Home Safe

Hi everyone

Just wanted to let you all know that I got home late last night. I had a great trip and am worn out, not motivated to do anything yet. I'll do some more post with pics soon.

Broke In Paris

Just wanted to let you all know that I spent the day in Paris today. I froze it was really cold and windy and rained off and on. This city is really expensive, I got 120 Euros out the ATM and blew that all today. I decided to head back to the airport and sleep on the floor tonight, I am having a hard time finding anyplace cheap to stay. I went to all the major tourist sites today and really was impressed with the city. I went to the Louvre for 3 hours today to warm up and I barley saw anything, it's huge, you would need a few days to really see the whole museum. I post pics from Paris when I get home.

I'll be back in Reno tomorrow night.

Leaving India to Paris France

Well my trip in India is about to end, I head to the airport in 2 hours. I am going to be in Paris for 29 hours, so I am going to make the most of it. The trip has went by really fast, I can't believe it's already been 3 weeks, but I am happy to get back home I miss Danielle.

I have had an amazing trip, and really enjoyed all the sites and people I've meet in this country. I have made some great friendships that I hope will continue when I return home. If anyone is thinking of going to India do it, you will have the trip of a lifetime. In my three weeks in India I have only spent $450 USD and I could have done it for half of that but I splurged here and there.
When I get home I am going to do some more in depth post with a lot more pics. Thanks for all the comments and emails I have received.

See you all back home.

Back In Delhi

Well I'm back in Delhi at the Smyle in were this whole trip started. I really enjoyed Mcleod Gang yesterday I did a few hikes to a small lake and a Monastery. Last night I caught the overnight bus from Dharmasala to Delhi and 11 hours later, I'm back at the Smyle Inn, and I am worked. I didn't get much sleep on the bus and am barely functioning. I am off to take a nap. I fly out tomorrow night, just have some shopping to do. See you all soon.

Mcleod Ganj

I left Shimla in Route for Dharmasala which was a 10 hour bus ride , then to Mcleod Ganj which is were the exiled Tibetans have made there home for the last 50 years. This is also were the Dalai Lama lives .

It is a very relaxing place, there are monks walking all over. I went to the Bhudist Temple were I saw munks debating, no clue what they were saying but it was funny. I also hiked to a little waterfall. On the way to the waterfall I meet a Tibetan man living in nepal that is here to learn english we hung out for a few hours he was happy to practice his english.

In the eveing I went to a candel light vigel at the Temple to morn all the lives lost in Tibet. They showed a video of the Chinese beating munks for having peacful protests it was sad, there were a few thousand people there and most were crying. It is a very sad.

Overall I am really enjoying it here. I am here all day tomorow ten a night train to Delhi. My trip is slowly winding down and this is a good place for that.

I love and miss you all.

Shimla Hill Fort

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So when I booked my train from Kalka to Shimla I knew it was on the small gauge train but I didn't know I booked the single engine in car combo. It was one of the coolest little trains i had seen. There was only 14 passengers and I was the only non Indian tourist. The ride was crazy i am not exact because I don't have my book in front of me but we went over 200 bridges and 80 tunnels. It was the coolest train ride I have ever been on.

When we arrived in Shimla I was amazed of the beauty. It is at about 7400 ft so it was about 30 degrees cooler than Delhi. The city itself is very peaceful and relaxing, there are no cars aloud in the main city. Today I took a bus tour of some of the local villages. It was pretty lame but I got to see a lot of the different valleys. We did go to Kufri elevation 8700ft that had a little snow from a storm last night. All the Indians on the tour were going crazy, none of them had ever seen the snow, it was cool watching there faces light up. They couldn't walk in it, I saw 3 of them fall hard.

Tomorrow I am off to Dharmsala on a 10 hour bus ride. I'll do a post when I get ther. Might not bee for a day.

I love and miss you all.

The Road to Shimla

Well it took me about 26 hours on a train to get from Varanasi to Shimla. I also had about ten hours in Delhi to kill so I went to the Red Fort, The Gandhi Memorial and the Jama Masjid Mosque. They were all amazing sites. I was not as impressed with the Red Fort I thought the Agra Fort was much nicer. I was really tiered after spending the whole night on the train then all day touring the sites.

Quick Update

Hello all, this is Danielle typing. I just wanted to let everyone know that I just heard from Jason and everything is going well. He is now in Shimla (or however you spell it). There was a big thunder / lightening storm that apparently knocked down the Internet in the entire town. I talked to him for about 10 minutes and he wanted me to do a quick post. Anyway, all is well and hopefully he will be able to get back online soon. :-)

Floating the Ganges

Varanasi has been a challenging place to navigate. A a day of exploring I feel a lot better about the city. I meet an older man in the hotel Robert from San Francisco and he has been to Varanasi 30 times, and is a wealth of knowledge, I was lucky enough to meet him while I was on the computer, he showed me all the tricks to getting around the city, it helped make sense of all the side streets. He has been helping friends start websites to promote there business I talked to a few about taking better pictures and just small things I saw that can help them out. It was cool I never thought I would be in India trying to help a Indian start ta website to sell his silk. I told him a lot of things that help Porters out.

I also took to boat rides down the Ganges on at Sunset and one at Sunrise and it's amazing all the things that go on down the river. It is the Holiest site for Hindu's and they all want to bathe in the water, and also die in the water. They also do everything else in the water wash dishes, clothes, livestock. It's amazing to see and hard to explain. I would never touch that water though it's nasty.

Well got to go on an overnight back to Delhi, then off to the mountains of Shimla.

I love and miss you all.

Walking the Ghats

Yesterday was a challenging day, Varanasi is a very hard place to navigate. If you walk along the water it's not to bad, but get a way and there is miles of tiny little alley way streets. I Keep getting lost trying to find a restaurant. It was really frustrating. I am going to take an evening boat tour it might be a little easier.

I'll do another post with some of the pics tommorw.

I love and miss you all.

Agra Fort then Overnight Train to Varanasi

In the late afternoon Mark, Adele and I decided to go to the Agra Fort then I would be close to the train station for my 9:15 overnight train ride to Varanasi. The fort itself was huge and very impresive but a lot of it was in need of a ton of repairs, it seems like Agra spends all the money on the Taj and the fort gets forgotten. It was still an impressive site none the less. It did have a lot of nice big grassy areas which we laid out in the shade and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

After a few hours at the fort we decided to have a drink at a hotel near the train station. It was a nice place but really expensive we hung out for an hour and talked before I was taking off to Varanasi. I really appreciate Mark and Adele letting me hang out with them for a few days, they are in the middle of a 2 moth India trip and are off to the mountains to relax for there second half of there trip. How knows I am sure someday Danielle and I will go to Australia and we can meet up again. I was truly sad to see them go.

After they took off I ate a great Veg Thali at the train station and it only cost me 22 IND which is about 40 cents and it was one of the best of the trip. I think I was one of the few tourist that have ever ate there because the cook keep coming to see if I thought the meal was tasty, he also had me write in his book what I thought about his food. It was funny. I boarded the train about 9:45 so it was 30 minuted late to start. I was in the 2nd Class Sleeper which is the lowest class with a bed. As you can see it's far from luxurious but for $4.50 to go 607 km you can't complain. The ride took about 12 hours, I slept through most of the night waking up every few hours when we stopped at stations. I locked my bag to the bar and used it as a pillow, so there was no worries of getting ripped of while I was sleeping. When I awoke at 6:30 the train was about empty and it was full when I boarded, I was the last stop and most had already got off.

When I arrived in Varanasi I called the hotel and they picked me up for free, which was good because I would have never found it. Varanasi is the busiest city I've visited yet, and the driving is just madness, Delhi is a lot bigger of a city but the roads are normal size, these or more like bike paths. For the last mile we had to get out and walk because the streets are so small that the rickshaws can't even fit down the side streets. Once I arrived at the Scindhia guest it is a lot calmer. It sits on the Ganges river over looking the Scindhia Ghat, I was happy to see it was peaceful back in here. The hotel manager said the touts hound you a lot when you walk around, but I'm used to that by now. I have 2 nights here than back to Delhi on a overnight for one day then of to the hills to chill out for my last week.

I will have internet for sure the next few days so I will do another post tomorrow.

Pics of the Taj Mahal

Finally got to an fast internet, were I could load a few of the smaller res pics. They are from yesterday at the Taj. We got there just as it opened and were able to get some good pics without all the crowds. The pic were I'm with two others are my Aussie friends Mark and Adele that I met on my safari, we ended up hanging out for a few days. It was great to have them to hang out with, they were really nice people, I will defiantly keep in touch with them when I return home. It did make me miss Danielle a lot hanging out with a couple. I at least got to talk to her yesterday which made me happy.

I love and miss you all.