Agra, Himalayas, Mumbai, Goa, Kerala

Taj Mahal, Agra

Loubna and I went to the Taj Mahal by car. This is about 4 hours. To be honest, it's quite pretty, but I was expecting to be blown away. Instead, I was like, yeah, eh, let's take some photos. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's really pretty! I love that it's all white and it really does look pure. They don't allow polluting cars within a certain radius to drive around the taj mahal in an effort to keep it nice and white and pretty.

After L and my trip to agra, we decided that we just wanted to go through a travel agency to book all our flights/trains in advance. Pros/Cons:

Pros:
-When you know you have to be somewhere, you can relax where you are and enjoy it vs. trying to plan the next thing or making a decision for how long to stay.
-You don't have to worry about flights selling out, etc.
-The processes in India can be quite annoying and tedious (think: long lines and language barrier), so she relieves a lot of stress

Cons:
-if you DO really like a city and you want to stay longer, you're kind of stuck. At the same time, if you hate it, you're also stuck
-you have to trust the travel agent, and i prefer to trust myself
-our travel agent also caused us some stress...see below

SO - when we get back to Agra, we stop by a Delhi tourism office. It's about 10:30 pm and theyre closing at midnight. By now, we had failed with Rajasthan (i.e. Jaipur incident) so we decided to go ahead and do other things that interested us and if we had time left at the end, we would return.

So we told the travel agent how much time we had left (2 weeks) and what cities we wanted to see (Mumbai, Goa, Kerala). Some other folks we befriended were doing the Himalayas and wouldn't stop raving about how fun and beautiful it was. And when the travel agent recommended it himself, L and I took this into serious consideration. We had our mind set on the other cities, and we did not want to travel to too many locations, but we were convinced! A houseboat with the gorgeous backdrop of the Himalayas, we couldn't say no for long.

So we ended up going by car (BAD idea). The drive took about 13 hours so it "wasted" a day. But at the same time, I did enjoy the ride. Why?

-Traveling by land gives you a much better perspective of where you are and how the land changes before you reach your destination. The journey is a very important component. if you fly, you blindly go from one city to another, with much less context. So despite the painfully long drive, in a way, it proved to be worth it.

While driving, I finally decided to pull our my tour book to see what they had to say about the Himalayas. That's when it hit me that we were going to Kashmir!!! EEEEK! I kinda freaked out in the car but did not want to say anything to Loubna. First of all, my coworker S, who had given me a lot of advice on India (she was working for the UN for ~ a year), told me that the ONLY place I shouldn't go is Kashmir. And she was serious! And it didn't help at all when the only thing my book said was something like "no bloodshed in history has taken place in such an beautiful backdrop as in kashmir. due to recent political battle and crossfire, we highly recommend that you do not visit Kashmir. because of this, we will not talk about it in this book."

Ok, so now I was really freaked out. At first I was silent in the car but then started to ask the driver a million questions about what the situation was like and he reassured that nothing has happened in year (i believe it was only in 94 or 97...). My book was from 2005 (which gave us an extra 3 years of cease fire).

Anyways, I was a bit edgy upon arrival. When we arrived, it was pitch black and it was FREEZING. Not only that, but we had to get into this small rocking boat to get to our houseboat. So right now, I had no idea where we really were. I had NOcell phone reception (which freaked me out the most). I was in a country where two trustworthy sources advised me NOT to go. L and I are two women... No one really knew I was in Kashmir because we decided to go in a whim. UGH... but the delhi tourism company sent us here, it has to be ok, right?!

Anyways, there was a man waiting for us who tended to the houseboat and the guests. He put our t hings in our room and give us these big rubber balloons. These balloons were LIFE SAVERS. it was soooo cold outside and they were filled with hot water. You lay with them in bed to keep warm and they keep warm almost ALL night! So L and I were under abotu 10 layers of blankets and went to sleep. I was hoping to wake up the next day.

Kashmir

Morning. Beautiful! Crisp air. Shopkeepers selling goods on their little boats, going from house boat to house boat. Women laughing in their boats, traveling from houseboats to street side. Our housekeeper made us breakfast which consisted of really really fried eggs. I mean, it looked like they were dropped in a tub of oil and scooped out. We ate this with some hard bread that looked like thick lavash and washed this down with masala tea. From here, we took a 3 hour tour of Dal Lake (spelling?).

The next three days involved boat tours, inland shopping and even a dinner at a newly made friends house! The goods that they sell in Srinagar, Kashmir include Kashmir shawls, paper mache vases/bowls, saffron, walnuts, cashews, apricots, tea... yummy.

We met a fellow by the name of Ali. He took us to his home for dinner. It was his aunt and uncles house, where he was raised. I must say, it is always an honor to be invited to someones home for dinner, especially as a stranger. THe evening included sitting around on the floor. The family eats on the floor in the same room as they prepare food. I dont think this is necessarily because they can't afford furniture (they had a big home), but because that is just how it's done! They sat us down and gave us blankets and those rubber balloons to keep warm. They had a "helper"/servant who came around with warm water and poured it over our hands to wash. The family ate with their hands. L and I opted for forks. Eating with ones hands it already quite tricky, and when you have to crouch over your food while sitting on the floor, it seemed even tougher! So, they made plain rise, rise with peas, some curry veggies, and some meats in curries. The woman of the house plopped a big piece of chicken thigh on my plate and I did not want to say no! I nudged L and when she thought no one was looking, she grabbed it off my plate. The family was really quite nice but the only person that really spoke to us in english was the uncle... who was interested in Obama...

By the end of the trip, I wasn't worried about my safety.

We flew out of Kashmir. A LOT of security. About 4 pat downs and rummaging through our bags a few times.

Mumbai.

We went to our prebooked hotel. The first day we called some friends in Singapore to ask them to give us their contacts in Mumbai. We decided to meet them for drinks later in the evening. In the meantime, Loubna and I went to Causeway... the street that Leopold's is on. Leopold's Cafe is the restaurant that the terrorists attacked and killed. We decided not to eat there and opted for a cheaper place down the street.

Then we met the friends at a bar in Baga. L and I decided to take the train to Baga instead of taking a cab. Train is 6 rupees = about 10 cents. It was much faster than a cab!

Mumbai is a bit weird. Several expat men with their Indian girlfriends. The people are pretty sophisticated and fashionable. It seemed like the Los Angeles of India, where people care about image. Well, this is home to Bollywood! as LA is home to Hollywood.

The next day L and I went to the India Gate on Marine drive. This is opposite the Taj hotel. Also a landmark which was attacked by terrorists. Then we had lunch and went to see a Bollywood movie called "Luck by Chance". Although it's in Hindi, there is a lot of English interlaced and the plot is simple enough to follow. It was fun!

GOA

Then we had an overnight express train out to Goa. I had SUCH a good sleep on the train to Goa. I thought I would die and be extremely tired the next day, but I slept so well! The "cabins" are set up so there is a bench that turns into a bed and a lofted bunk bed on top. There are three of these in one room. We had a Muslim family with baby girls, sitting across from us. When it came to sleeping, we let the family take the two lower beds and loubna and i went to the top. The whole night you have chai-wallas going up and down the corridor saying 'coffee, coffee....tea, tea.... sandwich, sandwich..."

Goa is an interesting place! There didn't seem to be too many tourist tourists. I say tourist tourists because there were A LOT of white people. Almost every person on their scooters were some old hippy white people.

Let me correct some stereotypes about Goa. It is not the crazy party place that it was in the 60s/70s when the hippies "discovered" it. It is not some paradise. It is not the place from the 90s with beach raves.

Instead, it was pretty peaceful. Also, most people credited the Mumbai attacks for low tourism. So most of the time L and I wandered from beach to beach and enjoyed a lassi here or there. Goa is also famous for its cashew and coconut 'fenny' - an alcoholic beverage. I didn't like it too much.

Kerala

Kerala is the state further south of Goa. Portugese/Dutch influence. Kerala houses some of India's few jews. And when I say few, I mean about 4 families and 11 people. I forgot why the jews came here in the first place (probbaly some sort of persecution) and then picked up the spice trade. of course, merchants :) there is even a small jewish cemetery and temple which we visited. Most of the jewish families who lived here moved to Israel in 1948 when Israel started allowing immigration to all jews.

This is all in old Kochi (fort Kochi) which is a ferry ride away from where we were staying on the mainland. Here, they also have a dutch cemetary, some cathedrals, and chinese fishing nets. I did not enjoy the food so much in Kerala. At this point, I also got a bit sick actually. The last day in Goa, Loubna got up to go shopping and I layed miserably in bed. In fact, I'm feeling a bit sick now. I don't think working 12 hour days is very healthy. (i.e. im in office and it's almost 10 pm....)

L and I also decided to see a movie in Kochi. We saw Slumdog Millionaire which takes place in Mumbai. Great movie, you should see it. The man at the ticket booth told us "yes, English".... but it was only half english. there was no translation during the Hindi part. Ah well, I have the movie on my computer.

We also spend a day touring the back waters. This is what Kerala is famous for. There are some "back waters" which comprise of canals and a LOT of palm trees. Homes line the shore and you can sneak a peak into village life as you wade down the canals. We stopped to visit someones "backyard" and our tour guide gave us a small lecture on the different vegetation and edibles. My favorite was this small green juicy cucumber looking thing which grows on trees in bunches. REALLY sour. It tastes like the stems of those yellow flowers I used to eat. Anyways, with a bit of salt, it was fabulous! Makes you pucker, but in a good way. I love my sour and salt.

After this, we were basically done with India. Our flight to Delhi was delayed so we only arrived at 11 pm. We were supposed to meet up with coworker K and friend to celebrate our last night in India, but they opted for sleep instead. L and I decided to go out, since she had not yet seen Delhi nightlife. With a flight at 8 am, we did not sleep a wink!

Ok, time for me to leave this office. Hope you enjoyed my India adventures and I hope that you too will be able to visit one day