From Blue to Gold

Leaving from Udaipur to Jaisalmer, we broke the journey up with a quick stopover in Rajasthan’s second largest city, Jodhpur.

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Romantic India (?)

Udaipur is generally known as one of the (if not the) most romantic cities in India I wouldn’t deny that it has romantic qualities, but when in India everything is relative to your budget.

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Idling in Pushkar

After the chaos and hassle of Agra and Jaipur, Pushkar comes as a breath of well needed fresh air. Most know it for the carnival style camel fair each fall, but Pushkar is also an important pilgrimage place for locals who come to bathe in the holy lake. When we arrived we were surprised to see that there was no such holy lake and only a holy puddle left! This years monsoon was poor and thus the lake had dried up.

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The Priceless Taj, Literally!

Here’s a tip for anyone coming to India. Do not expect efficiency…anywhere. This tip is especially crucial when taking public transportation. Yesterday we were set to leave Katni station to go to Agra departing at 7:30pm, so like the good travelers we thought we were, we decided to get there 2 hours early. After 2 hours of locals coming up to us intrigued by everything about our lives and asking questions balancing on inappropriate (we are now pretending we are married for the rest of India), we realized our train was late and was now leaving at 9:30pm. At 10:30pm we got on the train, and we got to Agra at 4:30pm rather than 8:15am. When traveling long term there isn’t usually too much of a problem if you loose a day in transit, but the problem was that we had no food and the last time we had eaten was noon the day before, so we survived off chips and biscuits. We did not feel good.

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The Hunt For Shere Kahn II – Bandhavgarh

Bandhavgarh National Park is one of three well known tiger reserves in the Indian state of Madya Pradesh. Our journey from Varanasi was an overnight 11hr train ride which went by quickly while we were in a deep slumber.

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Varanasi Your One of a Kind!

A city without shame or remorse, perched on the ghats which enter the great Ganges river lies Varanasi. Mecca or Jerusalem for the Hindu universe, it is here all Hindus wish to die before being cremated at one of the two burning ghats. Once ones ashes are thrown into the Ganga, (or Ganges) their spirit becomes free from the cycle of rebirth. Pregnant women, children, holy men or cows need not not apply, as they are already pure and enter the river without cremation.

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Row Row Your Boat

Picture a blue blue lake surrounded by the snow capped Himalaya and on the shore a small town with delicious restaurants, trekking stores by the dozen, Tibetans selling handicrafts, and every kind of accommodation and thats Pokhara.

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The Hunt for Shere Kahn – Chitwan

I was awakened at 6am yesterday to Lianna looking out the window confused asking “Are there elephants grunting out our window?” She wasn’t wearing glasses so I was called upon to verify and sure enough there were some elephants right beside our room.

Not long after we grabbed a coffee and were set to board our elephants for both of our first safari. Speaking to a fellow Canadian the day prior our hopes were not set high as he didn’t see any animals on his elephant safari and suggested the jeep instead because elephants couldn’t enter the national park and were stuck to the buffer zone. When viewing wildlife it all comes down to luck so I assured Lianna you just never know. We were joined up with a group of 5 Russians who seemed to have no interest in viewing wildlife and acted more like they were at an amusement park but this being something Lianna and I had looked forward to for a long time tried not to let the antics of other tourists get under our skin.

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