The Life And Times Of Kimberly

I am surprised how much I am enjoying this city, despite the fact that our first day here felt like winter. We were not prepared when stepping off the plane in shorts and t-shirts.

After getting into Newark Airport around 4:50am on Saturday we made it into the city just after 6:00am. To try and fight jetlag we decided it was best to stay up until it was time to go to bed New York time, which wasnt easy considering we really had been up for about 24 hours at this point.

After dropping off our bags at the hostel we decided to head to the NBC studios to try and get in line for Saturday Night Live standby tickets. The line was pretty long, with people that looked like they had been there all night. Sadly they ran out of standby tickets before we got to the front of the line so we didnt get a chance to see the show.

At this point it was still pretty early so we headed to McDonalds for an egg mcmuffin. This is only the 2nd time since being gone that we have had McDonalds, and all though my hashbrowns were really greasy it was pretty tasty

Sean spent some time in New York City before heading to Europe for his trip so I was worried that he was going to be bored seeing everything again. But I was happy to hear after we got some tickets that he hadnt taken one of the double decker tour buses. This seemed like the best way to see Manhattan. Although it was incredibly cold we had a great time touring the bottom half of Manhattan.

It seems like when I think of New York City the first thing that pops into my head is Broadway. We have tickets to see The Lion King and Wicked while we are here but we thought we would check out a half price ticket place to see if there was anything else we wanted to see. This place sells same day tickets for shows at about half the price. Most of the shows we had never heard of so we decided to see Boeing, Boeing. It was a play so the line was 2 people long instead of 100 for the musicals, which helped with the decision.

After doing some wash and wanting so badly to take a nap we headed to the play. Come to find out it had Christine Baranski in it (she was Cybil, the tv show). There were some other people from tv and movies which is much more than either of us expected. It was so funny.

I was pretty much falling asleep at this point but holding on for a few more hours since it was only 5 at this point. After dinner and then a drink we headed back to the hotel to go to sleep.

It was one of the longest days of my life.

Filed under: Uncategorized on September 22nd, 2008 | No Comments »

The plane that we were on was really nice. There was a first class section, a business section, and then 2 sections of economy class. Although it would have been nice to be in either the first class or business class I just dont think the additional $15,000 was quite worth it. All that mattered to me was that I could have a gin and tonic after taking off and watch all the movies I wanted, or so I thought…

The first disappointment was that there isnt free alcohol for economy passengers, which I believe is not fair. I got over it after a bit of whining and was ready to just settle into a movie. This was the source of some more disappointment. They were having some problems with the onboard entertainment system. Because of these problems they kept rebooting, which usually happened right after I had started a movie.

Finally they were resigned to the fact that half the plane wouldnt have access to the entertainment system and let those of us with working screens enjoy the movies. I made it through a movie and then part of the way through another movie it stopped working again. I figured it was probably for the better as it was late and I could use some sleep…

Come to find out the entertainment system is tied to the individual lights for people. So when the entertainment went on the fritz so did the lights meaning all the sudden the lights were on and that was going to keep me from sleeping. After a bit of waiting I decided to go ask the flight attendants, very nicely, if the lights were going to be turned off soon. At this point I didnt realize they were malfunctioning too. The attendants informed me that a few passengers in my section wanted the lights on. They agreed that it was rude and decided they were going to try and convince the men to have the lights turned off. Before doing that though, one of the flight attendants came back with a first class amenitites kit for me that had all kinds of cool things like: mask, ear plugs, socks, lotion, chapstick, toothbrush and toothpaste, and other odds and ends in a nice zipper bag.

I was pretty excited to get this, so when the lights turned off a couple minutes later I was convince she was going to ask for it back. I made sure to open it up and open various things to make sure she couldnt take it back After turning the lights back on thankfully my movies started working again.

Even with the movies working I still had to sleep some, even if it ended up only being 3 hours.

It was a really long flight and left both Sean and I tired in New York our first day.

Filed under: Uncategorized on September 22nd, 2008 | No Comments »

After a couple days of doing nothing in Jaipur we headed to Delhi and tried to keep busy.

We took a bus instead of a train into Delhi which was actually really nice. The trains arrived in Delhi at around 10pm which was later than we wanted to be wandering around a new city so we decided to take a morning bus up so we could be all settled in the afternoon.

The area of our hotel was a bit sketchy but the room ended up being not too bad. The room had a bit of a leak but you can be surprised considering how much it was raining.

We got lucky on this trip in regards to the rain. Considering we were traveling through out monsoon season we only had a handful of days where it poured down rain. I had expected it to be raining on most days even if for just for an hour or so. Thankfully that wasnt the case. Depsite how lucky we were it unfortunately rained for a good part of the two days we were in Delhi. Even with the rain we still got out and did a few things.

We visited the railroad museum, a strange shopping complex inside the Air Force Base, Planetarium, Cultural Center with a diner inside, and a tea shop. That was more than we had done in like 4 days. It was nice to get out and do something instead of just sitting in our room.

I think we were both surprised about Delhi. It wasnt quite as chaotic as some of the other big cities we had been to in India. There is an area of Central Delhi that is just a bunch of tree lined streets with parks and buildings here and there. It was so different from the other parts of Delhi that we ended up spending most of our time at places within this area. It was definetly a nice change from the crowded streets.

The most exciting part of our time in Delhi was actually at the airport. We headed to the airport quite a few hours before our plane was leaving mainly to get there before it was dark. Once we arrived we tried to go into the building to check in and the security guards wouldnt let us. Since we didnt have a paper copy of ticket we couldnt prove that we actually had a flight, therefore they couldnt let us in. I kept trying to explain that we werent going to have a paper copy since there was nowhere we could get one now. I also tried to convince him to follow us to the desk so we could prove that we have a ticket when they check us in. That didnt work either. Finally he pointed us in the direction of the Continental office where they could print out our e-ticket so we could go in the building. It works out fine, but I was still annoyed he wouldnt just let us in the building.

It continues…

We got in line with our printed out copy and our passports to check in. We were handed all the customs forms to fill out as well as some tags for our bags. While filling those out the lady who had printed our ticket walks up so I say hi. She says that she is going to ask us some questions. Little did I know at this point I would be repeating our entire itinerary with the names of airlines we flew, how long we were in each place, the places we visited while in India and all our modes of transportation. She made me feel like we had done something wrong. Thankfully I have a good memory so I was able to pretty much recall the information she needed. While she was asking these questions she was also looking through our passports. Sean has used two passports on this trip and she was only looking at his Canadian one so we thought she would notice that only a few of the countries were in it, but she didnt say anything. She asked about my Turkey stamp and then was a little confused why I had so many stamps from Egypt. If you look in my passport you will see 3 pages devoted to visas and then since I left the country on 3 occassions there are 6 exit and entry stamps. Thankfully she understood after I told her that I left the country on so many occassions. After probably 15 minutes of her questions she finally let us go. I was surprised there were so many questions.

It wasnt until we went through security to get into the boarding area and then another security to get on the plane that i realized they are being extra careful. Possibly this is due to the bombings that had just recently happened.

Thankfully we made it through all the checks and got on the plane to head out on a 15 hour flight to New York City.

Filed under: Uncategorized on September 21st, 2008 | No Comments »

We have been super lazy here in Jaipur. Sean is still not feeling well so while he was trying to sleep I have spent my time reading, blogging, contemplating my future, and drinking chai.

Chai has become a favorite of mine since we have been in India, it is much better than any chai I have had at home. The interaction between me and the person I am ordering with is usually the same, I say “I would like a cup of chai” they say “Indian tea?” but when they say it there is a look of suprise, almost as if they are shocked I would order it. Coffee, which is normally my breakfast and afternoon snack at home isnt quite the same here. India just isnt the same coffee culture as home. One morning while we were in Mumbai I thought it would be nice to go and get Sean a fancy coffee or what most people call a latte So at around 9:00am I headed to the coffee shop to find that it was not open yet. I was shocked, it wasnt like I was there at 5:30 in the morning. Needless to say I have embraced the drink of choice for many and will save my early morning coffee drinking for when I get home.

Anyways… back to Jaipur. There really isnt anything super to write about considering we have spent the two days here in our hotel with a couple of outings for food. As with the rest in Udaipur we have needed this time to relax.

On another tangent… I had to go to a chemist to pick up a medicine, I will spare the details of what it was for but the price of the medicine is the story. At home to get a prescription you first have to visit the doctor where if you are lucky enough to have insurance is going to cost you probably a $25 copay. Then you have to go to the pharmacy where you might have to shell our another $20 for the medicine. In India you don’t need a prescription so right there you have cut out a doctor’s visit. Keeping all of this in mind, when I went to get the medicine I brought 1000 rupees ($15) to get it hoping that was enough. When the chemist told me that each pill was 850 I was shocked. That seems like a lot for 1 pill. Turns out there was a decimal point making it 8.5 rupees, again I was shocked. That is so cheap, leading me to get 5 pills when I only needed 1. It was at this point I understood why senior citizens go to canada for cheap drugs. For the one pill it cost me about 25 cents where the same pill in the US would have been $50. Part of me wanted to go back to the pharmacy and buy a dozen, but I would hate to be caught by customs thinking I was smuggling in drugs.

Well that was about as exciting as our time in Jaipur has been. We are headed to Delhi tomorrow for a couple days before flying to New York City. We originally were going to shorten our time since the bombings there this weekend but decided to still spend 2 days there and hope there arent anymore bombings. I am still surprised that I didnt get frantic emails from my family after the bombings. It is definetly something I expected in my inbox the following morning

Hopefully we get out a little in Delhi and see something since we have been so lazy the last few days.

Filed under: Uncategorized on September 16th, 2008 | No Comments »

After a few days in Mumbai we headed north to Udaipur. The journey here was not quite what we had been told it would be.

While in Mumbai we had decided to get all of the train tickets for the rest of the trip. Train tickets can be hard to get sometimes due to the numbers of people trying to travel. Through out India at most of the major cities they offer a tourist quota. Basically these are seats set aside available only to tourists. We figured that since Mumbai might be the last city before Delhi that had a tourist quota it would be good to get all the tickets. The lady helping us was rushing since we caught her right before he lunch break. The first train ride she said she couldnt get us to Udaipur but there was a station about an hour away that we could get to and then we would just need to take a bus. We figured an hour wasnt much so we went with it. She got the second one fine and then the final train into Delhi was completely booked. But since that was almost a week away we decided we could just figure it out later.

She was a little wrong about the distance from the station to Udaipur. After taking a 13 hour train from Mumbai to a place called Abu Rd we then found out that it was going to be a 5 hour bus ride to Udaipur, not quite the 1 hour ride we had thought. The bus started out fine but then it got more and more people. It would empty and then shortly after would be full again. Sean and I were fine with it for probably the first hour and a half but then we were done. Thankfully the last hour of the trip we met a guy who works in pharmaceuticals and spoke great english. We chatted with him about some India history, american politics and various other things. It helped make the time go by a lot quicker, we only wished we had met him a bit sooner in the journey.

It was pouring when we got into Udaipur which never helps when you are looking for a hotel. We told the rickshaw driver where we were staying and he tried to tell us that it was closed. This is a common trick they use to take you to another hotel where they will get a commission. Sean got upset and told them to take us there anyways, since we didnt believe them. Turns out they were actually being truthful, it made me feel a little bad that we didnt trust them. You can tell we are getting use to people trying to scam us.

Our time in Udaipur was pretty short since we hadnt planned on spending almost 6 hours on a bus. On top of that Sean was running a fever so it made more sense for him to sleep than to go to do things and risk getting worse.

We did manage to go and look at this big old palace along the river, which was nice. I am surprised by how much marble was used here. It seems that all big palaces were made of marble, maybe they are trying to be like the Taj Mahal

Other than our one outing and some short trips to restaurants we didnt do much which isnt always a bad thing.

Filed under: Uncategorized on September 16th, 2008 | No Comments »

We have had a few days to explore Mombai, also known as Bombay and it has been a bit of a change from other cities in India.

The biggest change I see here is in those people about my age. The girls for the most part wear western clothes or a mix of western and indian. They hang out with their friends in coffee shops and cafes and at times speak english. It is interesting to see the contrast between the different parts of India.

While here in Mumbai there is the festival for Ganesh going on. Within most neighborhoods you see tents set up with a Ganesh statue. Ganesh is our favorite so it has been fun to see all the statues. On tv they are broadcasting the main statue, which is huge, where people go and touch the right foot and offer up a sort of wish for the coming year. We were told by a guy on the train coming here that people wait for 8-10 hours just to touch the foot of this statue.

We met two girls from New York in Agra who told us to try and see “Singh is King” while here in Mombai. We had planned on seeing a Bollywood film so it was nice to get a suggestion of a good one. We ended up getting lucky and finding a theater that was showing it on our first day. Although the movie was in Hindi, we were able to follow along with the story line. Sean met a man at the concession stand during intermission who clarified a few things for us which helped tie a few confusing stories together. The dancing and music was the best part. We are interested to see the movie when we get home with subtitles to see some of the aspects to the story that we missed. We had a great time.

Tonight we are headed north to Rajasthan which is suppose to be one of the most beautiful districts in India.

Filed under: Uncategorized on September 12th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

After arriving in Agra 8 1/2 hours late we decided to get our next train tickets while we were at the station so we didnt have to make a return trip the next day.

It was quite the ordeal but finally the lady behind the counter found us two emergency quota tickets that left a city 50 kilometers away. Typically there are tickets set aside for tourists since the trains fill up with Indians. The problem was that this station doesnt have access to the tourist quotas so that is why she had to resort to emergency quota, which ended up costing us an additional $15. Thankfully we ended up getting our tickets to Mumbai figured out even if it meant travelling 50 kilometers to the station.

The first thing I noticed about Agra was that it seemed a lot more laid back. There wasnt the same craziness we had seen in other cities, which surprises me since this a huge tourist destination where you would expect to be hassled.

After going to one hotel that wanted to charge us way too much we ended up down the road at a good place with an amazing view of the Taj Mahal from the rooftop restaurant.

Obviously the main reason for coming to Agra was the Taj Mahal, so we headed there after a quick lunch.

The Taj Mahal is absolutely amazing. When you walk through the gates you see this massive white structure that seems striking again the blue sky background. There were masses of people mostly Indians, which was surprising, taking pictures.

As you walk up you can see all the work that must have gone into this building. After walking around and also looking inside we headed back toward the gates we came in through. When you turn around and see it again from a little bit of a distance you are amazed again by the structure. Eventhough it was a cloudy day the Taj Mahal was still amazing.

We then decided to check out the $400 a night hotel for a drink. Sean briefly looked into staying there but $400 is a crazy amount to spend for one night. So a drink in their bar is the next best thing. Although I would like to say that our $10 a night hotel had a much better view of the Taj Mahal than this expensive hotel.

Before heading out to Mathura (50 kilometers from Agra) to catch our train we went to Agra Fort which was a mixture of marble and stone. The guy who had the Taj Mahal built after his 2nd wife died was imprisioned here by his son after he took over power. It was a hot day though so it always makes it harder to walk around looking at things.

Our time in Agra was brief but now I can check off another one of the wonders of the world I have seen.

Filed under: Uncategorized on September 11th, 2008 | No Comments »

The hotel we decided to stay in we pretty empty which lead me to believe we could haggle on the super inflated price the man told us. Sean and I did a great job working on the guy and we ended up getting the honeymoon suite, complete with a round bed and satin sheets, for almost half the price he originally quoted. It still makes me laugh to think about that ridiculous round bed with square sheets.

As I mentioned before, Gorakhpur normally doesnt have many tourists so the two of us walking around the streets looking for a restaurant became quite the scene.

When we were in Gorakhpur the first time before heading out to Kushinagar was had a hard time finding a restaurant that looked okay. That proved to be a problem the second time we were there as well. After walking around for a bit we stopped and asked a police officer. We have found that the police officers are very helpful.

One of the officers was convinced every time we said restaurant what we really meant to say was train station. Even after we made eating gestures he still thought we mean train station. This goes to show that they arent use to people actually staying there. Finally another officer mentioned Hotel Shiva (or atleast that is what I heard). They pointed in a general direction and we set out walking. We really had no idea if we were right but we figured we could ask directions as we went.

We stopped a couple times to ask directions and they would tell us to get in a rickshaw. We probably would have done that if we had any smaller bills than 100’s. We just kept walking. Finally we decide we need to stop and get some directions, from a group of police officers.

As we are standing there trying to tell them where we would like to go slowly a group of people start gathering. The police officer gets on his phone to get directions for the rickshaw driver that has stopped, probably hoping to get a good amount for taking us somewhere. As the officer is getting the information the chai boy comes by to give the officers some. Since we are standing there he makes the boy give us some. We are pretty sure that police get free chai.

The officer explains the directions to the rickshaw driver, but we tell the officer that we only have a 100 rupee. So he send somebody to get a change while he takes down all of the drivers information to make sure he only makes up pay 10 rupees. On a side note, if we had negotiated that deal it would have cost us close to 40. Finally after getting our change and the officer saying again a few times about only charging us 10 rupees we are on our way.

The restaurant was good, even they were surprised to see us there. We got lucky again when the front desk guy at the hotel where the restaurant was told the rickshaw driver to only charge us 10 rupees. Clearly in our time in India so far we have been paying way too much for rickshaws. Then again everything is a bit more expensive for foreigners than locals.

The next afternoon we headed to the train station to catch our train to Agra only to find out that it was 5 hours delayed. We are not in a place that has lots of options to hang out in so we ended up at an internet cafe for a bit, a somewhat sketchy restaurant, and then a second restaurant for a drink before heading back to the train station to wait. At this point we had killed almost 4 hours.

Sadly though, when we got to the train station we found out that it was 6 hours late. Which meant more waiting.

We ended in the air conditioned waiting room, that was really just fan conditioned. But it was still a nicer place to wait than out on the platforms. We met some interesting people while we waited.

I was sitting trying to read a newspaper when a man came over and said that the young girls he was with wanted to talk to me. I was happy to talk to them, thinking maybe they wanted to practice their english. What they really wanted to talk about was their spirituality and their belief in a form of yoga. You should check out Sean’s blog he does a good explanation of it.

While the man was talking to Sean and I the girl next to me asks me if I am interested in meditation. I said I didnt know, since I dont know a lot of about it and I am not even sure if I would be interested in it. By me not saying no lead the man to get up and look for a dark quiet room to show me some meditation. Although I didnt realize that was happening. Sean’s reaction to the whole thing was great. He had this horrified look on his face thinking that I was going to go do meditation in a dark room with this strange man.

Clearly I hadnt understood what the man was doing and so when Sean explained what the man wanted to do I tried to nicely tell them I wasnt interested. This made the girl next to me a little upset that I wouldnt even try it. Clearly she didnt understand that it is weird to go in a dark room with a stranger to perform meditation.

After the whole meditation thing the girl started chatting with me about other things such as marriage, cooking, and school while she was doing henna on my hand. It was fun talking to her especially on her views on marriage and the duties of the wife.

After waiting 8 1/2 hours for our train it finally arrived and we were on our way to Agra.

Filed under: Uncategorized on September 11th, 2008 | No Comments »

I know many of you have anxiously been awaiting a new post about my trip, well here it is only like a week late

After leaving Varanasi we decided to head for Kushinagar which is the place where Buddha died.

The trip to get here meant taking a train from Varanasi to Gorakhpur and then a bus onto Kushinagar. Gorakhpur is typically just a stopping off point for those people who are planning on heading onto Nepal.

Speaking of Nepal, we were actually going to try and go up to Kathmandu for a week or so. The only problem was that I only have a single entry visa into India and so if we left we would have to get another Indian visa for myself that could take up to 2 weeks. In the end it wasnt worth the possibility of not having enough time in India so it is going on the list of future places to visit.

We attempted to take a bus to Kushinagar but the buses were really crowded and it just didnt seem like a fun arrangement for 2 hours. That lead us to take a taxi, which although more expensive was worth the money.

Kushinagar is typically not a touristy place which could explain the fact that there are only 3 hotels, 2 of which were not currently open, and only one restaurant that was extremely slow.

We decided to stay in a Vietnamese Buddhist Monastery. The rooms were really basic but it was definetly a interesting experience. As I have mentioned before India has some energy issues and we lost power just as it was getting dark. Thankfully a couple hours earlier we had purchased a flash light so we atleast had a little light since who really goes to bed at 6:30pm. The only downside of losing power is that the fan no longer works. Needless to say I was a bit hot through out the night. Although I dont think I complained much about it

Originally we had planned to spend 2 nights there but decided to head back early and just spend the night in Gorakhpur before taking the train to Agra.

Filed under: Uncategorized on September 11th, 2008 | No Comments »

I had very high expectations for Varanasi. After hearing it was amazing from a couple people I therefore expected it to be very different than it actually was.

The book had warned us that Varanasi was a place that you would be bombarded by touts (people trying to get you a taxi, hotel, food, anything really). So when trying to get a taxi to the old city, where our hotel was, we were surrounded by people trying to get us to go with them.

We eventually made it to the ghats (stairs into the water where people bathe, wash clothes…) we then had to wander through narrow streets to try and find out hotel. As with other old cities we have been to there is just a maze of streets where you can easily get lost.

Eventually we made it to the hotel which was a bit run down, but at this point I really didnt care. We got a room with air conditioning, but since Varanasi has a power problem (as with many places in India) the air conditioning wasnt currently working. It only worked sporatically through the night, but thankfully we did have some fans

After getting settled and having a soda at the roof top restaurant we then headed out to try and see the main burning ghat. As mentioned in my previous post, this is the place where people bring bodies to have them burned and then the ashes spread in the river.

We found our way very easily since it is really just around the corner from our hotel. There is a man that decided he was going to show us around, saying over and over that he was not a guide. I wish I could have taken pictures but it was just not appropriate to do it.

I will paint a picture of what we were seeing. We went up to the top of a building just next to the ghat so we could see everything. On one side of us there were huge piles of wood, on a side note, the price of the cremation is determined by the amount of wood needed to burn the body. In front of us on a big slab of concrete were 4 or 5 bodies are in various state of cremation. Down below the burning were another 3 or 4 bodies waiting to be cremated. This wasnt something that you just wanted to stand and watch so we ended up going down after a quick look.

The man who showed us around, although adamant that he wasnt a guide then asked for money from us. He said that the money would go towards wood for those families that couldnt afford it. We later found out from a tourist office that we shouldnt have given money since that actually goes for wine for the man we gave it to. Oh well, we like to think we are doing a good thing.

After exploring the old city a little more by trying to find another ghat we decided to head back to our hotel since the guide book suggested not being out after dark.

The second day I was feeling a bit better about Varanasi, although still feeling a bit overwhelmed. I just feel like I am always on display here. Atleast in Kolkata I didnt feel like I was such a sight, but here and some other smaller places we have been it feels like I cant walk down the street without getting stared at or called out to. I think this added to my feelings towards Varanasi.

We decided to check out Sarnath which is just outside of Varanasi and supposedly the place where Buddha gave his first sermon. It was a nice change from the craziness of Varanasi.

On our way back from Sarnath we stopped at Assi Ghat, which some boys on the train to Varanasi said was the best one. It was much more open unlike the crowded ghats we had looked at before. I am glad we were able to see some different ghats.

In the end, after leaving Varanasi the next morning I didnt have the same strong negative feelings that i had when first getting there.

Filed under: Uncategorized on September 7th, 2008 | No Comments »