Once Was Enough

DELHI

If there is one thing I took away from Delhi, it was that I wish to never have to go back to this city again.  Why? Well, I did not have a good impression of any of the people I met there, not even of my couchsurfing host. There will always be people on the streets trying to sell you something, ripping you off when you buy anything, trying to get commission for taking you somewhere or walking with you to a place you were already going, chatting with you to practice English and then asking if you have a boyfriend (yes or no, they want to become your boyfriend anyway), walking in knee-deep rain (mixed with the dust, pollution, rotten produce, urine, and fecal matter on the streets), and then getting food poisoning.Yeah, if I don't have to to back to that working chaos, that would be awesome.

Qatar Minab

Lotus Temple: interesting new religion (can't keep track of them all)

Three generations eagerly posing for me to take a picture.

A Nihang: I was introduced to the Sikh religion without realizing it until a day after.

It had been raining for about 2 hours but this was only half of it.

Chana masala with naan: perhaps the dish that made me sick. That or the samosa that I had before this.

AGRA

As for the Taj Mahal, though it was a beautiful structure, visiting it once was also enough. In most countries, they will charge a foreigner 2x-10x as much for entrance, but here they charge you 37.5 times as much. The only good thing about this was the ability to bypass the line. After forking over the 750 INR, they then tried to convince you to hire a tour guide that would help you get in faster, though there is a designated line for "high priced ticket holders". Inside, my Austrian friend, Maren, and I were asked to take pictures with other Indians. Not sure of the reasoning behind this but our pictures can surely be found in a lot of random families' cameras and individual's phones. After the day was over, our tuk-tuk driver took us to see elephants, as Maren had asked, which turned out to be his friend's marble crafts shop, with marble carved elephants. It never ends. This is India.

At the undeniably beautiful  Taj Mahal.

Some inlaid marble artwork on the structure.

One of numerous family photos; Maren in the center.

At the Agra Fort with nice views of the city.

An elephant within an elephant on an inlaid marble table at the friend's shop.

The Other Side of Nepal: East

The fallen Kingdom of Sikkim and the Nepal of India.

It was in Darjeeling where I began my long journey through India with the monsoon close at my heels. I eased myself in gently as this area resembled Nepal with the majority of it's population coming from there to India for work. The people in this touristic city spoke English, Hindi, Bengali, Nepali and maybe some other ones I didn't catch. I don't think I can fathom having to learn all of those at once in school. At least, the latter three bear some resemblance. In this costly city, I got to see my first red panda...in a zoo...but still a red panda! I thought they looked more like a raccoon than a bear but alas, they belong to a family of their own [I bet the red panda would get along with koala bears :)]. They were covered in rain as the monsoon came and stayed for hours.

A drenched red panda chilling in his pad.

If you are in this city, I would definitely recommend for you to go to the Darjeeling Zoo, which also houses the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, HMI, and the Happy Valley Tea Estate, which lies just off the main road. The estate offers free tours of how the same tea leaves are processed to yield the different types of tea that we drink. These leaves come in different varieties. The one at the estate is of the Camellia sinensis var. sinensis, I believe, and the first ones I saw in Illam were of the var. assamica. At the end of the tour, the guide offered to take me around the outskirts of the city on his Royal Enfield, the Harley of India. He was an interesting character, one who had studied sociology, so he enjoyed analyzing the people around him. This is not to say his analyses were completely correct, which led to an unhappy parting of ways.

The first three containers one the left are of different degrees of sifting of the leaves. The unmarked one in the center is a rose-infused tea. The last three are of different types of tea, again as a result of different processing methods.

 I raced up north to the capital of Sikkim, Gangtok and ended up couchsurfing at a local's apartment. I spent the first afternoon at his place with his neighbors watching RoboCop and eating Maggi noodles. I can't help but think back and laugh. My route started in Gangtok, went west to Pelling, north to Khecheopalri, southeast to Tashiding, and then Delhi from Siliguri. Here's a walk through with photos:

Saw this beautiful girl pacing back and forth in her confinement. SNOW LEOPARDS ARE NOT MEANT TO BE LOCKED UP!

Another one--I know, I'm obsessed.

A young monk at the Enchey Monastery.

A monk's wardrobe in Pemayangtse Monastery. Each one has its own time and place.

Can you tell it's monsoon season?

A delicious meal at my home-stay in Khecheopalri: rice, dal, salad, papadum, and stir-fried pumpkin leaves (my favorite).

At Khecheopalri Lake with 언니.

Khecheopalri Lake...reminded me of The Lion King.

A funeral at Tashiding Monastery.

Signaling the return to meditation at Tashiding Monastery.

Playing the local sport, cricket.

My host mom in Tashiding cooking up fresh local vegetables.

On the street outside the Siliguri train station: veg and egg pakora.