India, a country unlike any other!

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I don’t even know how it’s possible, but Nate and Jessie have been gone for almost 2 years! Can you believe it? I haven’t been with them the whole time, but it’s sure been a crazy ride so far. We’re onto our last country on the list, India. I had heard so many crazy stories about India that I didn’t even know what to expect. But, part of me couldn’t WAIT to get there because I knew I would have plenty of company from fellow long tailed, furry friends. I was just about jumping up and down in my seat on the plane. I’m sure you all know how hard it can be to sit still sometimes when you’re really excited about something. I definitely had the India jitters!

We first flew into a city called Calcutta. It’s the poorest city in all of India and we were in for quite a shock when we arrived. You wouldn’t even believe how much garbage there was in the streets and how many people were living in the streets too. Between Wylie and me we’ve seen our fair share of homeless people, but India is on a whole other level. We could also tell we might just end up being a main attraction here since Nate and Jessie were both approached by people who just wanted to take their picture in front of one of the monuments we went to visit. There are definitely people here who don’t see many tourists with white skin, that’s for sure. Even the ones who weren’t taking pictures would stare at us as we had a 3^rd arm growing somewhere or forgot to wipe toothpaste off of our lips. At first I was asking Nate and Jessie just about every 10 minutes if I had a booger or something in my nose. Luckily I didn’t! That sure would be a little embarrassing.

Our next stop was the holiest city in India, Varanasi. We thought our last stop was dirty, until we got here! There were cows all over the place in the streets and the alleys, along with lots and lots of cow pies to go with them. Let me tell you, you’d better watch your step here. One wrong move and you might be cleaning your shoes for a while. Yuk! We learned that people from all over India come here to die. You see, most people in India are Hindu. That means they believe they have 3 mothers; the one you’re born from, the Ganga (the holy river here), and cows. I know it sounds silly, but they really do believe it! The cows looked like they were in better health than some of the people here! They also believe that because the river is their second mother, it will never make them sick. They bathe in the river, wash their clothes in the river, and even shave and brush their teeth in it! When you get one sight of how dirty it is, you’re probably going to think they’re all a little crazy. Don’t worry, we did too.

As if the sights weren’t enough to give us a little culture shock, the noise and the smells definitely were! India is absolutely chaos at all times. It’s hard to believe unless you’re actually here, but all day long people are yelling, fighting, and pushing their way past each other in a rush to get things done. Good thing I have tall people to sit on while going through the crowds. I would get trampled like a mouse in a heard of buffalo here! I was holding on nice and tight to Jessie’s ponytail with my tail, and sometimes Nate’s as well if I wasn’t hiding underneath it. It took me a little while to get used to all of the craziness, but really I don’t think it’s possible to get completely used to it.

Amritsar was another holy city we wanted to see. It’s the home of the famous Golden Temple. People come from all around India on a pilgrimage to visit this amazing temple. Have you ever heard the saying, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch?” Well here inside the temple there is. They literally feed thousands of people every day for free all day long and all night long. Can you believe that? It doesn’t matter who you are, even tourists. There ARE some rules you need to follow though. Everyone has to have their head covered, even men, and nobody is allowed to have shoes on anywhere on the walkways once you enter. Lucky for me I don’t wear shoes! This was another place where Nate and Jessie would be posing for many pictures, especially Jessie. In a country full of people with dark hair, dark eyes and dark skin, she stuck out like a sore thumb! Every single person was staring at her…honestly, every single one! We’ve never seen anything like it before.

We also decided to take a trip to the Pakistani border to see a ritual they perform every night as they close the border down. The soldiers from both sides do a series of high kicks, stomping and marching as the people cheer them on, rooting for their countrymen. “Hey Nate, do you think you could do that?” Yeah right, Nate would probably tear his pants if he tried that one! It was a sight I’ll never forget, but then again, I have a feeling I won’t be forgetting LOTS of sights here.

Our next stop was no exception. We made it to one of the wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal. You’ve probably seen pictures of this beautiful temple, and we were all in awe when we got to see it. I was sort of hoping I could climb up onto the top, but I guess they don’t let monkeys jump up the sides anymore. Around Agra, the town with the Taj Mahal, we also saw lots of camels and water buffalo in the streets. Isn’t that amazing? Can you imagine eating breakfast and looking down at the street to walk camels walking by? Jessie couldn’t take pictures for me fast enough!

Another popular place in India is an area called Rajasthan. It’s made up of a few different cities, but the most well-known cities are Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, and Udaipur. Unfortunately for Jessie and Nate, they got really sick in Jaipur, so it wasn’t exactly their favorite place. Jodhpur was really neat! There was a huge fort that you could go inside of and look down on the city with lots of buildings painted indigo blue. It’s a color that’s supposed to help the house stay cooler and keep away mosquitoes. Jaisalmer is another city with a huge fort as the main attraction. Jaisalmer is in the middle of the desert and it’s super-hot there. We were ready for a change of scenery to next up we went to Udaipur; it’s one of the favorites with many people who come here. We even got to see a traditional dance one night and the street was packed with people watching! Our time in Rajasthan was amazing, but we were really excited to get to Goa after a quick stop in Mumbai.

Mumbai is a huge city packed with lots and lots of people. None of us could have expected to see so many people in one place. This was one of the few times we wouldn’t eat Indian food. We actually found a McDonald’s! The food at McDonald’s is much different from the food at home. Most of the people in India don’t eat beef because it’s against their religion, so they have other options instead. We tried a veggie burger and believe it or not, it was really good! How many of you would try one of this if you had the chance? Are any of you surprised we found a McDonald’s in India? Since I don’t eat beef either, I was more than happy to eat a veggie burger. All I needed was a side of bananas and mangos and it would’ve been a perfect meal for a little monkey like me.

One thing about traveling in India is that you take a LOT of trains. Sometimes we were on the train for more than 20 hours! How is a monkey supposed to stay still for that long? What would YOU do to keep yourself busy on a ride like that? I have to say, there really aren’t too many dull moments on the trains here. Not to mention, the people are usually really loud. If only they had a teacher on the bus to tell them, “Shhh, inside voices everyone.” Traveling in this huge country and being around so many people can wear you out, so we decided to spend a couple of weeks in a little fishing village called Agonda. Never before in my life have I seen so many cows march down the beach for their nightly meals! Can you imagine? My eyes were as big as oranges when I first saw that! Even though it was nice to slow down for a while, we kept on moving through India.

One of my favorite places we went to was Hampi. Hampi is filled with boulders everywhere you look. The best way to explore here is to rent a cheap motorbike and cruise around. Just picture this…Nate driving, Jessie on the back, and me hanging on tight to the handlebars as if I was in a roller coaster. Faster Nate, faster! We also hiked up to monkey temple for a great view of the whole area. I felt like I could see forever up there. We had another long train ride to get us to the state of Kerala.

In Kochi we got to see some really neat Chinese fishing nets, something I have never seen before and neither had Jessie or Nate. Just in case you’re wondering, they actually still use them today! We took a little ride on a boat through some backwaters to get to Alleppey and made our way even further south to Varkala. We did our best to soak up some sunshine and I worked on evening out my monkey tan. After all, I get some pretty bad tan lines with my t-shirt on all the time!

Next up was Madurai, home to one of the other famous temples in India. The most impressive thing about this temple was actually the ceiling, even though all of the sculptures outside were really nice as well. This was another place with strict rules. Nobody was allowed to wear shoes and only long pants were OK to wear, so no shorts or short dresses. We stayed inside exploring for quite a while, and it was hard to hold back the urge to climb the walls and get a closer look at the beautiful ceiling. Even with my tail twitching in excitement, I managed to enjoy the view from the shoulders of Nate and Jessie. Eventually we made our way over to Chennai, after making a huge C in the country we were all really tired. I still think it’s crazy that we just spent 3 months in India! We’ll be spending a little bit of time in a couple of our favorite countries we’ve already written about, and then making our way back to the US. Our trip is coming to an end kids. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about Wylie and I!

Your friend forever,
Amelia

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