Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
India, what can I say...India is a land of extremes and contradictions - wealth and poverty, beauty and ugliness, kindness and crooks, faith and lost hope, filth and, well, slightly less gunk. It is an amazing country to visit but a bit tiring, especially nearing the end of our trip after living out of a backpack for the last 5 months! But at least we were sufficiently travel hardy by then to deal with it all…and it was amazing (not the least because we didn't get violently ill, unlike some other unlucky poor souls).
We had a week before Shankar's wedding and we hired a driver and drove around north India, including Shimla, Manali, Dharamsala and Dalhousie. We went horse riding in the Indian Himalaya, hiked to Rathong Pass at 4000m which was great trial run for our upcoming trek in the Everest Region of Nepal. We visited the hometown of the Dalai Lama, McCleod Ganj near Dharamsala and chilled out while taking in the beautiful mountain country. The driving was pretty scary on the mountain roads with horns playing a more important role than brakes but we made it through with no accidents (though we saw an upturned bus and many cars that had fallen off the cliffs).
We had a fantastic time at Shankar and Prabha's wedding and it was a truly memorable, once in a lifetime experience for us (and no doubt them too!). We got spoilt rotten by Shankar's family and were happily exhausted after the 3 day celebration. We dressed in traditional clothing for the wedding ceremony and I wore a sari. I had to get someone to dress me, and I tried to take notes so I can try to wear the mammoth 6m of fabric with some dignity again someday.We also met some of Shankar's friends who made it out to India from Australia and spent some time after the wedding on a site seeing trip (including many temples and forts). We visited the Taj Mahal in Agra and various sites around Jaipur.
Then it was back to Delhi to say goodbye to our new and old friends, and head for Nepal…
- comments