Final thoughts and highlights of India/Nepal trip

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We started from Kathmandu to Delhi to JFK to Houston and some 30+ hours later, we are home. The trip home was very long, made more so by a screaming baby with unmotivated parents in the seat across from us. Apart from the trip home and the extreme heat in India, this was a really good trip.

I saw the Taj Mahal up close and personal. I rode an elephant! I took a plane ride to see Mt. Everest. I saw a living goddess. I ate a water buffalo dumpling. And I didn't get sick. I think all of that in itself makes the trip good but it is this combined with many other less dramatic moments that make this trip not just fun but also eye opening and educational.

I was pleasantly surprised at how friendly the people were. I think since it was so crowded I was expecting something like New York attitudes. Not so. They are as interested in visitors as we are in them. I was tickled at how many locals wanted their pictures made with us, especially the blondes in the group, because of our fair skin. i was amazed at how many products and advertisements they have to make their skin lighter when our culture says the sun-kissed look is healthy.

I tried local beer and enjoyed it. Our guide in India, he said it was his last tour of the season, treated us to some Indian dark rum called Old Monk. This was really good and I slept very well that night! The water buffalo dumpling was an experience, can't say I'd order it again if given the chance, but it wasn't bad tasting either.

One of the things I'll remember most, other than the heat, was the hawkers. They were the most persistent I've ever seen. I can understand how they make sales since you get to a point where you'll do anything just to get them to go away!

I brought back marble elephants, new carpets and a couple of necklaces to have tangible memories, but the sights and very loud sounds of the traffic snarls, cows in the roads, monkeys flying across rooftops, people living in shanty towns, eating at a Maharaja's palace, the smells of the street markets (and the toilets) will stay with Ernest and me no matter where we go.

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