Kim vs. The World!

Another overnight train (we've stopped even packing for these and just bring a book and toothbrush!) brought us to the holy city of Varanasi. In India, Varanasi is widely considered the most holy place for Hindus, because the great Ganges River changes direction in this place only - it reverses it's flow to run South to North along the banks in Varanasi. For this reason, most Hindus want to be cremated on the banks of the Ganges and have their ashes put into the river. When we arrived in the city, we took a sunset boat cruise. We took part in the ancient tradition of lighting candles and setting them adrift on the river while making a wish. This tradition started when single women would light a candle and wish for a husband, and if the candle stayed lit all the way across the river, their wish would be granted. Us modern women wished for other things more practical things, I think!, but regardless it was a beautiful ceremony (especially since you couldn't see the colour of ...

How was your Thanksgiving? Good, I spent it with the fam and ate lots of turkey.... How was yours? Good... spent the day wandering around the Taj Mahal... you know, the usual. !!! Happy TG to everyone! We couldn't believe that we got to spend it at the Taj. The structure is amazing when you first see it. So beautiful and grand and it looks like it's floating. IT is difficult to believe that the whole thing was built to be a monument and tomb for one woman (Mumtaz Mahal). Sometimes we have to struggle to remind ourselves that we are actually seeing the things we see... the Great Wall, the Taj... it's just so surreal sometimes. We are really truly lucky to be doing what we're doing and this Thanksgiving, THAT (among many many other things) is what I am thankful for. On top of the usual stunning scenic shots, we took full advantage of the opportunity to take as many silly tourist and typical Kim/Mars self portraits as possible! Mars is on the famous "Diana Bench"...

Took yet another hot sticky train to the holy city of Pushkar. The entire city is strictly vegetarian, and conservative dress is strongly suggested. The lake in the middle of the city is supposed to be holy and many people bathe in it, however for the past 6 months, it has been completely dried up! (see pic of the little pond at sunset that was once a lake!) Nothing much else to report from Pushkar except the following: lots of good shopping, a really good falafel stand, and we found another pool to lounge by... which I stayed beside all day in the desert heat (engrossed in the book Shantaram - excellent book!!) and gave myself heat stroke.... which caused me to promptly throw up my falafel on the side of a dirt road while the many curious Indian men tried to offer advice... I was sick for the next 12 hours! And I thought it would have been the curries that did my stomach in, but no, it was the pool lounging :) After a good haul of shopping goodies, we traveled to the capital city of R...

We took a MUCH better (read: less crowded) bus to the small town of Udaipur. This town is famous for three reasons: 1) It was never conquered; 2) it is the home of India's famous "miniature painting" artists; 3) a large part of the 007 flick "Octopussy" was filmed here. Immediately, we took a liking to the city. It was fairly small, and had a great bohemian vibe thanks to all of the artists living there. In the middle of Udaipur is a large lake that has a palace in the middle, and you can see the now abandoned Monsoon Palace high on a hilltop (the glamorous version in the film was quite an exaggeration - we watched the film at one of the restaurants!). The monsoon palace, when we went up there to see a sunset, was swarming with alarmingly large monkeys. I took an (unauthorized?) trip up the dark staircase of the abandoned and empty palace and looked out over the city.... it was a great experience... just me and the crazy pigeons that lived in the roof (see pic o...

Note to blog readers (if any of you are still with me!): First off, sorry for the delays... remote village in Cambodia plus blog site restricted in China equals Kim is behind on her posts! I have put a good dent in the journey, and therefore you will see a bunch of posts below. they are posted in reverse order - newest to oldest. I hope to be caught up on our adventures in India soon. Enjoy! In keeping with the theme of extreme desert heat, we trudged out in the 40+ degree day and filed onto an absolutely crammed local bus en route to the city of Jodhpur (the blue city). The non- air conditioned bus had seats on the bottom, strange pod-like sleeper cells on top of the seats, and a random flat mattress section in the rear. Thankfully we had seats, but that didn't exclude us from the heat and the crowds (and the water bottles with the tops tampered with - a la slumdog Millionaire - that we kept getting sold in the melee). We watched in amazement as what seemed like an unending ...

Feeling refreshed from our fancy flight, we arrived in Delhi and instantly loved India. It was like we thought we would experience - insanely hot, beggars/street vendors/people everywhere, the organized chaos of a country that is home to 1.2 billion people. Everyone we met was friendly and, praise to hundreds of years of British rule, spoke perfect English! India has all other developing countries that we've been to beat in the English department. Not only do even the street vendors and cleaners all speak it, but they love to use phrases like "feast your eyes" and "it's cold outside, come into my shop!" haha. There were also a few things we didn't expect. The thing that strikes you first, when you wander your first city street in India, is the stray cows. Yes, STRAY. They are everywhere... lying in the middle of the road, walking beside you near the shops, eating garbage near a food stall. The drivers on every street just swerve around them like they are...

We definitely saved the best for last on our trip. Beijing was lots of fun, despite the Chinese mayhem. We visited the beautiful Olympic Green. I was really cool to see it after watching all of the events on TV and working on the Olympics campaign at work. We also went to Tiananmen Square, and found that the Chinese government doesn't stop with just limiting internet useage ( facebook /my blog/you tube are all banned in China, and you have to use your passport details to log onto the internet !). The Chinese government basically denies that the student protest in the Square ever took place. There are police around everywhere listening to what people say. It is impossible to tell where the infamous tank photo was taken. It was really quite eerie to be in an environment like that! The Square was being decorated when we were there for the 60 th Anniversary of the DRC , and it looked to be quite a show. We also visited the beautiful Llam Temple and saw the monks in worship and a...