Kolkata

Kolkata is definitely a whirlwind of a city. The cars are always honking, the touts are out full force and the sidewalks and streets are completely overcrowded. Half of the time, people are walking in the street for one of two reasons: either the sidewalk is completely full of people and/or makeshift stalls or the sidewalk is full of rubble or loaded with trash. As homes around our hotel lack plumbung, there are wells every few blocks where the residents come out to cook, wash clothes, bathe and take care of other daily activities. When we get home after long days of exploring the city, we are covered in dust and enjoy the few hours of quiet in our small room where the paint is peeling. Despite the sensory overload, we are loving the chaos. The people are incredibly friendly, the food is delicious and we are bombarded with intense scenes of daily life here, which is quite exhilarating albeit exhausting. We have been to a cricket game, seen beautiful colonial architecture and walked through a narrow alleyway that was the neighborhood slaughterhouse! Last night we purchased a saree and a kurta for an Indian wedding that we are attending this afternoon. It will be day one of a five day affair and we are extremely excited, as Indian weddings are supposed to be amazingly festive and extravagant. The next blog will have many photos.

Additionally, I am happy to report that all of the photos from our trip are now uploaded on the web and are accessible through the blog. Once you get to the photo-sharing webpage you can see all of them!

All our love. We miss everyone at home!

Kolkata

Crossing the Indian Border

Raxaul, India

On Tuesday morning, our hotel arranged for a horse cart to take us to the highway 40 minutes away where where we were to flag down a bus going to the border town Birganj. We fortunately got the last two seats in what turned out to be a very crowded bus for 3 hours down to the border. We made many stops along the way to pick up passengers. Sometimes, we would stop but saw no one get on or off. We later realized that people were climbing onto the roof to sit, which is very common for buses in Nepal. When we arrived in Biganj, we saw two guys unloading 6 goats from the roof of our bus and then lead them towards the town's main road. The town was quite a sight- full of colorful trucks heading to India, food being cooked in outdoor stalls while dust swirled all around us. The streets were full of horse carts and rickshaws taking people to the border, the town has no taxis. We stopped for lunch and took our first rickshaw 4 km to the border. There was a crazy back-up towards the end of the trip so we gave our tired-looking rickshaw driver, whose right arm was in a cast, a 100% tip and walked across. When we got our departure stamps, the Nepali border workers marvelled at our 5- and 7-year Indian visas, saying "Bravo sir" to S. We crossed over the border bridge into Raxaul with many Indians and Nepalis. All were walking with a purpose, some barefoot, some carrying naked children and many staring shyly at us and we walked passed. The man at the Indian border very critically looked at our visas, questioning why a section had been crossed out. He fortunately believed us when we said the Indian Embassy in NYC did it, told us to give him 100 rupees and asked us for any small American bills or coins.
Walking down main street, we were bombarded by touts trying to take us on their rickshaws or to their friend's hotel. As we went up to Hotel Decari, one of the touts followed us and told the man at the front desk he brought us there so he could get a commission. After checking in, we walked to the train station, which was a mad house. There were hundreds of people sitting outside resting, eating and sleeping and there was a mob in front of the ticket booths. As women in India are allowed to skip the lines, I pushed my way to the front where a man finally told me to go around the corner to the upper-class ticket office. The mob was waiting for general seating tickets. The upper-class office was empty and the man easily helped us book two tickets for the next morning's 18-hour train to Kolkata (or Calcutta).
Yesterday morning, we arrived early to the train station and saw what the general seating actually means- if the cars are packed to the brim, you climb up on the roof. We saw women carrying little babies and even old grandmas making their way up there. While S and I were previously excited about riding general class, we both agree that riding on the roof of a train is a little too much. We had a peaceful ride in our first-class car and savoured every moment as that is the nicest we will travel by train in India for a while. I dozed off to sleep with deep-throated Indian men wandering up and down the cars selling "Chai, Chai, chai, coffee, coffee, coffee".
As today is Thanksgiving, S and I have checked into a mid range hotel, a splurge for us. We are staying in an 18th century colonial home with a large outdoor garden and very friendly and helpful staff. Our room is huge and we get complimentary breakfast in the morning. We got the last room in the hotel after the doorman and the man behind the counter told us the hotel was full. It was after we asked for availability for the next evening that they somehow found the room for us tonight. We had a delicious Thanksgiving day lunch-- 2 orders of rice, dhaal (yellow lentils), chapatti and vegetable curry in a crowded local restaurant for $1.30 total. We ate Indian-style, with our right hands. The challenge in eating this way comes when you need to tear the chapatti into bits with only your right hand. There is added difficulty because we are both lefties. S and I watch the other diners for lessons in technique.
Tonight we are going to a nice Italian restaurant to celebrate our 6 year anniversary, which is in 3 days. We thought we had to try to have some Western food on Thanksgiving.

One-Horned Rhinos

This afternoon, we took an elephant safari through the jungle. Riding atop an elephant is supposed to be one of the best ways to spot wildlife as the elephants hide the human scent. While the ride was quite bumpy because of the elphant's lumbering gait, we stumbled upon two one-horned rhinos drinking from a water hole. We followed them on the elephant for about 5 minutes. We also saw many deer, one which had just been killed by a tiger....fortunately missed that scene!

Chitwan Nat'l Park

After two days of exploring Patan and Bhaktapur, the medieval city-states of the Kathmandu Valley, we took a six-hour bus yesterday morning to Chitwan National Park, which is in the southern region of the country. At our stop along the drive, we picked up some samosas, curried potato and peas in fried rice dough. These have become our favorite snacks here in Nepal and, as they were so good, S ran to get more while I made sure the bus did not leave without us. We arrived in Sauraha, the town just north of the National Park, around 1:30 PM and checked into our jungle-themed cottage on a small and quiet street in town. We spent the afternoon sitting on recliner chairs by the Rapti River and watched the sun set. We had some good curry for dinner and drank tea until we could see thousands of stars in the sky. Our room had hot water which, at this point, was a wonderfully pleasant surprise.
Today we got up at 6 AM for a full day of jungle activities. We Started with a 7:30 canoe trip on the Rapti River in a dugout cotton tree canoe as the mist was rising over the river. We saw many different birds and, towards the end of the canoe trip, spotted a gharial crocodile. As our hotel specializes in ornithology, our guide took us on a 4 hour jungle walk where he pointed out many beautiful birds. We were hoping to see some rhinos in the forest but settled for about 5-7 rhesus macaques jumping around in th trees near us. This afternoon we are heading on an elephant safari which we have heard is where you have better luck seeing wildlife. Excited to ride an elephant and hope to see some jungle animals.
Tomorrow we head to the Indian border town of Raxaul, where we hope to catch a train to Kolkata the following morning. Hopefully we can get train tickets!

Chitwan Nat'l Park

Kathmandu, Nepal

S and I just arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal two days ago. It was very sad saying good bye to our wonderful guide at the Chinese border crossing and to also leave China. The border crossing is over the Friendship Bridge, a small path over a flowing river that divides the two countries. Despite the bridge name that represents kind relations between the two countries, we were hurried along the bridge by an army commander as several soldiers lined the bridge with big weapons. We changed our money on the black market, getting a pretty good exchange rate and hopped in a jeep with Brandon and Jill headed towards Kathmandu.
While just a river separates Tibet and Nepal at that border crossing, the regions feel quite different. As we crossed the bridge into Nepal, we came to a dilapidated customs office that is in stark contrast to the Chinese office on the other side, which is sparkling, shiny and new. Smells of curry wafted through the air and women walked around in colorful saris. Nepalis look much more like Indians and the local temple's blessing adorned the foreheads of all the local women as we walked through town. The drive to Kathmandu was also quite stunning. Our taxi wound through the mountains as the driver blasted America's most popular hip hop and R&B music from his radio. Since being in Nepal, we have surprisingly heard a lot of reggaeton. The villages along the drive were bustling with people, selling their produce, bright colored bubble coats, with the occasional cow roaming alongside us on the highway.
As we got closer to Kathmandu and left the mountains, the pollution haze became increasingly more noticeable and somewhat bothersome and the cars increasingly jammed the narrow streets, with rickshaws, bikes and motor carts whizzing by in all directions.
As the city streets are not named, it was quite difficult to find our hotel, as the address only indicated the neighborhood that our hotel was in. We are staying in Thamel, the town's tourist area, with many restaurants and shops selling anything you could possibly want. Despite being such a commercial hub, the buildings in the area are falling apart, electricity wires dominate one's eye view and power outages are frequent during the evening time. That evening, we dined at a very nice Newari restaurant with Brandon and Jill where colorfully dressed women performed traditional Nepali dances. During the last song, diners were in invited to dance with the performers and, after a tiny bit of nudging, I got up on stage, bouncing my shoulders and shaking my hips. The group got a kick of out it and the lead dancer dragged me into the middle of the stage to dance with her. Very fun!
Yesterday, we spent the whole day walking around central Kathmandu. We started the day at Swayambhunath Temple, one of the most important temples in the area. Monkeys surround the mini-temples and the long stairway leading up the hill to the holy area. A kind Nepali man attached himself to S and insisted on giving us a free tour of the temple in exchange for visiting his shop at the end. He blessed our foreheads with an orange vermilion paste and sprinkled marigolds in our hair in the complex's most important temple. I bought a very nice braided brass and copper ring for 50 rupees, or 65 cents.
We spent the rest of the day walking around Durbar Square, a complex of temples, squares, towers and shrines, built up during a competitive building boom in the 15th and 16th centuries between the three neighboring kingdoms in Nepal. The area is full of hawkers trying to sell you guided tours, Nepalis going about their everyday business and worshippers following carts carrying cows, Hinduism's sacred animal.
The food here is amazing and today we are going to get out of the tourist zone and wander through the backstreets of this capital city.

Border to Kathmandu Valley

The Friendship Highway

Tibet

The last 5 days of our Tibet itinerary were packed with drives over 5,000 meter mountain passes, turquoise-colored lakes and Tibetan villages with yaks and sheep grazing the neighboring fields. The icing was our visit to Mount Everest Base Camp, the base of the world's tallest mountain.
Our drive on the first day started from Lhasa at an altitude of 3,200 meters. As we ascended the neighboring mountains, we reached our first high mountain pass at 4700m. From the top of the mountain, we looked down at Yamdrok-so Lake, the third largest lake in Tibet. It was a deep turquoise color and the sun's glimmer on the body of water made it look otherworldly. We stopped for lunch in Nagartse and had some Tibetan staples, such as vegetable momo (vegetable dumplings with a spicy sauce) and butter tea (Chinese brick tea with yak butter and salt)
We then visited Pelkhor Chorde Monastery in Gyantse, which is home to the largest chorten in the world. Within the chorten are 108 chapels, with each one dedicated to a different protector of Tibetan Buddhism's 3 religions. As foreigners must always be accompanied by their guide while in Tibet, we were taken to delicious Tibetan restaurant.
The following day led us to Shigatse, Tibet's second largest city. As the police station in town closed by noon, we needed to leave Gyantse early enough to ensure that our guide could register us at the Shigatse station. This is necessary protocol throughout Tibet and there were frequent checkpoints along the highway asking for the guide's license and our traveling visa papers. We visited Tashilhunpo Monastery where we saw the world's largest gilded statue. As we were waiting for the main temple to open, our guide spoke very frankly to us about his disdain for the Chinese government. He was understandably quite angry and upset.
The third day, we took a side trip off the Friendship Highway to Mount Everest Base Camp (EBC). The ride to EBC was a bumpy 120 km dirt road. On the drive, we stopped at the top of a mountain pass to admire the Himalayan mountain ranges and got our first look at Everest. When we arrived at Base Camp, we were at 5200 meters and stayed in a hotel run by the highest monastery in the world, Rongphu Monastery. As the rooms lacked heating, we spent the evening in the nearby resturant, which was heated with a yak-dung stove, very common in Tibet. We had tsampa for dinner- the meal most frequently eaten by Tibetans. Tsampa is barley flour hand-mixed with butter tea to make large dumpling-like balls that are then ingested. That night, we slept under 2 comforters and 4 layers of horse blankets and were still cold.
Even though Everest was covered in clouds the following day, we still had a beautiful drive to the Tibetan bordertown of Zhangmu, a town at much lower elevation of 2000 meters. We were relieved to no longer be light-headed or winded after walking up a flight of stairs and spent the day reminiscing with Brandon and Jill about all the amazing sights we had seen on our Tibetan adventure.
Yesterday, we crossed the border into Kodari, Nepal and sadly said goodbye after 2 and a half months of traveling in China. We really loved our time in the country with a quarter of the world's population.

Lhasa, Tibet

It is an incredibly daunting task to try to summarize our 10-day trip in Tibet. As I was uploading photos yesterday, S started to write the blog and, after an hour of serious writing, the power went out on our block in Kathmandu and his work was lost. Here, I will try to capture the highlights of our trip but there will always be so much left unsaid or not fully explained.
On the night of the 8th, we boarded a 24-hour train to Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan region. We were part of a 4-person group and were so delighted to be put together with Brandon and Jill, an American and Scot who were the best possible couple for us. The train was a wonderful first glance into Tibetan life- Tibetan women were wandering into our train car offering us Tibetan treats, such as yak cheese, sheep cheese, biscuits, and candies. They were wearing sheep skin dresses and had colorful ribbons tied into their very long braided hair, which was wrapped around their head. Dozens of women came over throughout the course of the day and we were very appreciative of their kindness. Halfway through the ride, all of the women started dancing and singing to Tibetan music, fillng the car with laughter and smiles. We have never experienced such a spectacle on a Chinese train before.
In addition to the cultural immersion, the train provided us with some of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. 80% of the train ride was over 4000 meters and the train also crossed over 3 mountain passes over 5,000 meters, the highest S and I have ever been.
To most Tibetans, they think of their province as a separate country from China- they have a different language, food, culture and religion than the 96% of percent of those on mainland China, which are the Han majority. In addition to all of this, they look completely different, with darker features, wind-burned cheeks and a Tibetan style of dress. When we got off the world's highest altitude train, we knew we were in a different world as our guide placed white prayer scarves around our necks and greeted us with the Tibetan "Tashi Delek".
The Tibetans are very religious and it is their tradition to make an anuual pilgrimmage to either Lhasa in the east or Mount Kailash in the west. Throughout our 4 days in Lhasa, we were surrounded by Tibetans from all over the province, circumambulating religious sites (called a kora) while spinning their prayer wheels, bowing and praying before the monasteries and offering gifts of melted yak butter to the temples within. We visited very beautiful religious sites, such as the Jokhang Temple, Potala Palace, Norbulingka Palace and the Ramoche Temple, but by far the best part was watching the intensity with which the Tibetans practiced their religion.
A stark contrast to the deeply spiritual pilgrims was the high police and army presence around the Tibetan quarter, especially around the religious sites. The army were posted in front of the Jokhang Temple and the other sites with their rifles cocked and were also patroling rooftops around the area. We were told that the number of armed forces strongly increased after the the riots in Tibet in March 2008. Beyond the intimidating presence of these officers of the law, there is also a strong control over what can be worshipped. Photos of the present or past Dalai Lamas are prohibited inside and outside the temples. All artifacts and artwork in the temples must be approved by the Chinese government before being installed. A Tibetan town's temple was recently burned because it was built without governemtn permission. Additionally, Tibetans worry for their safety when speaking about their struggles with the government. Most are strongly for their independence from China however, as the likelihood is close to zero, most hope for autonomy from the Chinese government. We met several English-speaking Tibetans who spoke of the Chinese government's desire to Han-ify the Tibetans. The government has offered financial incentives for the Han to migrate to the Tibetan region and open businesses. As a result, Tibetan businesses are pushed out for the Han to sell Tibetan wares to the pilgrims and tourists. Our guide told us that Lhasa was becoming very Chinese and told us he feared that his homeland would soon no longer be a place he and his community felt safe and comfortable. He told us that he wished to move to India but feared the consequences that the government would give to his family as punishment for his migration. Another woman we met told us that she felt "Tibet would no longer be Tibet anymore" as the Chinese are trying to squeeze out Tibetan culture and lifestyle. Our time in Lhasa was loaded with incredibly difficult and complicated conversations as we tried to understand the Tibetan perspective. It was very upsetting as we saw the tension and witnessed the suppression of Tibetan culture.

Chongqing

With a metropolitan area of 32 million people, Chongqing is probably the largest city you've never heard of. It sits on the scenic peninsula at the confluence of the Jialing and Yangtze rivers. The city is somewhat gritty, and certainly crowded, but we've been enjoying our time here. At this point we're pretty exhausted from our whirlwind tour of China so we've mostly been taking it easy here, walking around the downtown.

Tonight we are boarding a 24 hour train to Xining, capital of Qinghai province, basically in the physical dead center of China, although psychologically Qinghai is considered to be very deep into the wild west of the country. From there we will travel to south to Nepal, arriving in Kathmandu approximately on the 18th. In this part of the country the government requires foreigners to have a official guide, so we've found another couple to split costs with us on our guided tour. Our email access may or may not be restricted in this part of the country, so you may not hear from us until we reach Nepal.

Chengdu, Chongqing & Xining