Freiburg in the news again!

I promise I will update soon and wrap up everything about everything, but right now I'm too excited because Freiburg is in the American news yet again!!

Camel Safari

The camel safari = THE GREATEST THING I HAVE EVER DONE IN MY LIFE.

We left yesterday at 9am after a delicious breakfast of porridge and chai. Camels are crazy to ride on and man it hurts haha. We traveled with 2 other guys from France, both our age and studying engineering. We trekked for about an hour and then got off in a small desert village where we walked around, and the kids there had fun playing with my camera.
Shortly after, our guides made us an amazing Indian lunch, and we all took a nap. Getting back on teh camel was painful, and we rode to INSAAANE sand dunes where we spent the rest of the evening. About 8 other kids our age came and joined us in a Jeep--they didnt want to ride the camels but wanted to spend the night in the desert. The sun quickly set and we ate another amazing Indian dinner while our guides sang to us in Hindi around the campfire.
I have never seen so many stars in my entire life than I did last night laying out in the desert. We all got blankets and pillows and just slept out in the open. The blankets were itchy and I was cold and uncomfortable, and terrified of snakes and bugs crawling on me in the night, but it's definitely something I will never forget. I saw so many shooting stars, and woke up this morning in time to see the sunrise.

We trekked back on the camels this morning after eating breakfast and lunch together (paaaainful) and I took an AMAZING shower at our guesthouse. I had sand in every single place where sand could possibly be: my hair, inside my ears, my nose, my mouth, my underwear (?!?!). I was dirty and tired but I'll never forget it. The desert was so peaceful and so gorgeous, just like you'd imagine it. I can't believe so many people make their homes there.

Now we have a 15 hour train to Delhi that is leaving in 2 hours, and I leave the day after tomorrow for America!!!!

I'm pretty sure there's nothing better in the whole world than sitting around with Indian people, drinking chai (I am obsessed with Chai--I had 4 glasses today alone), and talking about extremely deep things like love and life.

Yesterday was Indian Independence Day, so happy Indian Independence Day to everyone reading this!!

I think the worst prt about traveling is the actual traveling part. Last night we took a night sleeper bus to Jailsmer. The bus had actual beds so we could "sleep", but it was way way too bumpy to ever sleep, plus THE HORNS NEVER STOP HONKING! People here use their horns more than they use their brakes, and EVERYONE has a vanity horn which gets extremely annoying extremely fast. It's also kind of stressful because no one ever announces the stops/we don't speak Hindi, so either we pray we end up in the right place, or pray that someone tells us when to get off. The worst part is the rest stops because we never know when the bus is leaving and the toliets are ALWAYS squatter. Wearing jeans on the bus last night was a bad call haha.

We had to change buses at 5am which caused for more stress because some people do not like to be woken up and put up a huge fit (and they know who they are). We did make it though, the scenery of driving through the desert was gorgeous.

We got a guesthouse right away and have already set up our train tickets to Delhi, our final destination. Tomorrow at 8am we are going on a camel trek. We each get our own camel and they are taking us way out into the sand dunes to explore the area. We get breakfast, lunch, dinner, we sleep in the desert, get breakfast the next morning, and then head back to town, where we'll hang out until it's time for us to hop on the train to Delhi. I think it will be a lot of fun, and I think after having to pee in the desert, I will never complain about squatter toliets again!

I just got Zach out of the hospital, so things are going to get a lot better.
We loved Agra. The Taj Mahal was breathtaking, we actually ended up going twice because the first time we took so many pictures that it closed before we got inside. The next day we got up for the Taj Mahal at sunrise which was amazing. We were the first people through the gates and it felt like we owned the place.

That night, we took the sleeper train to Udipar and it's a lot cooler here, thank God. The place is surrounded by a big lake, which is usually dried up, but we were lucky enough to get here during monsoon season when the lake is full, and it is gorgeous. Tonight we are taking a sleeper bus to Jailsmer to do a camel trek before reaching Dehli, our final destination. It's really funny being here because everyone loves to stare at us. The other day, a guy had his 2 kids take a picture with us, and then hopped in for a picture with us himself, just because we're white.

It's been kind of rough here the past few days because Zach got really sick and ended up in the hospital, where he has been for the past 2 days. It is sad and lonely doing India by myself, but it is making me a lot stronger, and a lot thicker skinned, that's for sure.
We are in Udaipur now and it's a lot smaller than anywhere else we've been, and the people hassle you a lot less. There have been amazing people--the people in our hotel, a certain rickshaw driver, and a DR last night who gave me a ride home from the hospital--that have helped me a lot through this.

Hideout

Today we are on hideout.
India is soo stressful. Everyone is trying to get you to buy their stuff or look at their shops and they dont understand the word 'no.' It is EXTREMELY hot, I average about 4 liters of water a day. It is noisy and crowded and we couldn't take it anymore, so today we decided to hang out in our air conditioned hotel room and watch movies.

Last night we took the night train to Agra. It was stressful because I didn't want anyone to steal my stuff and they don't announce the stations so we literally had no idea where to get off. Thankfully some guy helped us and we made it here. From our room, we have an amazing view of the Taj Mahal!

We have met a lot of really funny people here which does make the stress fun at times. Sometimes when we are surrounded by rickshaw drivers trying to get us to ride with them, someone will say, "only 2000 Euro!" Lately when people try to sell us stuff, we try to sell them our Lonely Planet guide book, "20 rupees, good price, good price, no cheater!" They always find that to be hilarious.

Everyone wants to know where we are from and they get so excited when we say America. We went to see some guru yesterday for some reason and he was all excited because I guess he gave a reading to Goldie Hawn back in the 80s. Neither of us have any clue who Goldie Hawn is. We also met a CRAAAAZY old guy from Canada who decided to move to Varanasi about 30 years ago, and you could tell that he was just nuts. He had a long gross beard and spoke weird English and his eyes were glazed over in crazieness. He told us he had a love/hate relationship with the city, which I can understand, and he is the only trooper there because everyone else leaves in April and May when it gets too hot. I think he was drinking too much water from the Ganges...

Incredible India

One of my good friends told me that "India sucks you in" and she was 100% correct. We crossed over land from Nepal and it was extremely overwhemling at first. People everywhere are trying to get you to buy this or that and they dont take no for an answer. Within the first 5 min, we got scammed into buying bus tickets 4x the actual price, and we promised ourselves it would never happen again.

We are in Varanasi now and it is the holiest place in India. People come here to die and then their bodies are burned on the Ganges river and thrown in, as well as raw sewage. It is the most polluted body of water i n the world, it is septic and there is no dissolved oxygen at all, but yet people come everyday to bathe, drink, and wash their clothes in it. The river is considered a goddess of Indian culture and every day there is a morning and evening ceremony to welcome the day/say goodnight. This morning we got up at 4am to see the sunrise on a two hour boat tour and it was incredibly peaceful and serne.

It is HOTTTT here. Over 100 degrees every day and I just drink liter after liter of water. We eat cheap local food and always get a bit extra for the homeless families near our guesthouse---good karma and they always seem extremely grateful. We can eat a huge meal here for about $2 each so there is no reason not to share.

We went to a Bollywood movie yesterday completely in Hindi and it was a blast. We made up our own story line and I think we did pretty well. We are going to see another one tonight.

The sights, the sounds, the smells, the colors here are all amazing. WE have met some genuinely nice Indians who want to help us and are careful of the scammers. Tomorrow we are taking the train to Agra, where the Taj Mahal is!

Namaste!

It is stressing being here, because we realized that we have a lottt of things to do, but there is not enough time for anything. Tomorrow we are leaving at 7am and taking the bus to Varanasi, India. We had a whole huge route planned for India, but it looks like we're going to have to leave a bunch of stuff out. Zach wants to do a 3 day camel tour through the desert there...we'll see about that haha

Nepal was originally ruled by three kingdoms and there was a lot of political problems for many many years. It used to not be a safe place to travel, and the US Dept of Safety still has out a travel warning against it. However, about 3 years ago, the kindgoms dissovled and Nepal became democratic.
Now it's very safe to be here, but tourism is still suffering. It is quite different from Europe, where I would hear English everywhere I went, compared to here where I can count the number of tourists I've seen on one hand. We can also talk about anyone we want and no one can understand us! haha!
The poverty here is incredible. Yesterday we took a long motorbike tour around Kathmandu and ended up in some slummy areas where we saw small children washing their clothes in the river, men doing back breaking work making bricks, and stray dogs everywhere. The trashmen here recently went on a strike, so there is trash all over the street. Cows are holy and wander the streets. Children run up to you begging for money and doing anything to get your spare change. Everyone we meet says, "You from America, you rich!" and even though that isn't the case, it is really humbling to think of everything that I have and see these small children in ripped clothes playing in the mud.

Today we are getting out of the city and going to try and see the Himalyas. It kind of stinks that we are here during monsoon season because you can't see any mountains at all, hopefully we'll be lucky in the spot that our hotel suggested to us.

I am here in Nepal and I love it so much, it is such a big change from Europe.
I had a 15 hour flight here from Germany, including a 6 hour layover in Bahrain. Bahrain was AWESOME too, everyone was walking around in Muslim clothing; I was truly in the middle east, and the first thing I saw was a McDonalds in Arabic.

I have a friend from Nepal so she picked me up from the airport and I went to her house for a shower and a lunch of boar meat that her grandmother made. It was AMAZING. Then we went to pick up my other friend at the airport and found a guesthouse with 2 beds, shower included, TV, fan, and free towels for like $4 a night each. In Europe that would be at least 50 Euros.
We have seen so much, we rented a motorcycle and ride around, which is crazy but so much fun. They drive on the left side of the road here and everyone is nuts. There are cows just chillin on the side of the street and people are everywhere. Everyone wants your money, everyone is trying to sell you stuff all the time. It gets really really annoying, but if you look past it, you can see the beauty of the country--the people, the buildings, the sights, and sounds and smells, etc. Soon we'll be off to India!