November 16, 2009 – Day 325 – Mumbai, India

Whether you call it Mumbai or Bombay, this city is a really happening place! It boasts the richest neighborhoods and most famous people in India but it also holds Asia’s largest slum. From both extremes, Mumbai is a place you will either love or hate. It is India and it is not. The people are different, the food is different, the prices are high and the city is abuzz and never sleeps. At any hour you will hear traffic whizzing and honking its way through the streets below your hotel room. You can always find a snack stand open and there is no shortage or high-end establishments to spend your hard-saved Rupees.

In the streets of Mumbai

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October 24-26, 2009 – Day 303-305 – Mcleod ganj, India

Mcleod is a small village in upper Dharamsala that is the seat of the Tibetan government in exile. The Dalai Lama’s permanent home is here as well as the homes of many Tibetans living here in asylum. There are very few Indians (if there are 300 Tibetans, it looks as if there are only about 20 Indians) and everywhere you look there are Tibetan restaurants, Buddhist symbols, and plenty of smiling faces.

Easy life in Mcleod Ganj

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October 10-11, 2009 – Day 289-290 – Delhi, India

A truly uneventful day (lie: we purchased train tickets) followed by a surprise celebration at India Gate the next!

India Gate

September 22-23, 2009 – Day 271-272 – Kathmandu, Nepal

First day spent at the embassy and doing a whole lot of nothing around town. But After spending another half day at the Indian embassy on day 2, we discovered our Indian visas would be ready later this afternoon. Having a few open hours on our hands, we took a taxi across town to see the Pashupatinath temple complex and were rudely met with a NPR 500 entrance charge (that’s US$7 !!).

In the temple

September 18, 2009 – Day 267 – Pokhara, Nepal

The day was hazy blue-white with the heat hanging stiffly in the air. Sitting atop the World Peace pagoda with our shoes waiting patiently at the bottom of the stairs, we surveyed tiny scale Lakeside and Lake Phewa below us. The hills are lush and green, the flowers are bright and the buzzing of unnamed bugs are all the noise pollution we endure at this height.

On the hike up to the stupa

September 15, 2009 – Day 264 – Kathmandu, Nepal

It is amazing how many families come to Kathmandu on vacation, they are everywhere! Anyway, you will be happy to know that we did something today! We went to Durbar Square, one of the few tourist sights in Kathmandu, and a painfully expensive one too.

What are you lookin' at cow

September 9, 2009 – Day 258 – Lhasa, Tibet

Being in Lhasa is literally being in a whole different world. It is absolutely nothing like China and it is difficult to see just why China insists on maintaining ownership over this small, poor region. The people are so wonderful and even though they do stare, they are honestly curious instead of nosy and will return your glance with a big smile.

In the streets of Lhasa

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August 20-21, 2009 – Day 239-240 – Shanghai, China

Well, we spent the 20th on the train to Shanghai arriving to Shanghai the morning of the 21st. We were starving and had just found a great place for breakfast when it started to rain. By the time we crossed the street it had started a surprise storm, with big raindrops falling like no tomorrow. We flat out ran back to the hostel, about 10 minutes away, and were utterly drenched by the time we returned. We rode out the fast-moving storm for a couple of hours and spent the afternoon beginning our exploration of the huge city that is Shanghai.

Nice colorful bridge

July 30, 2009 – Day 217 – Kunming, China

Well, we and a fellow traveler we met at the hostel suffered a failed attempt this morning at trying to go to the Shilin Stone Forest. We arrived early, as the hostel staff suggested, but the only 2 remaining minibuses that were heading toward Shilin wanted to charge us each almost 3 times what the fare should have been.

Lunch!

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July 22, 2009 – Day 209 – Guilin, China

There is something inherently wrong with a place that refuses to serve a person after they have already made one order. And especially when that person being refused service is me.

Fishing in the river

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