Over our two weeks in India, we travelled to seven cities and visited countless beautiful temples, monuments, and attractions. After a couple culture shocking days in New Delhi, we were off to Agra, to visit the breathtaking Taj Mahal. This mausoleum was quite surreal, and truly more beautiful than we could have ever imagined. Pictures can not do it justice, a true wonder of the world. Following our visit in Agra, we set off for our next city, Jaipur, the Pink City. On our way to the Pink City, we eagerly stopped at the aptly named Monkey Temple. With a camera in hand and excited smiles, we ascended the Hindu Temple stopping nearly ever step to capture the monkeys; eating, running, swinging, and play fighting. As we summited the mountain, we gazed upon the city we would call home for the next two days. The rooftops of nearly every house in the city were filled with; people, music, and kites, as we arrived during kite festival week. Luckily for us, our hotel room had a balcony with a view that offered a private firework show put on by a local family across the street. As if a sky full of kites and fireworks was not enough, the night sky was lit up with hundreds of floating sky lanterns. We were thankful to be there for this celebration, and it was probably the best we saw. However, we managed to see fireworks every single day thereafter. P.S. On our flight out of India we saw fireworks below us going off which was an amazing new perspective.

With a couple days of tourist attractions behind us, we decided it was time to explore the local community. We started at the main bazaar in Jaipur. This however, really put us off in terms of market shopping, as we were endlessly assaulted by competitive store owners. Once we moved away from the main bazar and into local side streets, we were pleasantly surprised when we found the market atmosphere we were hoping for. With the tiny streets filled with colorful textiles, we feasted our senses. While the busy side streets of Jaipur were a taste of India we had looked forward to, our next destination was a welcome change to the hectic and sometimes quite dirty Jaipur. Udaipur, was a quite city nestled around a lake where the main attraction for us was peace and quite. Furthermore, we immediately noticed that Udaipur, as one local told us, is perhaps the cleanest city in Northern India. In addition to the peacefulness the rooftops brought, we were able to enjoy a quiet, relaxing boat ride around the lake, adding a new perspective of Udaipur.

The next city of our India travels was Jodhpur, the Blue City. With a fort as the main attraction, Jodhpur allowed for countless hours of exploring the local neighborhood streets. Turning one corner into a goat fight, and another where three teenage girls abruptly stopped their scooter to allow us to take a photo of them. Giggling, with huge smiles on their faces, they said they loved the “clicking sound” of our camera, another memorable moment with the locals. From the Blue City to the Yellow City, Jaisalmer, we said to ourselves somewhat grudgingly, “another city, another fort”. To be fair this fort was special though as it is the only fort in the world where there are still people living, which afforded an interesting atmosphere to walk around in. On our second day we sat with our fellow travelers eagerly awaiting the announcement that our jeep had arrived to take us to the desert and our camel safari. The following day we wondered into a famous Lassi Shop we recognized from Anthony Bourdain’s show, No Reservations. Inside we found a giant poster with Anthony’s face, his signature in their log book, and a laptop with the episode ready to play. With Anthony Bourdain’s show as our major preparation guide for this trip, this was a satisfying find, as we were brought back to our lazy Sundays in Los Angles eagerly awaiting the adventures ahead of us.

A short 20 hour train ride later, with a couple mice scurrying past our feet, we arrived in Rishikesh, the yoga capital of the world. From the train ride itself, let alone our past several days in a hectic atmosphere, we were ready to relax and participate in some yoga. Excited to start, we woke up at 6am, catching sunrise before our 8am (advanced) class. Two hours and a couple head stands later, we were exhausted. Yoga had gotten the best of us. A short one hour break later, we joined our second two hour yoga session, this time at the beginner level. Emerging from our second class we were forced to reconsider our plans of joining yet another class that evening. We elected instead for some lunch with a view. We will remember the views in Rishikesh as something spectacular, as the sleepy mountain town straddles the Ganges river. With another determined morning, our alarm clocks were set for 6am. However, our awaking aching bodies beckoned us to sleep in and opt out of yoga. This decision was one of our best, as instead we spent the day hiking the Himalayas. As we hiked up the beautiful trail, we came across a majestic waterfall, one that consisted of pure, clean, Ganges water and one that Chris decided to strip down and swim in, a memorable moment for us both. With smiles from ear to ear filed by the clean Himalayan air, it was time to head to Haridwar, our final destination in India. Hardware is famous because according to Hindu texts, this is where some of the elixir of immortality was spilled. Every twelve years there is a multi million person pilgrimage to this site, possibly the largest in the world. We would see the much smaller daily sundown celebration. This celebration involves bathing in the Ganges and dropping leaf baskets of flowers to flow down and bless loved ones. Unfortunately this experience was a negative one, with the extreme persistence of those posing as helping foreigners join in the celebration. The true reason of their presence was to manipulate foreigners and assault them until they pay up. Having just come from Rishikesh, a place of peace and mediation, we could not help but dismiss the negativity and be grateful for having the opportunity to participate. As we write this blog on our flight to Bangkok, we dream of beautiful beaches.