Our days in Darjeeling were absolutely splendid and we did absolutely nothing. The whole time it was cloudy so a repeat of the sunrise dash that i participated in with Nate and Breezie would have been pointless. The first day we got there we met up with some Americans who were there on a two week vacation and thought we were pretty hardcore for daring to attempt to travel in the 'sleeper' section of the train. Since I had been taking the sleeper train for the last two months I was unimpressed with their definition of 'hardcore'.

We stayed at the same hotel and even though it was a hike it didn't seem as bad as last time. It started raining the next day and we basically slept the whole day away. Which was awesome. It rained so hard at one point that I actually thought the building was going to fall down around me. Our crowning achievement that day was to make it out of bed and attend the 6:30 showing of Iron Man at the Darjeeling Mall. I thought it was the best movie I've ever seen in my life but that could be more about the fact that it was in English than it actually being a good movie.

On the last day we finally got around to sight seeing and I took Matt to the temple on Observatory hill which is where the original Tibetan Book of the Dead (also called the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying) had been housed. We asked a nice monk who we saw at the movie theater yesterday to take our picture. Then I suggested we go to the Tibetan Refugee Self-Help Center, a suggestion that ended in a ridiculous amount of tromping through random neighborhoods in Darjeeling following a mist-obscured sign you can see only off in the distance - so far that it could actually be your imagination. Eventually we made it to the Center, which was completely anti-climactic and only cool for the fact that we got to watch a bunch of monks play basketball.

We made it back to our hotel in time to get all of our stuff and go to the train station and after the 10 hour train ride we had only enough time to stop at Auntie's for some tea (and to pick up my enormous amounts of luggage) before we had to be at the airport. When we finally got the Delhi we hadn't bathed or eaten in 30 hours and we were feeling pretty grotty. It was actually raining in Delhi which made it a lot cooler, which was the only saving grace for an otherwise SNAFU-filled day. I actually had to pay Rs. 1700 (over $40) for excess baggage because the airline we flew only allows 44 lbs. per passenger, not per bag. Not to mention that our Taxi driver to the airport drove around in circles for an hour before actually taking us to the airport (I swear, I have never paid that much for a cab in Calcutta in all three months I was there) and the Taxi driver in Delhi refused to take us anywhere near our hotel. Of course, I refused to let that one go and harangued the man until he turned off the car and threw our baggage onto the street.

I seriously can't let an argument with a Taxi driver be. In Calcutta, the one who took us to our hotel from the train station was about to cry because I wouldn't get out until we were exactly where I wanted to be. I knew where we were, I even knew how to walk from to our hotel, I just refused, on principal, to vacate the vehicle until I got what I had paid for - a ride to our hotel. Maybe its a good thing I'm leaving, the taxi drivers union is probably about to take out a hit on me or something.

Anyway, here we are in Delhi and I have finally found a way that I can maybe charge my own Mp3 player which is making me very happy. I may have some music for the ride home.

I guess this is my last post in India as I will be boarding my plane in nine hours. I still can't believe I've spent almost five months in India, it seems very surreal. I guess before I close out this journal I'll post the best of my pictures so that everyone can see what has been happening. Maybe I'll go back and insert pictures in the specific posts they come from.

either way, I believe that India bears visiting again, but for now I think its sufficient to say that its mostly harmless.

so its really hot here. REALLY REALLY HOT. Matthew no longer thinks I was exaggerating. The point of me mentioning this was to explain why there are now more pictures posted - the internet has air conditioning.



me, petting street dogs.




scene from Veranasi




Matthew in his all-out Hippie outfit and our new friend from Seattle, Navid.



Veranasi



Veranasi at sunrise

havent updated in what seems like a long time when really its been a matter of days. We made it to Verenasi (Alias: Banaras) not that much worse for wear, Matt got his first (and really probably only) taste of riding on Indian public buses. The bus was pretty much packed to the ceiling with people and random other objects which is a pretty good metaphor for India in general.

We had a blast in verenasi and met some other travelers, including a Mexican couple I had seen in Dharamsala and Rishikesh. We are not back in Calcutta and I am typing from the cyber cafe that I made most of my posts from which makes me extremely happy.

This is a short post due to pictures:




Matt at the Taj, trying to make up for the fact that I didn't go the second time. This is becuase it costs 20$ to get in and its pretty much the same as its been for the last 200 odd years, thus it hasnt changed since I last saw it.




Matt and me on a walking tour of Jaipur. You can't really tell but thats where we are.




Matt posing like a Bollywood star outside the McDonalds in Jaipur. Our Rickshaw driver pointed the McDonalds out several hundred times. He was very proud.




at the train station, all our possessions on our backs. Well... and at Auntie's house...







Matt on the sleeper train.



Verenasi



Matt falling off a pile of trash and into the ganges, eeeeeewwwwwww.... but he wanted to bathe in the holy river.

We got to Agra and found out that the only train to Verenasi has to be booked several weeks in advance. Needless to say, we did not book several weeks in advance and thus we had to improvise. We ended up staying the night in Agra and going to the train station the next morning to get a rain to Allaabad, which is three hours from Verenasi. We'll then get a local bus the rest of the way. hopefully this new plan will work out.

Either way, Matt got to see the Tak this morning and we both went to the Fort which is pretty cool and doesn't cost $20 to get in. Its realy hot here. And we couldn't get an AC train to Verenasi which sucks. I blame Matthew for bad-mouthing my AC habits. He gave us bad AC Karma.

I was actually hungry today which is so awesome I have to write home about it since I havent been hungry since Rishikesh. Wish us luck in making it to Verenasi!

We made it to Rajastan! Matt got here on the 7th (and immediatley told me to turn the AC down which i refused to do) and we headed for Jaipur on the 8th. When we got here we were met by a friendly rickshaw driver who took us to a nice hotel that was as the same price as the one we were going to stay in and had AC which was pretty awesome.

We visited all the things to see in jaipur which is known for its architecture - if you google.images it you will see some of it. Its absolutely gorgeous here, and, though it is hot, It's a dry heat which is a lot more comfortable than the suffocating humidity of Florida. Matthew has now accused me of making a big deal out of the heat when its not that bad but I told him to reserve judgement until we get to Calcutta.

We met some nice English students who were traveling "during the gap" which we figured out meant after they graduated high school and before they started college. We stayed up pretty late last night just talking to them about random things and it was a blast.

Right now I am really tired and I don't know why, I seriously slept until 10am which was about 8 hours after I went to bed so its not that I didn't get enough sleep. Matt's getting frustrated with me because all I want to do is curl up in bed and read and write. hopefully this is just a phase.

We are off to see the Hawa Mahal!



At our hotel



Matt on top of the Art school we toured



both of us on top of the art school





riding elephants!











us traipsing through an old Rajput fortress in Rajastan.





The monkey Temple which overlooked all of Jaipur



the Hawa Mahall

I feel like doing another one of my educational posts because its really hot outside and the cyber cafe is the only air conditioned place in town.

So 'yoga' is a really broad term that people use to describe a lot of different practices, but basically a yoga is a practice that you do in order to achieve enlightnement. The entire goal is to transcend the material plane and leave everything earthly behind, including suffering - manifested by desire for things that are of this world. But there are many ways to do that.

The yoga we are all familiar with in the states is Hatha Yoga, which is stretches, breathing, etc. Your progress in this kind of yoga is traditionally measured by 'Siddhis', or successes. First you learn to control your breathing and then you learn to control your movements, then your mind. Then, when you learn to control yourself, you can control other things. Stories of people floating, levitating things, doing great feats with their yogic powers, are littered throughout the ancient texts. Nowadays, in America at least, its just a good way to keep fit.

Then theres Karma Yoga. Karma is the accumulation of deeds from all your past lives, so to practice Karma yoga, you go around doing good deeds, which in Indian culture is doesn't necessarily mean helping old ladies across the street. It really refers to fufilling your Dharma.

Dharma is a really complicated concept that is hard to grasp and even harder to explain. It can mean duty, religion, nature etc. Basically, in this context it means that if you are a householder, then you be the best householder you can, take care of your family, observe religious occasions and rituals, and feed the occasional wandering monk or sadhu. Do this and you are fufilling your Dharma. As a householder, your duty is to take care of your family; your religion is to take care of your family; it is your essential nature to take care of your family; etc.

Another way to explain it is that the Dharama of plants is to photosynthesize. They photosynthesize because it is their religion, because its their nature and it is their duty. Basically the role you were meant to play in this world on this turn of the wheel is your Dharma.

Everyone has a different Dharma, for a traditional indian woman it would be first to be a good daughter, marry well then be a good wife and produce many sons, then, if she should out live her husband, observe strictly the social laws of widowhood. A woman who does all this faithfully will be practicing Karma Yoga.

For a traditional indian man it would be to first be born (when you are male in India, you get points just for existing) then be a good son. Perform the funeral rites for your father, get married, support your family, get all your daughters married, and then die, preferably in Veranasi.

There are other yogas like Bhakti Yoga which is Devotional yoga which basically means that by the sheer amount of devotion you show to the gods you will achieve enlightnement.

We got to Rishikesh on the morning of the 1st after a 12 hour bus ride on which my ever-present stomach flu decided to start acting up. So I had to ask the driver to stop several times for my gastro-intestinal pyrotechnics and when I wasn't asking him to stop, I was thinking about asking him to stop. Needless to say I didn't get a lot of sleep and was not feeling too hot by the time we got to Rishikesh.

Charlotte wanted to find an ashram to stay in and since i was sleep deprived with a serious fever and hadn't eaten anything in over 24 hours and still felt like puking I said no. hotel. now.

We got to Mama's cottage via rickshaw which was a constant battle because every five meters the rickshaw driver would stop and try to get us to walk the rest of the way. we kept on saying no. we pay you. you will drop us where you said you'd drop us. This was after several people tried to cheat me at the train station (ending with me throwing a fever-driven hissy fit in the line for the public bathroom) so I was going to harass the man until he took us all the way to the door.

After meeting Mama, who is a sweet old lady who runs the place, and eating at her restaurant (which is really just one dinner table in the middle of the courtyard) Charlotte and I proceed to pass out for the rest of the day. We stayed there and recuperated for a couple days, got re-acclimated to Indian heat and finally got around to looking for an Ashram to stay in.

an ashram, in this context, is basically a school where you stay and meditate and do yoga and follow their rules for spiritual enlightenment. We're staying at a pretty lenient one so there are no really strange rules except of course the mandatory two hours of meditation at 6am every morning. But that’s kind of to be expected this is India, its impossible to sleep past 6 am anyway. I just finished a hatha yoga class and I feel VERY good. Its awesome because our room has a kitchen and an extra room that has nothing in it which we assume is supposed to be used for yoga and meditation. All in all a good decision.

We stay here until the 6th when I head back to Delhi to meet Matt! I am so looking forward to him coming, its just going to be two weeks of awesome... or really a week and a half of awesome and then a half a week of us trying to kill each other... yeah that sounds like a more realistic expectation...



Our favorite restaurant in Rishikesh





our Ashram, affectionately nicknamed the 'jail ashram'



god penitentiary







views of the holy Ganges from our Ashram

leaving for Rishikesh today. Supposed Yoga capital of the universe, although I don't know how they can say that seeing as we haven't searched all the other planets for a yoga capital. Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence.

Its also where the Beatles went in the 60s and stayed in an ashram, but seeing as their old guru died literally two months ago and the ashram they stayed in has since moved, and the old building is supposed to be in ruin, I'm just excited about seeing another place in the Himalayas. And since its the yoga capital of the world maybe people floating down the street and what not. We have a 12 hour bus ahead of us so wish us luck.

So I've had a pretty good time in Dharamsala, we met up with one of Charlotte’s friends (Charlie) who was studying abroad here and have basically been hanging out with her and the other members of her program for the past several days. They all have their independent study projects they're working on which are very interesting to talk with them about. If I were ever to do anthropological research in a foreign country I think Dharamsala would be one of my first choices. That's because there is a large Tibetan population here that have been displaced and their lives trying to make a living with little to nothing is at the same time tragic and fascinating.

Last night we went to meet Charlie and she took us to her Tibetan friend's house so that we could make momos, a traditional Tibetan dish. We spent hours just talking to them about how they had migrated from Tibet to India in order to get a job and avoid being arrested, and how they had been nomadic herders in Amdo before they got here. It was really surreal because it was basically three Tibetan guys that were only a little older than us, living in the Tibetan version of a bachelor pad - I could totally picture three American, college-aged guys having a similar apartment - and they were talking about being nomads and exiles.

I left before the momos actually were finished because I wanted to call my yiayia (for Greek Easter - happy Easter everyone!) and didn't end up going back because the climb up made me feel pretty sick.

We had planned to leave today for Manali but Charlotte was sick all night with a fever (she's convinced she has rabies due to afore-mentioned dog bite. I tried to tell her, that if those dogs had had rabies they would probably not have just suddenly left her alone when their owner called them. This did not make her feel better. Go figure.) So we are pretty much deciding to stay here for a little longer.

This morning, though, we woke up to a banging on our door and Charlie screaming "get up! Get up! Open the door! Now! NOW!" we thought something disastrous had happened like a landslide or a full scale genocide in Tibet, or Martians abducting her boyfriend or something. So I spring up and opened the door and see Charlie dressed in a full chuba, the traditional Tibetan dress, and she's like "put on some pants, we're going to see His Holiness!"

Charlotte and I look at each other for a second and dive for our clothes at the same time. We had several false starts at first because Charlie kept on remembering things we shouldn't bring or do, like wear shorts or bring a camera. Eventually we start running down to the temple and on the way Charlie explained that since the Dalai Lama had come back (which we knew about) there was going to be a public puja in his honor this morning (which we had not known about) and he was, of course, going to be leading it.

When we get to the temple and through security (understandably thorough) we go to sit down with the other pilgrims and guests there to see the Dalai Lama. We are listening to the chanting and I notice that there is a pile of snacks higher than me sitting in the middle of the floor and I assume they are offerings. But at some point monks start going around and handing out the snacks to the people sitting around. It turns out that they are all blessed by the Dalai Lama himself and are meant for the pilgrims to eat and take home to their families. They are literally throwing the snacks at people and I see a monk get hit in the back of the head with a banana while I get hit in the shoulder with a candy bar.

It was an amazing experience all the same, because after I ate said holy candy bar I went up to the front and got to see the Dalai Lama when before we could only see the back of the top of his head. When the puja was over he was the one who left first so we got to see him go down the stairs right near us. All in all I call today a win.

I would have liked to meet him in person - one of our professors knows him personally and said he has, in the past, gotten private audiences for his students - but he's such a busy man I didn't want to disturb him, especially because I would have no idea what to say to the Dalai Lama. Unfortunately, Charlie lost her cell phone in all the hubbub (you can't take any camera-type device inside and so she left it outside under a rock. I am not going to comment on the moronic nature of this decision). So the end of our morning had a serious down-side. We also happened to pass a photo exhibit of the recent Tibetan uprising and that served to kill our we-saw-the-Dalai-Lama buzz further. However, I believe my day will improve as I plan to take a shower today.







makin' momos in a Tibetan bachelor pad.



our hotel



chillin' like a villain at our hotel



one of many anti-Olympic signs in Dharamsala



a march for the Pancha Lama's birthday. He's been in chinese 'protection' since he was six, which was about 13 years ago.



our favorite rooftop restaurant.



Dharamsala from afar

I met Charlotte at the train station and Britney and Scott were both there so it was great to see them. We all had a quick story-swapping session in which I heard all about their camel trek through Rajastan (SO jealous) and about Charlotte getting attacked by dogs in Pokhara (not really that jealous). In theory I knew this had happened but when she showed me the wounds it was like 'woah. you really DID get attacked by dogs.' theres a huge gauge in her thigh and teeth holes like an inch deep, I know, it is now my job to dress them.

After talking for a while we got on our train for Amritsar, Scott got on his train for Kolkata, and Britney got in a taxi for the airport. When we bought our tickets we were amazed at how expensive the tickets were and thought that the trip was just a relaly popular one and thus very expensive. Turns out we bought tickets to an air conditioned cab that gave us free water and fed us constantly over the course of the six hour journey.

When we got to Amritsar we checked into the Golden Temple which has dormitories where pilgrims can stay. And the best part is that it was freeeeeeee. It also had huge kitchens that cooked meals for free which we took advantage of. The best part of staying there, though, was not sleeping next to strangers, it was the fact that when you step outside the dorm, you look and the golden temple is right there. It is so beautiful you could just stare at it for hours, especially at night when its all lit up. The people, also, were so nice! We had to have made about 30 stupid cultural mistakes and each time someone just smiled and demonstrated that we should cover our hair or no, thats the MEN'S changing room.

We didn't know how long we were going to stay but after doing some research we found out that the local bus left for Dharamsala, our next stop, at around noon everyday. Since all we wanted to see in Amritsar took up about two hours we decided to tour around in the morning and leave for Dharamsala the next day. We ended up seeing a memorial to sikh martyrs which was pretty interesting because its one of those stories that we heard every single histroy class and we went to see this temple that was recommended in the guide book which was really like a combinations temple/theme park for the soul. There were plaster caves to crawl through, rooms made entirely out of colorful mirror mosaics and pools of water to wade through. it was possibly the most awesome temple I've ever seen, and being in India the last four months, I've seen a LOT of temples.

We made it to the bus just in time and spent most of the 7 hour bus ride talking to these two canadian girls who had basically done a program similar to ours. We remenisced about the annoying things in India culture and shared stories of stupid things we've done.

Dharamsala is the home base of the Tibetian government-in-exile which means there is a very large population of Tibetian people here. Tibetian people are so much more friendly than Indian people. Of course, alot of people are more friendly than Indian people.

We met up with some of charlotte's friends who were studying abroad in Dharamsala and were just in time to go out dancing with them for a friend's birthday. We went to the only club in Dharamsala which had a DJ with ADD who cut off every other song in the middle at would stop the music for a minute at random times. Despite this we had a blast and I met alot of cool people.

Charlotte is talking about doing a ten day silent retreat in an Ashram somewhere and I was all for it until I heard that I wouldn't be able to write. I'm okay with introspection but I would like to be able to get some of the ideas out. I think I would go crazy if I had to sit and think for ten days and I couldn't write. We shall see how it goes....

probably, though, our next stop will be Rishikesh, depending on how we feel.

Amritsar pictures:





the dormitory at Amritsar



People helping out with food preparations. They had a kitchen that served free food and the pilgrims all worked there.





inside the Golden temple complex. I seriously could have sat and stared at the temple forever.



Charlotte and I in front of the Golden Temple.

Royal Chittwan National park is the former King's (as of 12 days ago) former hunting ground and has the second largest elephant breeding center in the world. the lodge i stayed at really took care of me, came and got me from where the bus dropped me, banged on my door and dragged me to every single event I could possibly fit into my 30 hours of staying there.

I got to ride and elephant through the jungle and see rhinos and deer and strange looking spiders. The next day I met some Australian girls who were both traveling through Nepal, ages 18 and 68. And a Nepali guy (Krish) who lives in America who had been spending the last three days trying to convince the Australian girls that everyone in America spoke like he did. Every time he used bad grammar (E.G: "the rhino? Are you scary of it?") he would say that that was how everyone in America spoke, wasn't that right, Emily? I would just shake my head and say: no. It's not Krish.

The next day We went to see the Elephants wash in the river and Krish talked to an elephant driver (jockey?) and convinced him to let me help wash the elephant. Which actually consisted of me riding the elephant into the river, it spraying me with snot-water and then the elephant doing its best imitation of a rodeo bull and throwing me into the river. This happened about eight times before I was like, ummm, i think the elephant is clean.

It turned out that the australian girls had hired a private car to take them to and from the park and had decided, when they got there, to take a plane back to Kathmandu. So they gave their already-paid-for car and driver to Krish and I to take back to Kathmandu. Which was awesome. We found two other broke travelers and we all shared a car back to Kathmandu. The only thing that sucked was that we stopped constantly for random reasons and ended up taking six hours to get back. Six hours of Krish telling the other travelers that he was a male model (yeah, right) that he had a masters in Psychology (and I'm a mermaid) and that he knew a bunch of famous Nepali actresses (sure you do, Krish).

We FINALLY got back to Kathmandu at 6pm and I was so hungry i was actually shaking. I hadn't had anything to eat all day and I had only eaten a tiny bit at dinner. So i went to a nearby restaurant to eat something really fast (bad idea, HUGE stomach ache) and then went to the hotel to wait for my friends. I waited until 10pm and they still hadn't shown. I finally went back to the hotel desk and they said that there was a message from nate.

When I asked what it was he looked at the paper for a long time and then was like "1794". I asked if that was all and they said, yes, it was just the number. I was almost certain that was not all Nate said as he is not accustom to speaking in code but after ten minutes of arguing all I got out of the guy at the front desk was that Nate said he would call tomorrow. Frustrated, I rented a room for the night. We were supposed to call one of my mom's friends (Karen) who lives in Kathmandu and stay with her for the rest of the time we were there but i decided to stay at the hotel an extra night because I didn't know if they were in the hospital, stuck in a strike somewhere, kidnapped by leprechauns, etc.

the next day I waited for a while for Nate to call and then walked to the white water agency where we had booked our trip and asked them to call the resort. After a 10 minute phone call in Nepali the guy turned to me and said they'd be back later today. I asked what had happened and he said he didn't know. Instead of asking him what the heck he had been talking about for the past 10 minutes I just smiled and left. I went back to the hotel and left a note for Nate and Breezie and called Karen. After arguing for an additional ten minutes with the guy at the desk about taking my bag which i had left there the day before, I got into Karen's car and went to her house.

Finally, that night, Nate and Breezie called Karen's cell phone and we got the whole thing sorted out. turns out that they had just decided to spent an extra day and had called the hotel telling them to tell me to go to Karen's house and that they would meet me there. At the end Nate had given the front desk the baggage claim number, 1794, which was all that ended up in the message that i actually received.

Despite the frustration, we had a great time at Karen's house. Her and her husband were so welcoming and basically took care of us for three days. I pretty much watched movies and sat in air conditioning for those days with the occasional trip out to see random temples and sites.

We got on the plane from Kathmandu to Delhi and after I had a heart attack because I left my passport on the plane like an idiot, i made my way into India again. It was similar to the first time I got to Delhi, except that I was the one being dropped of at the sketchy hotel and it was funny how my perspective has changed, because now it seemed like a perfectly normal place to stay the night, nicer, even, then some of the places I had been.

Today we leave for Amritsar on a train, I'm supposed to meet Charlotte at the train station. Nate and Breezie are hopefully on their way to Chicago by now, I left them at immigration at the airport because they didn't have a visa and thus couldn't enter the country. We knew all this ahead of time and they had planned to stay the night in the airport. I was definitely jealous of them going home because I'm honestly starting to burn out with all the traveling. Hopefully I get my second wind... or my fourth wind, really...

Some Pictures:








elephants!




Rhinos!



Chitwan!




where we went white water rafting






Kathmandu

I am now back in Kathmandu after what i would like to call Emily's Whitewater Pachyderm Weekend. Heres how it went down:

We left Kathmandu at six in the morning and hoped on a bus to the Royal Beach resort which is actually cooler than it sounds because it sounds like a large hotel somewhere on the beach when really it was a bunch of bamboo cabins with comfortable beds that overlooked the river and the Himalayan foothills. there was also a concrete gazebo in which we ate most of our meals - the food was AMAZING. We got there about 11am, had our lunch then hit the river for some whitewater rafting. I've been whitewater rafting before but it was still awesome and our guide kept on trying to figure out ways to get us as wet as possible. At one point he shoved Breezie with his paddle and sent her flying into the river.

When we were done, we hiked up to the road and basically hitchhiked back to camp on the back of an oil tanker. It was at that point, riding on top of a Nepali oil tanker through the Himalayan foothills that I realized my life is not normal.

We get back to camp, we go down to the beach to build sand castles and end up watching Nate dig a whole for three hours. Why was he digging a hole? Because he's a guy. thats what they do. LAter him and the other guys at camp has a rock throwing competition. Breezie and I just sat back, watched, and continuously mocked them. We then had dinner and build a firepit on the beach (more hole digging, and some wood gathering, too).

We sat down with our guides and played a game of 'I went to the picnic and I brought...' which was a lot more fun then any of us expected it to be. It was especially funny because our Nepali guides were not very good at English and so did things like say 'carrot' for the letter 'k' and 'gorkhas' for the letter 'j'. we wended up with a rather interesting picnic.

The next day one of our guides flagged down a bus and sent me on my way to Chittwan national park. I am tired of writting right now so I'll have to tell you about the Pachyderm part of my weekend (the best part) later.

Our plans have evolved and We are all going white water rafting on the 17th, then i am heading out to Chittwan national park for some elephant riding and bathing and then on safari to fruitlessly look for tigers. Nate and Breezie are going to go kayaking (the deal breaker for me, somehow kayaking sounds like the worst idea in the universe to me) and then canyoning which actually sounds fun. It was all relatively cheap although my budgets going to be a little tight from now on. But I think its worth it.

anyway, I don't think they'll have internet in the park so I'll have to tell you guys how it was when i get back.

So we made it to Kathmandu after a 14 hour buss ride from the boarder.

It went down like this:

we got on a taxi at darjeeling where we ment Hasan and her boyfriend whose name I forgot. He will hereafter be refered to as "Hasanbf". They pretty much talked us out of going to Pokhara because it wasn't awesome unless you were trekking. So we got on a bus to the boarder from Siliguri and once off the bus we took a rickshaw across the boarder. It was really late at night and we had to be taken across this long bridge into Nepal so for a while we were in no country at all. Breezie had so much stuff that we thought the poor rickshaw driver was not going to make it, but in the end that little dude got us there. She actually dropped her backpack (which had her laptop in it, of course) off the rickshaw and the dude ran over it in the middle of no-man's land.

We had to pay USD$30 to get our visa and we finally got to Kakavitta, which is the boarder town. It was about 9:30pm and we tried our hardest to find a taxi that would take us to Kathmandu that night but even splitting it between the five of us it would have been about USD$45 a person. which may not seem like a lot but when you are used to spending $3 on a decent hotel or a taxi all the way across town $45 is alot of money.

So we decided to stay in this hole-in-the-wall hotel and catch the bus at 4:30 am the next morning. This was the plan, however, Breezie got food poisoning that night and was throwing up all over the already disgusting bathroom so we made an executive decision and told Hasan and Hasanbf to go on with out us. At about 4:00pm (after seriously the most boring day of my life - there is NOTHING to do in Kakavitta) we got on a bus heading for Kathmandu. The bus was long and boring and not really worth describing. Finally we get to Kathmandu at about 6:00am and find the most amazing hotel in the universe (I say this becaus I am comparing it to our hotel in Kakavitta) and it had HOT SHOWERS.

did you catch that? It had HOT SHOWERS. I havent had a hot shower since I left the states - four months is a long time to go without hot water for washing. I intend to take another today just to remind myself how good it feels. The hotel is kind of expensive (again, everything is relative) but I think we can splurge for a little. Did I mention it had HOT SHOWERS?

We ended up seeing Hasan and Hasanbf today and they told us that their bus got stopped for five hours because of a strike and they didn't even make it all the way to Kathmandu, they were dropped off somewhere in a wildlife preserve. They had to take another bus another four hours to get to the city. We told them we were sorry and tolf them to go to sleep. The second they left we all looked at each other and Breezie was like "divine intervention". Nate and I just nodded.

The bus ride sucked enough - to imagine spending an extra nine hours? it makes me upset just thinking about it.

Made it to nepal after the most ridiculous border crossing EVER. More on that later, justthe important stuff now: I'm alive, I'm in Nepal, I haven't been threatened by Maoists yet and we have changed our plans so that we are heading straight for Kathmandu. We changed our plans on the advice of an Israeli couple we met on the taxi from Darjeeling and have been traveling with since then. They had been living in Nepal for four months and, thank god, spoke Nepali, or else we would have never made it as far as we did. I never realized how spoiled I was in India, almost everyone speaks at least a couple words of English. In Nepali that is not the case. Thankfully, Bengali is very much like Nepali so I can kind of figure out what people are saying... sometimes...

Anyway, they said that Pokhara, our original destination, was nothing special and unless we were going to go trekking (our original plan before the Great Border Closing) it wasnt worth the bus ticket.

I'll write more later.

Of all the places I expected to be stuck because of things like ex-military marches, independence movements and city-wide strikes Darjeeling was really not on the list. But the other day a group of Gorkha ex-military who were marching for independence got in a clash with the police a couple miles from here in Siliguri and since then the city has been on strike. Everything just opened this morning, just long enough for me to miss my registration time for classes.

Luckily before the strike went down we made friends with a woman (Sonam) who owns one of our favorite restaurants and she was able to smuggle us into her kitchen for dinner. We missed lunch though because there were protesters going through the streets and she was afraid they would see her store open (understandable). Luckily I am used to strikes and had my emergency strike rations in my back pack (consisted of two packets of powdered soup, some processed cheese and crackers).

We spent the whole day in the hotel bonding with our fellow travelers which was a lot of fun. Our friends from before all had tickets to leave yesterday and had to argue with the police until they agreed to take them in a jeep to the train station in Siliguri. At the end of the day all the travelers in our hotel were bored and craving food so I went on a mission to Sonam's place to see if she would sell us some supplies. It turned out to be successful and I came back laden with cigarettes, fruit juice and coke for various people. Everyone was very happy, especially this Israeli couple who were sick and had been trying to procure a bottle of coke since this whole mess started two days ago.

We are hoping to get the heck out of dodge and into Nepal - at least its a bigger area of political unrest - today if the borders are open. Yesterday was the election so we have yet to hear what went down. So wish us luck!

Actually we're not going to Nepal, The borders are closed for the election and we are stuck in Darjeeling until the 11th. Its not that bad (I can think of several million places in which it would be worse to be stuck)and there is plenty to do. Personally I just sit and stare at the mountains all day, thats pretty entertaining.

We met up with some other American girls and we're having a lot of fun just hanging out with them. One of them had their 21st birthday yesterday and the six of us (Me, Breezie, Nate, and three of them Megan, Kelsey and Sunshine - yes that is her real name)went out to celebrate and almost missed curfew for our hotel (10pm, party animals that we are).

The other day I went walking and met this elderly couple who were born and raised in Darjeeling and they showed me around a little bit. They even saved me from a pack of temple monkeys which was awesome of them. While i was wandering after I had parted ways with them I found this crazy Buddhist temple that had more prayer flags then you can shake a stick at. I'm planning to take Nate and Breezie back today because I was told there was a cave there and I'm definitely interested in exploring the cave.

Yesterday we got up at 3:50 in order to see the sun rise over the Himalayas and in a sequence of events I will refer to as The Sunrise Dash we got a taxi and raced the sun and other taxis across the foothills in order to get into a crowded room with bay windows to see an admittedly gorgeous sunrise. When the sun actually came up it was like it was a celebrity - everyone was whispering and standing up and taking pictures. it was crazy beautiful though and we got to see the tip of mt. Everest so it was pretty much worth it. We slept half the rest of the day though.

so I've learned some things about Darjeeling in th 24 hours that I've been here which are pretty interesting.

the British, whose outpost was in Calcutta, came up here as a sort of vacation from the hustle and bustle of the city. they built tea plantations here in an attempt to break china's monopoly on tea production - I'm not really sure how effective they were. But long before the Britishers ever showed their faces around here the land belonged to a tribal group who still live here. The Britishers gave the land to the newly established Indian government in the 1940s but the people who live here aren't really Indian. They've been campaigning for their independence for some time and in the last 24 hours I've seen two protests - and this town isn't really that big.

What adds to the confusion is there are a lot of Tibetan refugees here that are hiding out because they were kicked out of Tibet by China. Part of the protests consisted of signs that said 'stop the cultural genocide in Tibet'.

All in all I'm going to try and go out of my way to come back here before I leave India - its an absolutely amazing place.

We're leaving for Nepal tomorrow and it's definitely going to be interesting - the elections are on the 10th and the whole country is going crazy. The Maoist groups are campaigning for control of the government and have been pretty vocal recently and i predict a pretty crazy two weeks.

We met up with some American girls in our hotel and are going to meet that for lunch a tea plantation viewing so I got to go. I have to register for classes when I get to Nepal and my courses are going to look like this:

Environmental Ethics: TR 10-1120
not fantastic but i need an environmental credit and i know the professor, he was in my jujitsu class. I got to beat him up a few times. Also I've always wanted to read Walden.

Quest for meaning: TR 1130-1250
senior survey course. bleh.

International Relations Senior Seminar: M 3-525
two and a half hours of IR students just chatting. could be fun, could be seizure-inducing.

Middle East Political Economy: MR 130-250
could be interesting and is with the new political science teacher who is from the middle east somewhere, I need to find out where....

Politics of the EU: TF 130-250
euuuuuuuu.... well, actually it has potential, i just don't really like the teacher.

The semester is officially over. I have turned in all my papers - terrible as they may be - and I have left Calcutta for my travels.

The goodbye was really hard, Hannah cried when we left in our taxi for the train station (shes the only one whose staying in Calcutta for a while longer) and Amanda and I cried the whole way to Sealdah train station. We boarded a train headed north, away from the heat and when we got to Siliguri Amanda, Scott, Britney and Charlotte headed out for the Nepal boarder and Breezie, Nate and I headed up to Darjeeling. We took a four hour jeep ride across the Himalayan foothills, through some intense switchbacks and finally made it here safetly.

so thats how I left Calcutta and am now typing to you from an internet cafe in the Himalayas. Its just the foothills but it has to be the holiest place on earth because every time I step outside I hear a 'Oh My God.' coming from my lips. How much holier can a place get than when its mere sight inspires spontaneous praying?

its such a break from the city - the air is beautiful - think of the most beautiful mountains you've ever seen and then add the smell of forest and tea leaves and the perspective of someone who spent the last three months in the most populous and polluted city in India and you have a ... religious experience?

the houses here are built into the side of the mountain so that the first and the top floors both let out onto the street. there are rolling hills of tea plantations and the people are the friendliest I've met in a while. All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better getaway.

Its freezing here which makes me a happy camper, in Calcutta its hovering between 90 and 100 degrees and whats worse is that they count everything in Celsius. It makes me feel bad when I'm roasting alive and its only 45 degrees outside. a temperature that intense needs a more intense number than 45. maybe 450.

So guess what? India is hot. I thought I knew the meaning of this word, 'hot', but it turns out I didn't. When you don't have any clothes on and you have just taken a freezing cold shower and yet, you are still sweating; thats when you have discovered the true meaining of 'hot'.

this will be the oversharing portion on the blog because i have to explain why I haven't been updating in a while - this is because i seem to have discovered a previously unknown allergy of mine. The hard way.

( medical oversharing )

At the same time Hannah, my roomie, was having some sort of reaction to Holi dye in which her hair had started to fall out soi we ended up at the doctior that night anyway. I feel bad because Ahanna said that the other IPSL students that stayed at her house never needed medical attention.

today is Auntie's birthday and Ahanna, Hannah and I have been experimenting with cake recipies all week and we finally found the perfect one for auntie's cake which is SO delicious. Of course we had to make sure all of these cake recipies were... effective. All in the name of science, of course.