As I write this post, we are winding through the precipitous mountains of Himachal Pradesh, in a car artfully commanded by our driver Pema. Himachal Pradesh is poised at the foothills of the Himalayas, and the terrain allows for stunning snapshots as well as potential carsickness.

We’ve spent the past two days learning about Tibetan Buddhist culture by exploring Dharamsala/Mcleod Ganj (home of the Dalai Lama) and staying at the Sherabling Monastery. When we were wandering around Mcleod Ganj, we realized that the hippie shopkeepers in Berkeley are making a pretty penny marking up hemp ponchos and “Free Tibet” swag. Up here a “Free Tibet” hat goes for about 50 Rupees, or a dollar.

Sherabling is located about four hours from the nearest major train station (Pathankot) and the fresh, clean air there was a welcome reprieve from the smoky, smoggy city. As we meandered through the monastic buildings and surrounding trails, I was struck by the variety of intense colors — the green and brown of the tiered rice paddies, the slate of the rocks in the dried riverbed, the deep red and saffron of the monks’ robes, the electric lime of Jamie’s fleece, the rainbow of Tibetan prayer flags billowing in the breeze. I was glad that we were able to take day to sit back and enjoy the beauty in our surroundings.

Sadly, amidst all of that beauty, I must confirm that my worst fear has come true — Crocs have completely permeated global society. I saw a monk sporting a pair with his robes at the monastery this morning. Thankfully, there have been no Ugg sightings yet so there is still hope for mankind.

By the end of today we will have covered nearly 500 km (300 miles) travelling by road between Jaipur, Agra, and Delhi. But these roads are a far cry from the New Jersey Turnpike, and each mile offers a new source of amusement, visual/auditory/olfactory stimulation, and absolute gut-wrenching terror.

Amusement comes in the form of animals wandering through the streets and highways — cows, dogs and even monkeys — totally unphased by the honking vehicles navigating around them. The animals truly own the roads here. 9 or 10 people on an auto-rickshaw is not an uncommon sight, nor is a tractor towing a bicycle or a donkey hauling a cart with half a dozen grown men on it — generally right down the middle of the highway.

The senses are overwhelmed by the every imaginable color — in dress, on billboards (99% of which are painted, not printed), and in painted designs on the sides of almost every truck. The never-ending symphony of horns (drivers honk pretty much everytime they pass another car or truck) ranges from lorry baritone to Toyota soprano, and even includes musical clown horns to calm the nerves. And distinct smells waft into the car along every stretch of road — incense, smoke from controlled brushfires in the countryside, noxious fumes in the cities, and raw sewage pretty much anywhere.

Lastly fright, with one seeming “near miss” after another, as bicyclists, tractors, pedestrians, trucks and cars all share the same road, each moving at their own pace. The operating norm seems to be that one has the right-of-way so long as oncoming traffic can stop/slow down in time to avoid collision. This made things particularly interesting this morning when the road from Jaipur to Agra was shrouded in the thickest fog I’ve ever seen, and our driver would skillfully hit the brakes just in time to avoid a vehicle suddenly emerging from the white. Given these challenging traffic norms, I have been incredibly impressed with the skill of our drivers, whose seeming near misses would be crushing metal if instead it was me behind the wheel.

Today we visited the magnificent palace and former Mughal capital at Fatehpur Sikri, and the even more incredible Taj Mahal in Agra, before parting with my family to commence the next leg of our trip. Both of these sites deserve a lot more ink than I’m giving them here (and a lot more time than we were able to spend visiting them), but just trust that they were both incredibly fascinating and spectacular, and that my poor photography skills do not do them justice. Nevertheless, we’ll try to get the photos up ASAP.

We’re almost to Delhi, where we will catch an overnight train to Dharamsala, home of the Dalai Lama and a large Tibetan exile community. Stay tuned for our next update from the Himalayas!

A few photos from my phone:

Check out our new photos and Trippermap! (We’ll try to get more up when we find a faster connection!)

Today began with a quick elephant ride up to the huge fort in Amber (a 400 year old fort) just outside Jaipur, along with all the other tourists (most of whom are actually Indian). I felt bad for the elephants the whole time, especially when I saw one of the elephant drivers with a sharp metal spike — it definitely seemed like some sort of torture device.

At the fort I was most intrigued by the ornately mirrored walls of one of the rooms, while Jamie was mesmerized by the advanced plumbing, cooling and air filtration techniques used throughout the compound by the Rajputs (he watches way too much Modern Marvels). We also hiked up a long steep path to the top of the fort and got a great view of the city (I felt like we earned the lunch that followed).

Now we’re back at the hotel and excited for some chill time

The good news is I got to India…the bad news is my baggage didn’t. It got stuck in Beijing but will be delivered to Lataa Chitti’s (my aunt’s) house.

Not deterred, I raided Lataa Chitti’s closet (3 AM - photo at right), Mehar Singh drove us to the train station (4 AM — the title of this post is derived from the incredibly annoying and repetitive message that played over the station’s loudspeaker when trains were delayed) and we hopped the train to Jaipur (6 am). The service on the train surpassed our expectations (on time, lots of legroom… way better than Amtrak!). When we got on board we received tea and biscuits, a copy of the Hindustan Times, followed by a delicious lunch of vada, and sambar (Jamie looked confused so I showed him how to eat them).

After getting off the train we met up with Jamie’s family (David, Rusty, and brother Dan) at the luxurious Le Meridien. From there it was off to the City Palace, the Jantar Mantar and the Palace of the Winds.

The Jantar Mantar is an astronomical/astrological observatory, which includes a huge (27 meters high) sundial which can tell time up to 2 seconds. It was also interesting to see the dials which are used to calculate the ascending star sign in Hindu astrology. My grandfather was an astrologer and I’ve been hearing about Hindu stars and signs since birth so it was very cool to see how the calculations are made.

  

I am sitting in Delhi’s Airport, anxiously awaiting Ramya’s arrival! My first 24 hours in India have been jam-packed with:

• Sightseeing, including several unintended loops around the very confusing 3 rings of Connaught Place, Delhi’s new Metro (the nicest subway I’ve ever been on), India Gate (Delhi’s Arc de Triomph), the fascinating Ghandi Smitri Museum (on the site of his assassination in 1948), and the very impressive Humayun’s tomb,
• 4 or 5 incredible meals/snacks and tea with my autorockshaw driver,
• Ear cleaning service sales pitches — one man cornered me on a park bench and tried to sell me said services by showing me a little notebook with testimonials by all his satisfied customers — one read “You should have seen how much crap he pulled out of my ears — Raju is amazing!”
• Some absolutely wild rides and walks along the anarchic roadways of Central Delhi,
• Very smoggy, smoky, foggy air that (combined with my jetlag) can give the place a very surreal aura, and last but certainly not least,
• The incredible hospitality of Prasad and Mehar Singh, Lataa’s staff (Lataa is Ramya’s aunt who we will see at the end of our trip, and at whose wonderful home I stayed last night while she’s on vacation). They have burned the midnight oil (our flights arrive at ungodly hours) to make my first 24 hours as painless and comfortable as possible.

Photos coming soon. Ramya’s flight just landed and we’re headed straight to the train station to catch our 6am train to Jaipur, where we’ll rendezvous with my family for a couple days. Hope to catch some sleep on rails!

Jamie is currently en route to Delhi right now, via London (eat some salted cashews for all of us, J!) Unfortunately, thanks to a canceled United flight (with no notice), I’m still in rainy San Fran (BOO!).

When I arrived at the airport this morning they informed me that I couldn’t fly to Delhi via Beijing without a Chinese visa because my itinerary said I was staying in Beijing for over 24 hours. What?! A 28-hour layover? That was definitely NOT in my original plans. But apparently United/Air China canceled my original Beijing to Delhi flight and without telling me, booked me on a flight that left the following day (moral of the story: think twice before flying United).

Rather than camp out in the Beijing airport and risk deportation due to lack of a visa, I’m just flying to Beijing/Delhi tomorrow morning…certainly not my ideal situation. The good news is, while this sets me back a day, it doesn’t interrupt too much of our itinerary. As soon as I get to Delhi, we’ll hop a train to Jaipur to meet up with the Ruth clan.

Just hoping that Jamie can survive a day in Delhi left to his own devices We shall see…

Merry Christmas from Heathrow, where I’m joined by all my fellow heathens. I got something even better than pub food on my overnight flight: mincemeat pie — one of only a few British culinary creations worth blogging about. Props to Cedric, who half-jokingly predicted this most favorite pie of mine might appear on my tray table. For the record, there is no meat in said pie.

I’m bummed I won’t get to spend the first day exploring Delhi with Ramya, but I’ve promised not to have too much fun on my own (Supreme Court of India Museum, here we come)!

Well, sort of. We’re finally leaving rainy San Francisco tomorrow (on separate flights, going opposite ways around the world), and should arrive in India in the wee hours of Thursday morning. That means all 75 minutes or so of my Christmas will be spent in Heathrow Terminal 5, while Ramya gets a little longer to enjoy the holiday during her layover in Beijing’s airport. Incidentally, all Ramya and I wanted for Christmas this year was ramen and over-cooked pubfood, so this is going to work out really well.

Enjoy our first video as we set off for India (and Ramya almost breaks her back before we even get there).

God(s) know(s) the Taj Mahal has been photographed millions of times (and we’ll snap a few of our own) but we also want to know what images you think we should capture while we’re in India.

From the artful to the obscure (and downright ridiculous) we’ll do our best to fulfill your requests — just leave them in the comments

Jamie said I had to post something or I would lose my blogging privileges, so here is a short list of things I am excited for on our trip:

• Seeing my family!! (especially my cousin Bhargav whom I have yet to meet)
• Overnight train rides (umm, not really, but the stories should be good)
• Visiting the Taj Mahal and other touristy places I’ve never been
• Roadside carts, mango juice, Grand Sweets and Thumbs Up cola (the best soda in the world)
• The sweet smell of cow dung and auto exhaust
• Not having a cell phone or email for 2 weeks (I know you’ll miss me)

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