Delhi (December 16-December 20, 2011)

India’s capital is a frantic and frenzied city. Tuk-tuk drivers zip past scooters carrying families of four and dodge bicyclists as they search for fares or run down pedestrians; vendors line the streets selling everything from sweater vests to street food snacks like bhelpuri or pani puri; sweater-wearing farm animals meander along back alleys as well as main thoroughfares; even the Metro provides little respite from the chaos outside with surging rush hour crowds nearly crushing unsuspecting riders. As we explored this city of 17 million, smog filled our lungs and the smell of urine overwhelmed our nostrils, yet when we stopped to really take it all in, we found it was an unendingly entertaining place.

There is an interesting contrast between Old Delhi, with its narrow alleyways full of chaotic splendor, and New Delhi, the section of town built by the British, home to wide boulevards, covered arcades, and chain restaurants. We found Old Delhi more interesting, with its bazaars, hidden restaurants, and Mughal architecture but sought out New Delhi more than once for a little break. 

Patrick was sick for part of our stay in Delhi, meaning we didn’t see as much of the city as we hoped, but we did still get to see some sights like the beautiful Mughal-style Humayun’s Tomb, the Jama Masjiid (India’s largest mosque), and the Rajpath (“kingsway”): a wide avenue that is home to Parliament, the President’s house, and India Gate. We also joined a walking tour run by the Salaam Balaak Trust, a non-profit that helps the city’s many homeless children. Our guide, a former “street kid” himself, talked in detail about the experiences that led him to run away from home and his life on the street. Another highlight was taking a cooking class in which we learned to make dal makhani (creamy lentils), chicken curry, and baingan bharta (eggplant)—one of our best meals in India!

Click on the photo below for our Delhi album.

Agra (December 13-December 15, 2012)

Like most travelers to India, the Taj Mahal was at the top of our ‘must see’ list and from our first glimpses of it from the rooftop of our hotel it did not disappoint. First, however, we visited Agra’s other main attraction, the Agra Fort. The red sandstone fort was built in the 16^th century and converted into a palace in the following century by Shah Jahan (also the builder of the Taj Mahal), who would eventually be imprisoned here after being overthrown by his own son. With wonderful views of the Taj Mahal and the Yamuna River, Agra Fort is itself full of wonderful architecture, including intricately decorated mosques, marble towers, and lush courtyards.

As beautiful as the Agra Fort was, it paled in comparison to the Taj Mahal. The “Taj” is simply breathtaking. Entering through the large, elaborate southern gate we were welcomed by beautiful and serene manicured gardens and our first close-up glimpse of the Taj. Commissioned in 1631 by Shah Jahan as a memorial for his wife (who died during the birth of their 14^th child), it was completed in 1653 and consists of perfectly symmetrical white marble domes and minarets. A close-up view of the structure reveals that the exterior of the building features many intricate carvings and beautiful colored inlays. The interior of the main dome contains the (false) tombs of Jahan and his wife (the real ones can’t be viewed), surrounded by intricate lattice screens decorated with semi-precious stones. Though it takes only an hour or two to make your way through the grounds, we spent an entire afternoon at the Taj Mahal, admiring the beauty of the place up close and from afar, appreciating the impressive craftsmanship, enjoying the (relative) peacefulness of the gardens, and also partaking in some fun people watching.

Click the photo below for our Agra photo album.

Varanasi (December 11-December 12, 2011)

Our first several days in India were, as we expected, a bit overwhelming. We arrived in India via Sunauli, a quintessential border town: dusty, hot, congested, full of seedy characters, and utterly chaotic. We moved on quickly to Gorakhpur by bus, the nearest town with a train station, where we found things were no less frenzied. At the train station, nothing was posted in English (little was posted in Hindi, either), there were no employees to be found, and every square inch seemed to be covered with weary travelers sleeping: the platforms, the overpasses, the walkways, even where people should have been queuing for tickets. We were confused and speechless, and we got out of there as quickly as we could.

In keeping with these first two cities, Varanasi lived up to its reputation as an intense and chaotic place. One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, it is also one of the holiest cities in India because the sacred waters of the Ganges River run through it. Lined with ghats, the river’s western edge teems with life, providing a setting for mundane daily rituals like bathing and washing clothes, as well as for sacred ceremonies like weddings and funerals.

Our time here began with a ride from the most aggressive and manipulative rickshaw driver of our entire trip, who followed us into our guesthouse and tried to show us his Facebook page to “prove” that he was a good guy until the management had to escort him out. We then explored the narrow, maze-like streets of Varanasi which were packed with people, cows and other stray animals, and often littered with trash.

In our two days here, though, we mostly explored the ghats along the Ganges River. We saw holy men dressed in bright orange robes supply blessings to eager tourists and locals, people washing clothes in the river, young boys playing cricket, Hindus of all ages bathing and drinking from the waters, offerings being set afloat on the Ganges, countless water buffalo (and their excrement), wedding parties celebrating on boat trips, and families paying their last respects in front of raging funeral pyres. The city engaged all of our senses with the bright colored robes of pilgrims and holy men, the smells of burning incense and urine-soaked alleyways, and bells and chants emanating from temples. It was a fabulous, if crazy, introduction to India.

Click on the photo below for our Varanasi album.

Chitwan National Park (December 8-December 10, 2011)

Our last stop in Nepal was a three-day stay in Chitwan National Park, near the Indian border. The 932 square kilometer park is home to a variety of species, including one-horned rhinos, deer, monkeys, leopards, elephants, and even Bengal tigers. After our long stay in Kathmandu we were excited to get back into nature, so we opted to “splurge” for a resort inside the park whose all-inclusiveness included not just our meals but guided elephant safaris, jungle walks, jeep tours, and a canoe trip through the park.

On jungle safaris we got a cursory safety lesson on how to react if we ran across any of the more dangerous of the jungle’s species, which left Nora spending a good deal of her walks looking for easy trees to climb in the case of a rhino stampede. Unluckily (or luckily, depending on how you look at it), we didn’t see any leopards, tigers, or bears. We were, however, fortunate to have several close encounters with rhinos. The first involved us chasing a mother rhino and her calf through thick jungle on elephants, trampling and felling sizable trees as we went. We were happy to be riding elephants for this encounter, as the mother rhino was quite agitated at being cornered by three elephants. For our other memorable encounter, we weren’t lucky enough to be riding elephants. Midway through our final jungle walk we ran across a sizable rhino bathing in the river. It was big, much larger than the mother and calf we’d seen earlier, and almost as close – only about 100 feet away. Once aware of our presence, it swam surprisingly quickly to the far shore where it stood and stared at us for a long time before deciding to move on. The speed and dexterity with which it moved through the water and on to the shore made our hearts beat a little faster – what a relief it was running away from us and not toward us! 

Click on the photo below to view our Chitwan photo album.

Around Kathmandu: Patan, Pashupatinath and Bodhnath

Several of Kathmandu’s most interesting sights actually lie in neighboring cities. We took two day trips, once to the temples of Pashupatinath and Bodnath, and one to the city of Patan with its own lovely Durbar Square.

Pashupatinath is Nepal’s most important Hindu temple. The temple is devoted to Shiva, and as such, attracts many Shiva worshippers who come here for puja (religious offerings and prayer) and for cremations along the holy Bagmati River, which runs alongside the complex. It was a fascinating place to visit. Over-the-top sadhus (holy men) posed for photos with tourists, monkeys ran amok, families gathered near the cremation ghats (stone steps along the river) to build and witness funeral pyres, and children frolicked in the polluted river murky with ash from cremations. Cremation smoke and incense wafted through the complex.

From here we walked to Bodhnath, an enormous Buddhist stupa that is a pilgrimage site for Tibetan Buddhists.  In a beautiful courtyard surrounded by well-kept stone buildings, this huge white stupa covered in prayer flags is breathtaking. While we were there, hundreds of pilgrims walked clockwise around the stupa, chanting, making offerings, even prostrating themselves in prayer. The gompas that line the square were busy with activity, too, with many of the visitors also making offerings here or stopping to spin prayer wheels.

The city of Patan lies just across the Bagmati River from Kathmandu and boasts its own lovely Durbar Square. During our visit locals were on strike (we never quite figured out why or for how long), meaning that most shops and restaurants were closed, and giving the city a somewhat deserted feel as we wandered through the streets admiring the fabulous architecture of the many temples.

Click on the photo below to view our Around Kathmandu photo album.

Kathmandu (November 1-November 4 and November 26-December 8, 2011)

After our trek and a few days in Pokhara, we returned to Kathmandu and spent 11 days here recuperating and doing the site-seeing that we hadn’t done the first time around. We had the impression that most visitors think Kathmandu is a place best left as quickly as possible, and at first glance it is. It is noisy, filthy, chaotic, polluted, congested, crowded, and the electricity is sporadic at best. But, in retrospect, Kathmandu is also one of the most amazing cities we’ve spent time in. It is a living, open-air museum, with relics and ancient buildings and temples everywhere, still in use. Some are preserved and protected, but many are dilapidated and dirty, making the city all the more amazing.

Kathmandu has a wonderful old town, at the center of which is Durbar Square. Durbar means “palace” and it was here that royalty lived and ruled. The square is filled with temples dedicated to Shiva, Krishna, and Vishnu, among others. They embrace different architectural styles and materials, creating a mismatched feel that highlights the long history of this square as the center of life in Kathmandu.

Durbar Square is surrounded by bustling backstreets that give a feel for what life in urban Kathmandu is like. Narrow lanes and hidden courtyards (bahal) lead to innumerable Hindu shrines and temples, Buddhist stupas, and local markets (chowks) dedicated to wedding beads, bindis, produce, fresh meat and everything else a local might need. We loved walking around this part of town and spent several days exploring amid the beautiful old buildings and Nepalis going about their routines – a noticeable contrast to our neighborhood, Thamel, where tourists outnumbered locals. Another highlight was a trip to Swayambhunath Temple (Monkey Temple) which took us through a peaceful neighborhood before we climbed the steps to this Buddhist stupa to admire the views and photograph the monkeys who swarm the hillside at sunset.

We came to really enjoy Nepal’s capital. Besides its beautiful temples and palaces, fascinating back alleys and markets, and frenetic pace, the city is also home to some really delicious and cheap food (both Nepali and Western). An American-style coffee shop down the street from our hotel, cheap room-service, abundant (though really slow) wifi, and inexpensive Christmas and souvenir shopping made it a great place for us to have some downtime after six months on the road. 

Click on the photo below to see our Kathmandu album.