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!