmed by crickets while waiting in the train station. Only a couple jumping on me every [View Full Entry]

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I arrived smoothly in Varanasi yesterday morning after what started out to be a nice train ride because of the beautiful scenery but wasn't too good at night because I had a lower bunk and people kept sitting on my bunk in the middle of the night and not wanting to move, keeping me from sleeping soundly for more than like a half hour at a time. Oh well. Yesterday I first visited the Cremation Ghat where people are cremated right out in the open because then their souls go straight to heaven instead of being reincarnated. Apparently certain people can't [View Full Entry]

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I just got back from my trip to North Sikkim, it was great. North Sikkim is an amazingly beautiful place which is still mostly untouched by extreme population or development. The only think I didn't like about the journey was the extreme amounts of time in the jeep. Especially the ride back, I think our driver was in a hurry and was going a little too fast to be remotely comfortable because the roads are bad enough to throw you around in your seat if the driver goes too fast. But it was a beautiful country, waterfalls everywhere you look and [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Gangtok yesterday where I could finally get some more money changed, I had to borrow a bit in Pelling as there was no money changer. Its a much larger city here, pretty touristy but not bad, the weather is a little better, I saw some snow covered peaks today, I guess the Kanchendzonga range, which I think is the same thing as Kanchenjunga but maybe in a different language? I dunno though. Pelling was nice, a good challenging trek to the Lake and then to another little town near there. The second day reminded me of Mt. Mitchell [View Full Entry]

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