This auto rickshaw had about 15 people in it. Its hard to tell from this angle but they were so happy and laughing and they were very excited to get their picture taken. I wanted to get in with them.

I liked this picture. The palace in the background is in the middle of a lake. It is a beautiful place and lots of locals were having picnics along the edge of the lake.

There were actually a lot more but they would not sit still long enough. It took about 10 seconds for just these kids to get me. Pretty cute!

My new friend!

Marble Palace, Jaipur.

The marble palace in Jaipur.

The moon over the fort/palace in Jaipur.

Close to smogset from hilltop fort/palace.

This is the view of Jaipur from a hilltop fort/palace. It was a very cool place.

This is the biggest sundial in the world.

Puja along the Ganga river. Puja is a respect offering I believe.

Rihsikesh sunset over the holy Ganga river.

I'm Finally Here!

I made it to the present! It only took about a 6 hour internet marathon, with more I still have to do as far as pictures are concerned. Next stop is Jaisalmer, a desert safari, and of course more forts and palaces, then a whirlwind of buses trains, and short stops in towns across Rajasthan. It looks like it is going to be exciting and hectic and we are not sure if were going to make it to Kolkata in time, so the adventure continues!

Delhi and Beyond

I have to say that our first experience in India was not the most pleasant part of our journey and the thought of returning was giving me a bit of the heebie jeebies. I seriously considered staying in Nepal for another month where I could go on more treks and be at peace and not have to worry about talking to guys who really, really want to get a picture of Holly and wouldn't leave me alone until the photo was taken. How wrong I was. I guess if you are going to travel to India you should stay away from the state of Bihar and go right to Rajasthan. Delhi is crazy, packed, loud, smelly, and fun. When we first arrived I was still a little bit hungover from the night before in Kathmandu and when we were dropped off in a section of town called Paharganj, with a market street called main bazaar I was expecting the worst. It was about as crowded and chaotic as something can get without there being a riot or some kind of huge four day concert going on. This is a normal day actually and the amount of people is astonishing. It is a non-stop flow from 8 in the morning until about 10 at night. This isn't just in the market streets either, although I would classify every street as a market street actually. The river of human beings is endless, the noise of honking horns is piercing to eardrum shattering if your lucky to be by a larger vehicle, and the wonderful smell of exhaust is ever present. This is the city in India. One minute you are smelling the most disgusting thing you can think of and the next you get a smell of a fresh fruit stand that makes your nose do a little dance. Fried food is also very common. This is a bit of a weak spot for me, but it is easy to turn down when you see the fare covered in a swarm of flies, or an exhaust burst lay a fine cloud of flavor all over it. Some of it though is irresistible, with samosas, veg pakoras, and Holly's all-time favorite jalebis. It tastes a bit like a funnel cake, but it is dipped in a sugar syrup after it is fried so it is more like a Krispy kream without the mass of dough. After hangover recovery and some walking we had dinner and it was just like I imagined it was meant to be. The best part was dinner cost about 4 bucks. Not too bad I'd say. One thing is that beer is still a little bit shady here so you can't always enjoy your meal with a cold one, but the fresh lemon sodas are kick ass and refreshing. In Delhi I wasn't hassled too much and I am becoming better at evading the guys who want something. So far everyone has a friend in America. Most live in California or New York. The guys on the street would like to talk to you about their friends they wonder if you might be able to give them some information so they can help their friend out. I don't know what I could tell them that would be of assistance so I tell them I have a stomach ache or something and that I have to go or I'll shit my pants. It is a common excuse I hear but with my history I feel like I am not totally lying and sometimes I'm not. Of course if you were to go and talk with one of these gentleman they will eventually lead you to a shop of some kind and offer you tea and try to sell you whatever they are peddling. Speed walking is another great way of evasion and not ever making eye contact helps as well. Just smile and walk like you know where you are going and hassling becomes minimal. The first full day we were there was a monday, and lo and behold, everything is closed so it was kind of a lazy day. We made the best out of it though in the evening when Holly suggested we go check out the local cinema. It was a double-decker theater, probably built sometime in the 50's, and the only attendants were male, except for Holly of course. We arrived after the show had begun, which was good because it was dark and Holly was somewhat less of a distraction for the other patrons. The movie itself was an older make, and it appeared visually as if it had been running non-stop for two years. The sound was loud and the plot was fairly easy to follow. It was a common theme of the lowborn man meeting the rich girl, who fall in love only to be thwarted by the evil father. Well that is how it ended at the intermission after an hour and a half so we blew that pop stand. Before we did though we saw a cat prowling the aisles and some of the most non-sensical movie making I could imagine. People were appearing in the middle of nowhere singing songs and dancing in a fashion that you must laugh at if you're not an Indian. Shooting locations were changing right in mid-scene and of course scene to scene was incomprehensible. You really have to see it to appreciate it, but hope there is an intermission to escape the epic musicals. I must say that the movie was old and today's bollywood productions do appear to have a much better production value, so I can't judge the whole Indian movie industry, but I did judge that one movie. Probably the most valuable tidbit I got out of it was a new dance move to be performed in a battle with Malcolm sometime (be prepared buddy). The next day we were able to do the touristy things and the Jama Masjid and the Red Fort were impressive. The Jama Masjid is the biggest mosque in India and it is an impressive and beautiful sight, as long as you don't try to look far over the walls because the smog becomes impenetrable after about a half mile. One funny thing happened inside which is worth mentioning because I wish I could repeat it myself. This family of Indians, mostly boys, and a couple of women saw Holly and started getting excited for a picture. They asked nicely and it is hard to refuse no matter how weird it seems so we obliged. Right away this little Muslim man came over with a bamboo stick and started whacking the photographer in the balls. The guy took a couple of direct hits but maintained his photographic stance until the old man really gave him a good one. He told us "No photos with Indian men!" and we have been trying to hold to that rule ever since. I must say that sometimes it isn't so weird because a whole family with women and everything will want to get their picture taken with you. We just wonder really what they do with the photos and how exciting can a couple o' whiteys be. We also saw one of the wildest traffic jams. Auto rickshaws, motorcycles, normal rickshaws (a bike with a couple seats behind it if you don't know), normal bikes, normal cars, vans, and cows and people all trying to get somewhere fast, except for the cow that is. They just usually stand there and do whatever they want and nobody minds, due to the fact that they are holy. It was a great time weaving through this traffic though and you really feel like a superstar after you get through it. Walking has never been so fun. We saw a Brahma bull that was the size of an elephant and I shit you not. A smaller grown elephant maybe, but anyway the thing was huge. I couldn't believe it. We also went to Mcdonalds and had some lunch to see what it was like. No beef of course but Holly said the veggie burger was fantastic and the sandwich I had was a version of the Big Mac but with chicken and the special sauce was masala. It wasn't too bad really, and we (or mostly I) just had to try. We left Delhi that day on a train to a town called Hardiwar. We only spent one night there, but had another great meal for really cheap and watched the beginnings of the Obama-rama. In the morning we watched his dominating victory, the speeches by both candidates and felt a sense of pride that we hadn't felt yet on the journey really. We could finally proudly claim our nationality without any hesitation. Not that it was bad really to begin with but it just seemed different after that. We rode on the bus to Rishikesh that same day and discovered the first peaceful place in India, that we had been to anyway. It was a breath of fresh air and I could finally relax and do so yoga in peace. A little sarcasm there. I went hiking and rafting, did yoga a couple of times, and ate a lot of food. One of the yoga sessions was led by Gumby himself and it was interesting to watch the rest of the participants, myself included, fail miserably at reproducing his elastic moves. He did elbow stands, touching his feet to the top of his head and then went into back bends and grabbed his ankles and then just stood up from that position. He would say "Just try." and nobody really did, but he put on a good show nevertheless. The next session was normal, and much easier on the body. They also had free Indian music shows at night which were very cool really. A lot of people go to Rishikesh on a spiritual journey so you'd see a bunch of people meditating, or just sleeping during the shows. There are places called ashrams all over where you can stay if you'd like but you have to follow the rules. They are usually free, but it still seems like a high price to me;). We stayed for five nights, until Holly couldn't take it anymore and we left via bus to Delhi. The 6 hour ride wasn't too bad, Holly actually enjoyed it immensely and had some fried foods, some coffee and sweets at one the stops along the way. She didn't enjoy it later I have to say. We arrived in Delhi at about 11:30 to one of the more pungent human piss smells you could imagine. The sidewalk itself was the urinal and it was so drenched it looked like it had just been washed with a hose. A hose that sprays piss that is. We got an prepaid auto rickshaw driver who wouldn't take us where we wanted to go because he knew he wouldn't make commission off of us so it was the first time we had to raise our voices telling him to get moving. He finally relented and we stayed in a dormitory for dirt cheap for about four hours before we had to get up to catch our train. I woke Holly up and she instantly ran to the bathroom and started heaving her guts out. The rest of the people in the dorm room were probably enjoying the sounds as much as I was. It sounded painful and prolonged and it was the perfect way to feel right before you get on a train. We figured it was the sweets or the coffee that bit her because I ate some of the fried food and I didn't get sick. She survived the train ride to Jaipur but is still not feeling her best 4 days later. Jaipur is a great little city, with friendly people, great forts and palaces, and bustling markets, although I assume there is no such thing as a slow market in India. Met a couple gals from England and traveled with them one day while Holly was ill and had a great time. The highlight of my stay here had to be the elephants though. I finally got to pet one and satisfy my curiosity as to what the heck they feel like. Holly thinks I have a little bit of an obsession with them but I don't think so. They have intelligent eyes and you can tell they like it when you give 'em a good hard trunk petting. It was a lot of fun. I was offered tea no less than eight times on one of my walks, but managed to evade the sellers (who claim not to want to sell you anything). It is still fun having a back and forth with them though and I am coming to enjoy the game. Sometimes they play hard ball though and say not having tea with them is disrespectful to them, but what are you gonna do? Sometimes you really gotta take a shit.

A small jump in time and pictures here due to my camera being borrowed, but this is Rishikesh, where yoga and spirituality reign, as well as the monkeys.

These are a couple of young lady porters, probably around 12-13 years old. They are tougher than we are.

A little sample of some of the lines we would bet behind. Notice the donkeys.

Beautiful rice paddies were all over the place and you can kind of see a waterfall in the background. We were all excited about them at first and then we realized there are 1000 of them. They were all still pretty though.

This was also from the first day. I don't have many pictures of Nepal because my mom stole my camera because of the battery situation. I think it captures what we were seeing quite well.

This is our first day of the trek. My mom didn't realize alot of the trek was in jungle and I had just cut the sleeves off of her shirt with my knife.

This temple's name is Changu Naryan. It was beautiful and believed to be one of the oldest in the Kathmandu Valley, built in 1937. Just kidding. I don't know old it is.

This is a photo of the bike ride and guide on our way to Changu Naryan.

This is the main part of the Monkey temple.

This is a part of the Swambyunath temple in Kathmandu, but it is much easier to call it the Monkey Temple. It was a little after sunset and I thought this picture turned out well.

It is kind of hard to tell what this is but I held my camera out the window of the jeep we were in and took a snap shot. Doesn't really capture that it is actually kind of straight down, and yes those are people living on the side of the hill.

The Victoria Memorial in Kolkata. One of the few things to see here that we could find.

This is the Luxor temple from inside. I only paid 20 egyptian pounds in bakeesh here. Very exciting!

This was a great place called Hatshepsut's temple.

Holly strikin a pose with the sphinx.

A relaxing moment in 95 degree temperatures.

This is me in Sakkhara.

Riding camels baby!

Can you guess where this is?

This is Praha or Prague if you like from a place called the Petra tower. I am terrible at putting these photos in here in a proper order so just bear with me.

These pictures are the cathedral in Praha, the holocaust memorial in Berlin, Holly in Praha, and I forget the name of the tower statue dealy in Berlin.

These photos are of Amsterdam and downtown Lynden, the windmill kind of gives it away. The one with Holly in it is the TV tower in Berlin. It's kinda big.

Part 2 of the "Anna'poo'na race circuit trek"

Having left off writing about the travels through the windy canyon and somewhat touching on the great people you meet along the way I will resume telling the story at the part I like to think of as the "stair steppers dreamland". If you are in serious need of a workout I know the perfect place for you to go. If you were to do the trek in a clockwise fashion and you like to punish yourself for being a bad person then start your trek in Bherathani, go to Ghorepani, and end in Tatopani. In Ghorepani, there is a little side trek to a place called Poon hill that is merely a warm up for going down literally several thousand steps in either direction. The problem, as you may have deduced is that you must climb up several thousand steps to even begin the little climb to Poon hill. From Tatopani it is a decent climb that has most people hitting the hay early and wishing that they had a personal masseuse to help them forget the day. From Bherathani it is something else entirely. Everyone we passed going in that direction was either resting or breathing very hard and cursing in their own language. I made sure to give them reassurances that there were only about 1000 steps left and then it got a little easier for a little bit and then a few more steps after that. They didn't seem very happy about my motivational speeches so I just started lying and saying "you're almost there!" I think the latter is actually a little bit more evil but I wasn't really sorry about it as I chuckled inside. The stairs themselves should be considered one of the wonders of the world. Some of the rocks they use are huge and it is hard to imagine how they were put into position, especially in such professional way. The guys from Context Design and Build would probably comment that the risers were of various elevations ranging from 4 in. to 17 in. and that an inspector would likely fail the builders without even blinking. I give them a passing grade though considering the difficulty level must have been somewhere in the millions on a 1 to 10 scale. From one point you can see a town directly beneath you and it almost looks like you could jump off the stairs and land in one of the cafes that tempt you from such a long distance, but the smart way is right in front of you in a descending zig zag that dissappears from sight and you know it keeps going for a long time after you can't see it anymore. I was very happy we were going down on this side. Oh yes, I must tell you that both of the hikes are in the jungle and it is a little bit hot and humid. We survived the descent and did a marathon hike to catch a taxi to the promised land that is Pokhara. Ahhhh, Pokhara! Every hike should have a town like it waiting at the end of it. Beautiful climate, nice lake, restaurants, shopping (for the ladies of course) and bars and live music. Even though the town itself kind of shuts down around eleven, they will let you stay in the back and drink and laugh away. Most everyone we met on the trek was there at some point and we all had a great time laughing about everything that happened along the way. The only problem though is when you leave the bar the lights in the town are shut off and if you don't have a torch, or "headlamp", then the walk can be a little disconcerting, to say the least. I don't think I was ever so happy to have a stray mangy mutt following me along a dark road. Then you get to the hotel and you have to do a little gate climbing, some creakier than others, and hope you aren't caught at the top by the guy you just woke up from all the noise. Usually he isn't very happy if you do wake him up, but you just smile say "sorry" and "thanks" and run for your bed. I have to say that I became very good at gate climbing in all phases of sobriety and consider myself somewhat of a master, if there is such a thing. I only woke up the guy once or twice that I can remember and that was because they had the front door locked. After a few days relaxing in Pohkara we went on a three day rafting adventure down the Khali Ghandaki river. It was a hands on experience in the way that they made us do a lot of work setting up and breaking down camp, cutting vegetables, and other little tasks like getting water from the source 100 yards away. Overall it was a great time and the work was actually fun and the river was spectacular. We had great food and good rapids and fun people. They filmed us doing the big rapids and setting up camp and other little things and gave us a DVD as well, which was nice. Tried kayaking as well and found out it isn't as easy as it looks to go straight down the river. I also tried the eskimo roll a couple times and failed after swallowing a bit of water. It was funny watching some of the less experienced people try kayaking as we left them behind while they kept trying to go straight and failed miserably. We went back to Pokhara afterwards and stayed for a night and caught a plane to Kathmandu where we stayed for a couple of nights in the town of Bhaktapur and met up with Yuagen and Dharma by complete accident, who so graciously led us around the town. Yuagen invited us into his home to experience one of the festival nights and the blessing of the brother by the sister. It was great and Holly blessed me, as much as she didn't want to. We then went to Kathmandu and spent a couple days there before we bid farewell to our mother. Again I have to say thanks for everything Mom, and that I love you and will miss you in a couple more weeks! A bit of a joke there Mom. Anyway, Holly and I flew out the next day, myself having flown into outerspace the night before with a string of "European ciggarettes" and beer. We made it to Delhi in one piece and with all of our stuff and I will leave it at that. Until next time, Namaste!

How come nobody is writing my blog for me?

Well, I'm back from the trek and have been for some time and I am extremely dissappointed that nobody has composed my blog for me. It is hard work to come into and internet cafe and type, especially when youhave to pay for it! To tell you the truth I have writers block and it is embarrassing to put things out there without inspiration. "How can you not be inspired? ", you may ask, and I would reply that a beautiful 16 day trek will sap all inspiration from you. I could write for three straight days about all the wondrous sights and kind people, friends we made, pains we endured and I still wouldn't be able to encompass it all. It is like putting off a term paper till the last minute (which I always did) and then just panicing about it and not doing anything and then delivering a sub par work that is no fun for anyone. So what I'm going to do is just write in a sort of outline form and I'll tell you in person how it really went. Well, day one started off with 5 hour ride to a one hour off-roader's wet dream drive to our first hotel, which was found by crossing a raging river on a suspension bridge in the dark, being led by two Nepali trekkers (Yugen and Dharma) who we ended up running into several times along the journey and even after by total accident in their hometown. Our room was about a 3 star rating as we were soon to find that most rooms were 1 star, but little did we know or care (some caring more than others, mom), and it being the start of our journey. Well the food was good and we later found out that it was the same menu, almost exactly, all along the trek. This isn't so bad considering when you get done hiking for the day, anything and lots of it is the best thing. For the first few days we stayed in the marysandi river valley with jungle and rice paddies and waterfalls at every turn. It rained the first day only but it was refreshing and welcome considering my shirt and shorts were already drenched with sweat. The towns along the way all have guest houses and the charm is lacking in some, while incredible in others. Of course, the hundreds of trekkers that are on the trail the same time as you do not make it easy to find the charming towns having a available room. We later found out though that most of the places the majority of trekkers stay in are actually not the best as far as views and personalities are concerned so we tried to stay off the beaten path as much as we could. Oh yes, the Annapurna circuit should really be called the Anna"poo"rna circuit "race". Many people mean many donkey trains hauling supplies which means many poo bombs all along the trail. Luckily it doesn't really smell that bad, or maybe I just got used to it and avoiding stepping in it is pretty easy so it really wasn't that bad. Then there was the "race" part. Trying to stay ahead of these large packs of people is exhausting because you speed up to beat them and then you just run right into the ass end of another group of them. All these groups had porters as well who were carrying two peoples' stuff and they were beating the groups mostly. Speaking of porters, these guys are beyond belief. Some of the loads they carry must be seen to be appreciated. My mom now has a porter fetish, and probably took about 100 photos of various loads, including 7 ft. tall bags of rice stalks wrapped in plastic that I couldn't even imagine lifting let alone carrying up a damn steep hill, or down, to the oft seen knick knack porter that had a veritable mini-mart on his back. I guess I can't be too weirded out by my mom's new favorite obsession, because it would be downright sadistic for anyone who wasn't a Nepalese to do the same. They are mini (and some not so mini) supermen. Anyways, after we left the jungle we entered the pine forests which were like going home, except there were 25,000 ft. mountains in the background that appear to rise in a vertical rush. Describing these mountains, even the ones that didn't have any snow on them is useless, and until I put pictures of them onto the blog you'll just have to google pictures of them yourself. Well, after the pine forest region, which unfortunately only lasts for a couple days, you get near the tree line and it becomes drier and more desert like on one side of the valley. Then you know you are getting close to the big climb, which my mom was really excited about. We acclimated in a small town named Ghyaru, that is as beautiful as any on the trek. (Oh yes, I must note that on the way to Ghyaru, Mom was separated from Holly and I while she was taking some pictures of a woman porter carrying a bundle of wheat. It was several hours, the discovery of some very fine naturally growing cannabis, asking everybody in town if they had seen her, seeing signs scribbled in the dirt pointing in the right direction, and one hell of a switchback trail before we were rejoined by our delighted mother, who you know loves you very much when she is actually going back down the trail of doom to come find you). In Ghyaru it was a really peaceful and wonderful time....for Holly and I. My mom at this point got a flu bug or something and didn't feel very well. I thought it was altitude sickness but she refused to believe me. Luckily we planned on staying in Ghyaru for two days so it gave here a chance to recuperate. Well we set off on the trek again and two days later mom gets poisoned by a bad "potato rosty" prepared and served by some of the more drunk Nepali men I'd seen on the trek. I won't describe her illness to you in detail as it may be very emabarrassing for her story to be put onto the world wide web, but I will say that we laughed very hard and long after she got over it, which was before we had to go over the pass. Poor, tough ass mom, endured two days of no sustenance and the hardest part of the climb and decline (which in some ways was worse), and didn't complain a bit, except about the cleanliness of the rooms, which was nothing new to us. (I was and am very proud of you mom and I hope that we weren't too much of a pain in the ass for you, even when you weren't sick). After the pass, you enter the desert phase of the trek, including the Khali Ghandaki River canyon which boasts sustained winds of somewhere near 1000 mph with constant dust in your face. Seriously though it is more likely around 50 mph, but that is enough when you have to walk into it on one of the longest days of the hike. After that it was more towns, meeting the same people over and over, and being very happy to see them each time, which is a wonderful thing to have happen on a long trek with your family. The people on the trek are all great and you find great friends who you know you will keep in contact with for life and possibly meet in Thailand or something in a few more weeks. Well, my hour is up so I'm going to call this one quits for now. Bye!

Kolkata to Raxual: Big stink to little stink.

Wow, it seems like its been two months since I last sat down and did some typing. I'm a little drunk at the Hyatt in Kathmandu right now and finding it difficult to relate what has happened just to get to this point. I guess I must start at the train ride from Kolkata. First of all, never go to a train station in India without help, unless you are in tourist happy zone, which Kolkata is not. It was wild. We saw train cars packed with people beyond sardine can. Our ride was scheduled to last for 10 hours or so and when we saw the people on that train nightmares began. Of course, it was a sleeper train we tourists got on, and it wasn't too bad. I had the middle bunk of a three tier system where sheets, a pillow, and a blanket were provided. We have it so easy. The train ride was a decent and cheap hotel for the night so we ignored the man who puked all over the floor and the rollicking bathroom conditions and had ourselves a good nap. When we woke and arrrived in Patna, we realized quickly that things were going to be different. Patna is not where you want to have a layover. We got off the train and were instantly met by a man who started guiding us somewhere. I was just happy to be walking so I obliged. He led us through a train station from the apocalypse, and to a toursim agent that loves the business he gets from scared newbies. We were happy to give the man our money for a way to get out of town as soon as possible. We then found out we had 12 hours in this place to waste away. I must say that you should never judge a city by its train station, or the bustling crowd that greets you when you get out of it, but Patna is one of those towns. Don't go to Patna. We didn't have any information on the city and it was sweaty and people were all over us so I told Holly we were going for a walk to look for a cafe, internet bar, or any dark place to hide for a while. Well, we walked. And walked, and walked and walked and walked. It was terrible. I think we were the first outsiders to visit some sections of town in several generations. The people themselves were friendly in thier own, stare at you for a literal minute, kind of way, and it was really exciting to watch a man pee into a giant pool mixture of trash and god knows what else as we dry heaved walking by. We finally found an internet cafe and spent a couple hours in there. I didn't blog because I really wanted to get outside of the mindframe I was in before writing anything the public could read about it. After that we went to the "Oasis restaurant and bar" and it was amazing. Forget that the guys in there were wanting to know if we wanted to use the "backroom?" or that Holly could have been the inaugural female. This place was a godsend and we spent three hours there. Then we walked some more. Well, we got lost as usual and had to hire a took-took to get us somewhere. These guys were really nice and took us to places that were interesting and beautiful in there little ways. One was the Ganga river. It was wide and glistening, and if you ignored the trash along the banks, very pretty. Then they took us to the oldest grain silo in the world, which may not be true, because I just made it up, but it was old being first filled in 1786. The view from the top was great and probably the best part about the time we spent in Patna, except fort the leaving part. Well, it came to be that the reason these guys were so nice was because they wanted holly. They were pulling little touch maneuvers where ever they could get away with it. Perverted little puppies that they were, they gave us the cheapest, longest ride we had had so far. So really, it was a pretty good trade off. After getting back to the train station and a still having several hours to waste away, we found an internet cafe that was right under our noses. I hung outside and had a cigarette and was immediately claimed as family by two Indian guys. They were very nice and all, but there is something weird about desperately wanting to get photos, numbers, e-mail addresses, and how soon it will be before you stay at their house. Oh yeah, one rule when traveling abroad with your sister is that you should just claim she is your girlfriend in some countries. People salivate for a picture or want to talk your ear off about your sister. Much easier to claim incest than to deal with the onslaught. After the fifth level of hell, we proceeded directly to the seventh: the bus station. If we didn't have our tourist bookie we would still be in Patna selling our bodies for food. It was dark, exhaust filled, and full of people and horns and christmas lights and smells and whatever nasty things you can think of. It was a maze from hell. Eventually, we got on our sweaty ass bus and praised the lord that we were free. Well, the lord laughed a little bit then, sending us on the busride from hell. Luckily Holly had some ambien. It made part of the 10 hour bus ride over the worst potholed roads and shitty traffic somewhat tolerable. We arrived early in the morning in the border town of Raxual. Here we found that the art of cheating tourists is also not lost. I don't even have the patience to type what all went on in that little blurb of our trip, I'll just say that we avoided costs of around 700 rupees. We're learning that you really just have to tell people "No, I won't pay for this", even if what they are telling you to pay is the real cost. Ignorance of language can be a blessing sometimes, just a very few sometimes. We finally escaped India (thats what it felt like) and then ahead of us was beautiful Nepal, (except the border town is just like India). Fortunately we had another 5 hour car ride ahead of us, and it was only the craziest road I've ever been on.

Road to Kathmandu: Just fly.

If you have any feelings of vertigo or you are scared of heights, don't go on the road to Kathmandu. If you like that kind of thing, along with an ass that requires some second skin, by all means take an SUV. Don't get me wrong though. It was an absolutely amazing car ride. Something I will remember vividly for the rest of my days. Vertical drops on one side and a passing truck on the other, all of this on a one lane road, with the random walker, motorcyclist, or cow to also create obstacles that require swerving. The views of the towering jungle covered mountains with the terraced farms placed in spots most people would find unaccessable was awe inspiring. The people you see lugging bags that weigh more than they do up hills I wouldn't want to walk up naked are humbling to say the least. Yet they do it with a smile and a "Namaste" (hello). We bounced into Kathmandu, got our hotel situated, and were instatnly trasported from Patna hell to Nepal nice. Nepal and its people are truly kind and speak english on a whole very well. The english speaking is not so important but it is hard to have a conversation with locals when all you can do is wave and smile and repeat that same phrase over and over. We relaxed for a bit, wandered around a touristy neighborhood named Thamel, which is a great place to hang out, touristy or not. We alos hung out in a hiking permit office for four hours which was not fun. Very busy time of the year here in Kathmandu, as we can attest to. We went to a buddhist temple called the monkey temple, real name escapes me at the moment, and saw a lot of monkeys, a beautiful temple and an amazing view of Kathmandu valley. We also went to a park outside of the city and did a guided mountain bike tour. A lot of fun and not too much uphill. We stopped at one of the oldest hindu temples, Changu Nayar, in the valley along the way and got our first glimpse of what a rural Nepalese town might look like. The farmers were drying their rice in the square, chickens and goats everywhere, corn hanging from the eaves drying. It was a picture of peace. We stopped and had an amazing lunch as a thunder storm bringing rains blew in. Luckily it didn't rain too hard or for very long, so the rest of our bike journey was very comfortable. The food here is incredible and cheap. I have taken to a dish somewhat similar to Pho named Thukpa. Holly eats mo-mos like they are going to be banned soon, and we both like the beer (myself much more than Holly). Our mom just got in today and we did a little waiting and a such, but we had a great dinner and are getting ready to start the big hike tomorrow (10/7). I heard they have internet along the way, so you may hear from me before the three week schedule is up but if you don't, I'll be sure to remember everything exciting and relate it to you later.

Europe (Wheee!)

Hello everyone! Sorry for the immediate lack of blogging related acitivities, if you've been DYING to here about Sis and I's amazing adventures. I hope to sate your salivating hunger for bad english, mispellings, and probably horrible recollections. So with that said I will continue with the adventure.

Amsterdam: Great city, great people, great transportation system, great place for rich people.

Stuff is expensive in Amsterdam, and not just the drugs! Well, we didn't do that many drugs (only the normal one, which isn't really a drug anyway), but the couple of times we did inhale it was a little bit hazy to say the least. A beer costs almost 8 US dollars and food was relatively the same high price, so we ate our free breakfast in the hostel that was full of field tripping students and got the heck out and did some walking. Luckily breakfast is basically eating a loaf of bread, literally, so we had carb load that would usually last us until the night time. We did a lot of walking, some more walking and then we walked a little more, and then we rented a bike for a couple of hours! Anyone who may decide to go to Amsterdam in the future, just rent a bike right away and get used to riding it like you have the ultimate right of way, which you actually do. The first steps when Holly and I got off the train were almost right into a biker who didn't even slow a bit. We learn good (for you Colfaxians) so we got off of the bike path that we thought was a sidewalk and decided to use the foot path, which may in some instances turn into a bike, tram, car and foot path. I developed a set of eyes in the back of my head and a ear for the honks and bike rings and tram horns but I must have been distracted at one point when Holly pulled me out of the way of a tram that I didn't quite hear coming(that was on day 2) and it was a little embarrasing to say the least. Anyway riding the bike was a great experience. First we rode through Vondel Park, which is as nice as any park I've rode a bike through and smoked a joint in(did I just type that?). Then we proceeded to the Rijks Museum where Rembrandt and many of his contemporaries were on display. The paintings were all excellent, except this one that looked like a 12 year old did it, but even it had its charm. "Nightwatch" is Rembrandt's most famous painting and it was there and it was huge and stunning. I forgot the name of the guy i liked the most, I think it was Vondel or something,(sorry mom). He painted his subjects looking like they were having a good time and quick with a smile. After the museum we went about 10 km south of Amsterdam into the farmlands following the Amstel river. It was just like all the pictures you've seen, if you've seen them, with green fields and wind mills and picturesque farm houses. Occasionally a car would wiz by and make me crap my pants but other than that it was amazing. Amsterdam itself is a maze of sorts, and there were only a couple of instances where we found dead ends or had to turn around after being told we were going in the totally wrong direction (Holly's fault), but it is a beautiful maze of continuous buildings and canals with the sporadic church or monument, or big buildings thrown in here and there. All of them are older than the founding fathers and they look a lot better presently as well. There is so much to see and do that it was all too much so I gave in to sitting under canopies and drinking beer. It is much easier on the feet, if you can ignore the wallet gouging. Well that is about the extent of my typing for one city. What! you may say? Are you Mad? What about the most important cultural institution in possibly the world? THE RED LIGHT DISTRICT. The red light district is pretty boring and full of stoners and every once in a while you walk down a street where a woman knocks on a window and winks and smiles and if you have a desire to visit with her more it is not frowned upon. That is about the extent of it for me. (What you the reader may not realize is that I just had to run out of the internet cafe into the darkest bathroom I've ever been in and take a horrible crap using a technique very new to me involving a hole, two foot pedestals and a bucket of water. All of this is very hard to comprehend when the hot sweats are telling you it is time now! After it was all over I realized I went backwards, pood on the rim and one foot pedestal a little bit and then tried to wash my butt using a little pitcher. It was awesome! I didn't think i got it(my ass) clean well enough so I used some kleenex I had and then cleaned up the toilet like a gentleman should. Well, that was my first adventure in pooing and it happened right in the midst of a good blog session so I guess you guys can count yourself fortunate that it was so fresh in my mind!) Well enough of Amsterdam, (and a little slice of Kolkata), if I think of anything more I will just have to add it to some other section and ruin the continuity of this fine piece of literature.

Berlin: Nice town!

Spending a couple days in each city we go to is not the best way to really discover a place, but my overall impression of Berlin was positive and left me wanting more. The hostel we stayed at was an immediate improvement over Amsterdams. First off the people in our room speak english and like to drink beer. They had a bar up on the top floor that let you look out over a small part of the city and a ping pong table as well. I played beer pong with some Aussie guys (Australians are everywhere in Europe) and we went to a pub and had some beers and shouted at each other over some sort of polka new wave dance music and had a great time. The next morning was not so fun but Holly and I pushed through and did a walkaboot. The transportation system is excellent in Berlin as well with trains and busses going everywhere for a pretty good price. We went to a market and walked around and got a bratwurst that was exactly like the dream I had of bratwursts tasting. Its great too because the sausage sticks out of the fist size bun about 4 inches on each side. They know how to do a dog over there. We walked through tiergarten which is a giant park in central berlin and took photos of statues and things that looked interesting, as well as some things that are probably totally boring. After walking for a few hours we took a free bike tour of Berlin, which they don't tell you until after you pay (only a deposit) that it lasts for four hours. This turned out great though because our guide was humorous and very well informed and full of passion for the city and her job. She was English and most of her humor was wasted on Holly and I while the spaniards watched with blank faces and the two brazilian girls were talking and doing little model shoots, which got kind of annoying as I was envisioning it taking five hours to do the tour. However in the end all was well and we saw many things and I am very glad we did it. Berlin is a beautiful city and everyonce in a while it smells like a sewer, but that is a very small thing in the big picture. I would definitely go back to berlin and see the stuff that we superficially saw on our tour and eat about 40 bratwurst.

Praha, or Prague: You like party time!

Praha is the best city in my mind so far and apparently the same goes for everyone else in the world. I finally felt totally comfortable whipping my camera out anywhere and anytime because there were usually 100 other people around me doing the same thing. The city is beautiful, fun, and most importantly cheap. After getting lost on the tram instantly (really Holly's fault) we didn't have a clue where to go and nobody else did either. This is after we were initially getting on the tram and Holly was on the steps and I was outside. There was a beeping sound like some kind of warning and the door started shutting, usually if you put your arm or head in the door it will reopen. Not so in Praha. I tried with my arms but the door was very strong and it beat me. Holly waved and smiled as I wathced her disappear to some unknown destination. The only thing I thought to do was start walking and walk I did. In the end, Holly got off at the next stop and I met her there and then we got lost some more. Eventually we found our hostel, got our key and proceeded to find that our door had been kicked in the previous night. Great for the pshyhe in a new place. We told the manager and he said aussies and that was all we had to hear. Well luckily they had two other beds, but in separate rooms and Holly and I spent our first nights apart. Yeahh! Just kidding Holly. We then went walking, a major theme of our trip so far, and saw much of the city. Amazing architechture everywhere and a real feal of a medevial city. We went to a beer garden in a park that looked over the city, had a couple beers and then walked some more. We ate in maybe one of the best restaurants in the world just a two minute walk from our hostel. That may be a bit of an exaggeration to the food connoisuer but if you grew up in my family you would agree. The first night I had a chicken breast with a roqquefort cheese sauce, tomato and onion salad, and big ol beer for like 10 bucks. Wooo Hooo! I fell in love with the city at this point, and with the restaurant as well never cheating on her the whole time we were there. That night we went out with more Aussies and a couple of Kiwis and had a great time at a club that had car parts and all sorts of lights and pshycidelic stuff whirring around. The music was great and I probably lost about a gallon of sweat dancing. We walked most of the way home at about 4 in the morning and then took cab for the last quater mile. We proceeded to sleep till noon. We ate fried cheese at our restaurant with beer and then went walking again. We went to the top of what is called the Petrin tower that overlooks Praha and then walked to the caslte and the Cathederal of St. Vitus. The inside and outside of the church is impressive to say the least. The cavernous interior with statues and stained glass windows and sculptures made of two tons a pure silver are astounding to see. I really can't describe what it looks like when you first walk in and see massive columns supporting a ceiling many feet above. I'd say around a hundred feet up but I could be wrong. The outside is even more amazing in my opinion with all the details and carvings and imposing architecture. It really is one of the most incredible buildings I've seen in my life. We then walked all the way back to our hostel after vowing not to and went to the restaurant again. Had a great beer called Kozel, kind of a nutbrown ale, and a "beer plate" that consisted of delicious cheeses, pickles, and sausages. I was in heaven. I then had a pork chop stuffed with cheese and peppers and mushrooms and it did not fail to excite as well. The most amazing part is that it cost less than 30 bucks for the both of us for everything. I can't say enough about this town except that I know I am coming back. Next stop on the tour: Amsterdam airport; for a long time. This was a slow torture for us having left Praha at the ungodly hour of 4:30 in the morning, arriving shortly later in Amsterdam. We had plans initally to go into Amsterdam one last time and give her the good ol what for, but no sleep and cheapness won over and we stayed in the airport sleeping in uncomfortable chairs and wandering around for 11 hours. Lame-o's. Well when we finally thought it couldn't get any worse, we went to Egypt.

Egypt: Cheaty, sweaty, with the occasional moment of brilliance.

One thing about Egypt that I think I have learned is that you must go there once to prepare yourself to enjoy it the next time, if you can muster the courage to go the next time. The first thing you notice when you get into a car and start being driven around is that there are some serious traffic violations occurring frequently. Our driver then pointed out that the only rule in Egyptian driving is "there are no rules." This was entertaining some what and it didn't seem very deadly at the time since it was late at night. When we arrived at our hostel, our new travel guide introduced himself, being the same person running the hostel. We had trouble communicating to say the least and we ended up paying 400 english pounds that we thought got us through the stay with some extras. We had a driver for taking us to Giza and Sakkara and then to the Egyptian museum. We started early and we got a little glimpse of Cairo in the light. This is the most massive city I have ever seen. 20 million people crammed into a part of the nile valley with beautiful mosques, and buildings, to the most scary looking slums that you counldn't pay me to walk through. Everything is dirty and trash is everywhere, such a contrast to europe that it is hard to describe without seeing, and smelling it. Anyway, we have had no contact with anyone really and the first thing we do is go to bargain for camel rides. Holly is better at haggling at this point in the trip as is obviuos when i am ready to accept a price of 90 dollars US and Holly won't take more than 60. Well we were both wrong we found out later because it should have been 30 each. I am such a sucker. But I am learning the art form and now I only pay about 150% above actual cost. Well anyway, the camel ride was good, Giza was amazing, the sphinx was full of tourists(i guess thats us too) and it was great to get off the camel and back into a moving car that has wind blowing. It is hot in Egypt if you didn't know, and i found that a moving car is just as good as A/C. A moving car it was. Really moving. Our driver zipped us around in a most expedient fashion and was really a nice guy. After a hash joint that I refused but he rolled for me anyway the trip got a little more mellow. We then went to Sakkara which is the oldest of the pyramids, i think, and walked around in the desert heat for a little over an hour. From Sakkara you can look around and glimpse many more pyramid sites off in the distance and imagine the magnificence of what it must have looked like in its prime. A sea of green trees and farmlands surrounded by a harsh and unforgiving desert with monuments erected to the dead at vast intervals and of amazing size and scope. I think now that if I could go back and feast my eyes on one site, it may be standing atop a tower in the center of the green swath and looking at the mighty monuments in their original white brilliance surrounding me. Now back the the future to a white knuckle car ride in Cairo traffic. I should have gotten video of it but I was afraid of promoting even scarier driving. Dad, you would have pooed your pants, and mom you would have missed a lot of sightseeing:). But we were moving and at this point heat exhaustion had driven us to skip the Egyptian museum and go back to the hostel and nap. I forgot to mention that during september, the muslims have ramadan, which means no eating or drinking or smoking from sunrise to sunset. This means at night there are a billion people in the streets looking to have some food. No alcohol is permitted to be sold during ramadan so beer was not an escape option. We went out looking for food and every place was the same kind of scary looking place. We eventally let one of the guys offering us chairs to give us some and ordered some food and drink. It wasn't bad, the haggling was minimal and we came away fairly satisfied. That still didn't make me want to keep going and exploring as the vibe was fairly weird and we were in the middle of something we didn't quite understand. Anyway we had to catch a train that night to go to Luxor. Luxor is like Sayulita compared to Puerto Vallarta for those who have experienced it themselves. It is a breath of fresh air. Luxor is a smaller city with a small city feel. It is not hectic and the "vibe" I had in Cairo is not present at all. Our hostel was great the people were nice and we had Germans as company. From my short experience sometimes it isn't the travel itself but just meeting others who are visiting, and hearing their stories that is the most fun. We met some really great people in Luxor and saw some beautiful things and got haggled minimally. A great last impression, I thought. We still had the train ride back to Cairo, which takes about 12-14 hours. All was good on the train back until I had a cigarette and met two young egyptians who claimed me as a pet. They were nice young men merely curious and not being very fluent in english, and me not being very fluent in
arabic had the same converstation over and over for about 2 hours or more with uncomfortable silences in between. Good time to smoke cigarettes. Well, after parting ways with the newfound friends it was off to the airport for the most incredble experience of my life: waiting in lines that everyone disregards and being in a check-in line with people who have literally 10 peices of luggage, some in boxes that smell like fruit and some that holly swears had firewood in them. People are just cramming like there is a million dollar prize waiting at the end and it takes about two hours just in the check in line. Immediatlely swear off ever returning to egypt. They are building a brand new airport so i can't say that my oath never to return is a solid one. After it was all over, and i was gone, I look back and think of all the bakeesh (tips) people asked for after doing anything (like pointing) and largely recieved and how I still had a lot of Egyptian pounds that nobody in the world seems to want to exchange and think of how I will probably have to come back just to spend them, but this time I am prepared and ready for the assault.

Kolkata: Land of beeps, and dirty streets.

Kolkata is a vast city with a lot of cars, motorcycles, and buses all trying to go down a one way street with people walking down them and guys pulling carts with people in them. It is the nosiest street walking I have ever done and I guess I am going to have to get used to inhaling vast amounts of exhaust if I want to do any walking. Poverty is the norm here and people will sleep just about anywhere, and throw their trash just about everywhere as well. I guess we are in Central Kolkata, which is one of the dirtier spots. Holly and I have been wandering around in our little section of the city for the last two days and we had our first beer since leaving Prague. It was delicious to say the least. One reason it tasted so good was the black market aspect of it. Drinking alcohol is not an acceptable thing to be seen doing in public, but the people turn a blind eye if you go and drink in a designated pub, which so far are not very common. The people here are very nice and the only people I have come to despise so far are the taxi drivers. Apparently there is a laminated card that they pull out at the end of a trip and tell you that it means you have to pay double the fare that the meter displays. This seems like a pretty good scam and it has worked on us both times, once when we didn't even move. 20 rupees isn't enough to get bent out of shape for so it makes it a little easier to pay something like that. When we first got to Kolkata though we got ripped off more than double for our cab ride and again we learned the hard lesson. People here start drooling when they see a white person approaching because they know we'll pay about twice the normal price no matter how hard you try to bargain. Well, enough whining. Today we went and saw a bridge that looks like many other suspension bridges but it is listed as a tourist attraction. Note to self: internet pictures are a good thing to investigate before going somewhere. On the positive side we ended up going by the Victoria Memorial and Indian museum and had a pretty decent time there. The park surrounding the memorial building is a hotspot for young couples to sit on park benches and snuggle and they were snuggling everywhere. Also a hotspot for young men seeking other young men apparently. I'm not sure how it is viewed culturally in India but it seemed to be widely accepted there. So with that I decided what the heck and got me a little indian boyfriend for the night. Ha ha. Seriously though, Holly and I are like two space aliens walking among the inhabitants of a strange planet. People stare and whisper a little bit and it gets kind of weird sometimes, but i'm getting used to it. Everyonce in a while someone will come and talk to us and they are very nice and inviting people who really don't see that many outsiders I guess. Overall, we have probably seen about 20 foreigners that look like us so I guess it is uncommon in Kolkata. After the memorial we decided to try to walk back to our hotel and we did well until we went down this street with a huge market. It was really more of an alley packed with people and little shops and motorcycles and bikes and occasionally a car. It stretched forever and we ended up walking through a bit of a residential alley where the people probably hadn't seen whitey in a long time, according to the faces we saw. Anyway, that market led us astray and we got lost and wandered around the streets for a while. All the streets in Kolkata look the same, and it seems like the people who live here don't know much outside of their own area, which is understandable. We ended up getting a cab that drove us for about 2 minutes and we recognized where we were and got out. Holly got out the wrong side and bashed the taxi door into the car next to us as we tried to make the dash out of the cab because we were only going to pay him 2/3 rds of what he asked. The face she got from the driver of the car was priceless. Nothing happened and neither driver chased us so I think we have a new strategy in taxi taking. I must remember to wear shoes though for the really fast escape. Kolkatonions overall are very nice people and I don't ever get my weird "vibes" here, which makes me feel good of course, and they are usually having a smile for us. We are leaving on a 14 hour train ride tonight (9/30) and I am really stoked about that. Can you read the sarcasm? Well, will most likely write from Kathmandu where we will be meeting el madre for the big hike. Until we come back to fly out, sayonara Kolkata. Oh yeah, the food here is awesome.