Calcutta

So we survived our 38 hr train ride. It really wasn't too bad, we arrived in Calcutta at 10:35pm. We took a taxi as were joined by Simon, a guy that was in our car. We decided to find a place to stay together, our first stop was Hotel Maria. As fate would have it, there were only 2 beds left. We flipped a coin and unfortunately Simon won. We left and were picked up by an older man. He took us to another guest house with a decent room for 450 a night. We watched bits of movies and went to sleep only to be woken by an orchestra of noise in the morning. There was construction going on and lots of people. We both cleaned up and are now out getting ready for the Tiger Temple. I will mkae a better effort to write a detailed entry about India when I'm not paying for the internet, which will be after we settle at the temple (there's a restaurant with free internet). I'll try to keep everyone in the know and hope everyone's well.

Goa Chillin

So I'm not even sure how long we've been in Goa, but it's been great. Yesterday we did nothing, and I read the entire book Q&A (basis for Slumdog Millionaire) by nightfall. Our 2 friends for England, Toby and Ewan, have gone back home. Hopefully Maria will meet us up before we leave on Tuesday morning for Calcutta.
We have our train ticket, got money drawn, and we're ready to go. But not before a few more days of this gorgeous beach. I apologize for the lack of pictures being posted (I have taken 574 so far), I will do my best to put some up before we leave for Thailand.

I hope this finds all of you well and I will keep you posted.

Goa

So we've been in Goa for a while and we'll be staying here as long as possible. The beach is gorgeous, we watch dolphins come out of the water from the shore, and we meet new people everyday. The hut we're staying in is 300R's a night, quite a steal.
Anyway, we are currently booking our tickets to Calcutta and then flying to Bangkok. Just got our info for the Tiger Temple, should be interesting. I'm pissed that the Eagles lost, but oh well.
I learned how to ride a scooter today, initially they wouldn't give me one because I didn't know what I was doing. Everything's fine now, just going to relax like crazy for another week and then off to the temple!

One more thing

In addition to the previous post, I forget to mention that one of the pictures of us landed on the inside cover of "The Times of India," a national newspaper! I tried to find the link, but I guess the picture is only in the paper copy. We both have one, so you can see it when we come back.
We also just booked our ticket to Bangkok. Unfortunately, the cheapest airline's website didn't work, so we had to get the next best, which was $172 each, ouch. At least it's done now though.

Playing Catchup

I apologize for the lack of posts, we rarely seem to have a decent amount of time for me to write anything.
Anyway, the Taj Mahal was incredible (and expensive, $15 each), plenty of pictures were taken. After that we were off to Jaipur, I did book a hostel, but our driver put us up in a really nice hotel for the same price. The next day he dove us around Jaipur. We saw an outdoor observatory, a massive fort (one of our favorites so far), got an elephant ride, and had south Indian Dosa (delicious). Our train was later in the evening and we slept like babies on it.
We arrived at Udaipur in the morning and walked around the city. It's really less of a city than it is a collection of palaces along a beautiful lake. After Udaipur we were off to Ahmedabad.
We met up with some friends and went to a massive international summit. We had our pictures taken several times because our friend Maria and I were the only blondes there. After that we went to Ghandi's home and then to a gorgeous temple that was very far out of the city. Jarryd and I got to meet the saint in charge of the entire temple, and he gave us his blessing, a huge honor.
The next day was the kite festival and it was a ball. We went to our host Julian's family's house and flew kites for several hours. I managed to cut 2 kites, lots of fun. Later on we walked around Ahmedabad taking pictures and meeting people. When it got dark there were fireworks everywhere! We caught our train to Mumbai and now here we are. We are spending the night at the Salvation Army Hostel and have a train to Goa tomorrow. We will be booking our flight out of India as soon as I get off this computer.
I hope this finds everyone well (and don't worry, I am keeping a much more detailed daily journal that will be available once we get back) !

Delhi Madness!

So we got in early from our long flight and just managed to find our driver before we were going to get our own taxi. Driving in Delhi is a mixture of Frogger and Operation, it is insane! NYC doesn't even come close. We hit a big traffic jam and sat with our engine off for 20 min, eventually getting to the Hostel. Jarryd passed out as soon as he hit the bed and I went out with some of the guys that took us to the hostel. We had a few drinks and then some amazing curry on the street. We followed that with Chai and gulab jamun, all so very good, I had a fantastic time.
This morning we went out to meet up with friends from NC. I man told us where to go, turns out he was on his way to open his bookstore. It is very hard to tell the difference between genuinely nice ppl and ppl trying to con you or get you into their store. The nice ones are very helpful, and he led us to the government tourist office. We only wanted some maps, but walked out with all our transportation booked for the next week! It was a good deal, $267 for everything, including a personal driver for Delhi, Agra, and to Jaipur (with free elephant ride! haha).
We found our driver and went to find our NC friends, but they had gone somewhere else, oh well. We did the mosque, red fort, tombs, government buildings, gardens, and an amazing indian temple that was maroon, yellow, marble and incredibly clean and beautiful. All in all, a very busy day.
We leave for Agra tomorrow morning at 6:30am, stopping at the Lotus Temple on the way. We will also be visiting the birthplace of Krishna, a Ghost town, and a Bird sanctuary. I just booked our hostel in Jaipur, and after that it's trains to Udiapur and then Admedabad.
Everything is going well, but we are looking forward to being in less predatory places where we can go more than 20ft without being haggled, etc.
Time to eat and get to bed, ttfn

Here we go again!

So I'll be picked up by Jarryd and his Dad tomorrow morning at 9:30am. We'll drive to JFK and the flight leaves for Delhi at 4pm. I already lost a little sleep last night thinking about the trip, who knows what will happen tonight!

So far we're meeting up with people from North Carolina, experiencing a massive Kite Festival (real life Kite Runner, for those of you who read the book/saw the movie), and enjoying a 10 course meal with 500 other indians! Then a few free days and off to the Tiger Temple! I'm not sure what to expect, but after getting a super short haircut today, I don't think I wold mind being bald for a little while.

I'm confident that things will go well and hopefully I will keep up my written daily journal for the duration of the trip (book prospect?).

Regardless, I hope plenty of people follow our travels and enjoy the stories that will unfold on this simple webpage.