Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Carly's Adventures
Well, I finally made it back to Pen..what a relief. "Vacation" isn't quite the word to describe what happened in the last few days. =p Hotel mix-ups, train ticket mistakes, train tickets missing altogether, no flight home until halfway through the trip, pretending to be irresponsible and forgetful tourists to get a replacement train ticket for the "lost" one we never received, getting sick on the first train out with a bit of a sore throat still holding on...it was exciting to say the least. However, we did see and do a few incredible things that I will never forget. And despite the fact that my camera quit working 30 minutes into our all day safari, I got a few good pictures. Here are some of the GOOD parts of the trip =]:
Taj Mahal: I think I already blogged about this, but thinking back it is still really impressive and deserves another mention. =] HUGE and gorgeous and unforgettable. I'm glad I saw it and will show you more pics (I'm actually in a couple) when I get a chance.
Highlight in Delhi: Though we spent most of the time trying to fix transportation issues, there was one really cool moment when I got to watch a really fat monkey cross the street on a power line. It was the coolest. =D
Ramnagar: Random city a few hours from Delhi. The most beautiful place we visited. It was amazing. The air was clean and fresh and I was reminded of Oregon. It was wonderful. That's where we were able to go on a safari. We looked all day for tigers, following paw prints in the ground, driving through grasslands and jungle and monsoon riverbeds, but the tigers eluded us. We did see lots of deer, some neat birds, a couple kinds of crazy fun monkeys, and a couple of massive spiders. The highlight of the day in the Corbett National Park (location of our safari) was definitely riding an elephant through the jungle for a couple hours. We had a guide and just plopped on top for a closer view of the jungle. When we encountered a wild elephant, our elephant freaked out and they were about to get in a fight, so our guide startled the two elephants to keep them away from each other and our TOOK OFF downhill running away from the other elephant. We almost died. Well, not really, but I almost fell off and there could have been tigers in any one of those bushes!! Probaby not, but hey it was scary. Trust me.
Tiger Camp: Our hotel in Ramnagar. More like oasis really. It was one of the few great parts of the vacation that got us through all the strife. Landscaped beautifully, clean gorgeous river flowing behind it, buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner, awesome staff who helped us convince the police that we had lost our train ticket in Ramnagar (the one we never actually got from our travel agent), nighttime bonfires...it was awesome. And cold at night - that was a new one for India!
Mother Teresa: We saw Mother Teresa's Mission and Motherhouse in Calcutta. Though we didn't manage to find much of anything else there that we had hoped to see, it was worth it to be able to see the small museum dedicated to her and to see her grave. It was so reverent and the nuns there wore the same sarees that Mother Teresa wore. We were able to see some of the children who are benefitting from the work started by Mother Teresa - handicapped children, infants, malnourished children from the streets. I think that would be the hardest job in the world to see that kind of poverty every day and help people who have been given such a tough place in the world. It was humbling to see and I was glad we stuck out the 2+ hours of walking and getting lost to finally find it.
Science City: The only other destination we really made it into in Calcutta was this "theme park." So it turned out to be a bit of a disappointment - certainly couldn't compete with Mother Teresa, but even the dinosaurs weren't as exciting as we had hoped. We did get to ride one of those cable car things across the park. That was kind of fun...and we saw some giant rat creatures that the evolution park was trying to convince us actually existed. I think they may have made that one up. It looked like a mutant cross between A Princess Bride's "Rodent of Unusual Size" and Splinter from The Ninja Turtles. Actually, now that I think about it, it kind of looked like the rat we saw at the bus station last night...maybe it's not so farfetched. =p
Pizza Hut in Calcutta: Wow. Stepped it up a notch even from Agra. Just imagine in your own little neighborhood Pizza Hut...the wonderful smell of cheese and baking pizzas...the low hum of the other customers talking amongst themselves...and then..the music blasts on...and out come the Pizza Hut employees busting out their seriously coreographed moves to some boy band song I've never heard, but probably need to get now. It was out of control. There were maybe ten of them just busting very synchronized moves to this pop song, all for our enjoyment...well probably for the other customers too, but we were probably the most excited. I don't think Pizza Hut in the U.S. will ever be able to live up to that standard. It was craziness.
Air Travel: So despite some of the frustration that results from being an American in India, it was really swell to make it on the airplane in Calcutta when, after probably five or six check points, no one EVER asked me for any kind of ID to verify my ticket was actually mine. This was quite a relief after realizing halfway through the trip that my passport was, in fact, still safely stowed beneath my bed in Pen. Talk about stress. Lucked out though - thanks for the prayers Evelyn - they've gotten me safely back to Pen! =]
I'm sure there is much more to say, but the power is getting sketchy here and this computer shut off four times while writing this. I'm gonna call it good for now. Thanks for checking in on me and for your emails and notes. They mean a lot. God bless.
- comments