The Plan B Adventure

Moving through India on our world tour was planned as just that….moving through. We knew we wouldn’t have enough time to explore even a fraction and we had less than a week since we had extended and added on time in previous countries. So what would we do in country this rich in history and so big that we could barely view a slice of it??? Well we decided to focus on a few towns. The first being Amritsar just a few miles from the border and the home to one of the most accepting religions on earth, Sikhism. The second city would be Agra for a view of the Taj Mahal. Finally, the third would be a two or three day jaunt in Jaipur, the pink city of India, which was recommended by a few fellow travellers we have met along the way.

Well, the plan started off well, kind of. As we previously mentioned we crossed the border with ease. Even while encountering 115F+ heat we joyously lugged our bags into the closest taxi knowing we wouldn’t run across any Chinese roadblocks…..seriously, that’s the last unkind word. And that’s when the hilarity started…..the 90 year old man driving our taxi pulled over to switch to an alternative tank of gas and never got the car to restart. Thankfully for us he had chosen the opportune location of a cattle grazing field to pull over at…..so with 115F heat and enough flies to feed all of India and China Jeff helped to jump start the car while Becca sat composed (yea, right!) in the vehicle fending off the swarms of flies and pleasant smells of muddy cattle. Needless to say…the car never started so Jeff flagged down an autorickshaw for a ride to town. Not so fast! After 20 minutes of attempting to fix the taxi, the driver still wanted us to wait or pay him the entire fare. How bout 1/4 of the fare for 1/4 of the trip? Nope, that makes too much sense. Instead let’s tie the broken taxi to the tiny autorickshaw and drag it to the mechanic so it could be fixed and then continue the journey. While we had no intention of continuing the journey with the broken taxi, we still agreed to help him to the mechanic where the fun continued. At the mechanic we were told 5 minutes….No thanks we will just give you the 1/4 fare and take the rickshaw to town. Ok, easy enough? Once we sat down in the rickshaw the driver decided to triple our fare!! Apparently rickshaw drivers don’t understand the simplest economics because there are only 1 of us and thousands of them. Jeff proceeded to hold an Ebay style auction with 5-6 rickshaw drivers on the side of the road. After agreeing on the previously quoted fare with another driver, our old driver said “OK, I’ll take you”. UGH!!! Does anyone see why we just paid for a month of organized transportation??? Fortunately, we hadn’t had such an experience in a while so we played along and ended up getting to the hotel room (10 lbs lighter from the sweating) in just over 2 hours for a 20km trip…..Welcome to India!

Over the next few days we enjoyed the sights, sounds, and smells (definitely a lot of them) around Amritsar. We were pleasantly surprised with it’s ‘Indian’ quaintness. Now it can’t be as quaint as the arrondisements of Paris but Amritsar has a charmed quality to itself. Not at all what others had been telling us to expect of India. Now there are definitely a LOT of people but they were all very endearing, willing to help educate, and not as scammy as we had been warned. The major sight in Amritsar is the Golden Palace. This place is really something….a complex built entirely of white marble and gold which sits in the middle of a holy pond and houses the holy book of the Sikhs. The palace is free to enter (an anomaly worldwide), issues free guides on religion and sights (another anomaly), and provides a free meal and 3 days lodging (yet another anomaly) to all pilgrims as well as tourists. And the food….ahhh Indian cuisine……Dhal Makhani, Garlic Naan, Jasmine Rice, and a new vegetarian favorite (give it a try Haase), Navratna Korma. We indulged and days later ended up paying for it.

As many of you know we have been very lucky with our health on this trip. Well, as we made our way by train to Delhi to meet Jay Singh, our driver, for a trip to Agra….we felt the rumblings begin!!! Uh-oh…the 115F degree heat combined with the dreaded Indian food attack. Thank God (or Allah, or Krishna, or Guru Nanak, or Buddha) we made it off the train and the three hours to our hotel in Agra before all hell broke loose. WHEW! Knowing that things weren’t going to be fun we decided to pony up for a plush place in Agra with an actual working generator since in Agra the power can’t be trusted to last for more than a few minutes at a time and most smaller hotels don’t cough up the cash for decent generators. That’s about all we will say on that topic except that as we document this a week later we are still feeling the effects.

We faced the reality that we couldn’t possibly travel to Jaipur with our tummies as they were so we opted for a day of rest in Agra and then an early return to Delhi for our flight out of the 13th. Good choices! We saw the Taj Mahal the next evening for sunset and really enjoyed comparing it to the Islamic structures we have seen over the last month. It’s quite a grand sight sitting in the middle of God-forsaken Agra. It rises from the river bed in all it’s white marble splendor and provides a great view as it sits at the end of a reflecting pool of water. Just so you are ready when you get there……there are people everywhere!!!! Really try to view at sunrise if you can but just seeing it is worth the journey. The next morning we travelled back to Delhi and viewed a few of its sights (Delhi Gate, Gandhi statue, Main Bazaar, governmental building) by car. It’s really tough to see anything during the middle hours of the day in India when it’s that hot and we’d prefer to come back on our own timetable and enjoy the sights without having to think about the closest bathroom!! Thanks to Jay Singh for a great, albeit brief tour…..we hope to employ his services again sometime.

Good bye speed India….Hello speed Turkey. Well, we knew this would happen. Getting to a city that we were just passing through and falling in love. Istanbul is that city so far. In the simplest explanation take the narrow cobblestone streets of Europe and combine them with the hills and waterfront of San Francisco…..now give it an Islamic Eastern European flair and you have Istanbul. That’s a very novice description as we have had less than 72 hours here but we really believe this city AND this country should be on everyone’s Top Ten List for international travel. We took the advice of veterans (thanks Val and Russ) in order to get the most of our time and our relishing our time spent here. Just a little insight, if you are coming to Istanbul stay in the Eminonu area and make sure to give yourself enough time to get lost in the small side streets of the city. Simple advice but it will make your journey even more memorable. Yes, the sights (Aya Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace) and history are amazing but having Turkish tea on the waterfront, bargaining with rug salesmen at the Grand Bazaar, and eating doner kebabs makes the journey the experience.

Finally, we are present day on our blog (most of you wouldn’t have guessed Becca was weeks late with updates) and very proud of ourselves!!! Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers (Em…that means you too!!) reading our blog. We are off for Jordan for 10 days and are looking forward to a completely new experience. Hope everyone is enjoying our writing and stay tuned for the Middle East!!!

WOW! Northern Pakistan and the Hunza Valley are out of this world!! Being from a place (the US) where the Western media dominates what many of us know of a country and their people we weren’t quite certain what to expect during our trip to Pakistan. The far north of Pakistan which borders China, Afghanistan, and India is quite different from anything you (and we) had ever envisioned. With it’s 8000-meter snow capped peaks, luscious green river-lined valleys, and almost European looking people (descendants of Alex the Great….isn’t everyone?!) you really do feel like you are in another country altogether. Well you almost are!! The Northern Areas including the Hunza Valley receive no federal assistance, pay no government taxes, and have a Royal Family all to themselves. In fact, according to our local guide, Abbas, they don’t really consider themselves Pakistanis…….All of this stems from a very long, tumultuous history and we would much rather spoil you with the current beauty than the lengthy past.

We spent our first night in the small northern village of Gulmit which lies in the shadows of the Passu Peaks. The locals call them the Cathedral Mountains and as we wake up and open our curtains we see why. This is, by far, the most picturesque “Room with a View” we have ever had. Yes, something can be said for a place on the beach and waking up to the sound of the ocean but this is other-worldly. Giant black, white, and orange-colored peaks glistening from the morning sun while you listen for any sound possible and strain to even hear the Hunza River rushing below. When in the Hunza Valley you will find out that the walks, treks, whatever you want to call them (based on intensity level) are really one of the major reasons for being there. Exploring this ‘undiscovered’ land by foot is really THE best way to soak up the topography, geography, and thousands of years of history. After taking breakfast in the shadow of the mountains Abbas takes us on a walk around Gulmit, a town of not much more than a few thousands inhabitants. The walk is a great introduction to this ‘lost world’. We crossed large suspension foot bridges (Jeff: Yikes!), explored the different rocks and minerals of the mountains, dipped a finger into the icy waters of the Karakorums snow, and best of all met the 3rd and 5th grade girls of the local Gulmit primary school. They were learning all about the local bridge that day which is used as a means of commerce (tea and potatoes) for the locals but all they really wanted to do was learn about Becca’s hair and how it got that color!!

After our AM walk in Gulmit we hopped in our Jeep and headed off to see the rest of the Hunza Valley. Already regretting tht we didn’t allot more time for this section of the trip we talked with Abbas about adding an extra day. He said, “No Problem” and we proceeded to spend the next few nights in the capital of Hunza, the town of Karimabad. What a smart choice!!! Karimabad is really a town built on a mountain. For any of you who have explored the hill towns of Europe….this is a ‘mountain’ town. Literally a town built into the side of the Karakorum peaks, even a small walk through the city is an uphill hamstring workout which is probably the reason the locals live well into their 90’s and 100’s!! Karimabad (old name Baltit) is famous in the region for its mountaintop, perched Baltit Fort as well as a planning point for alpinists attempting to conquer K2, Mt. Rakaposhi, and some of the other 7000M and 8000M peaks in the area. Obviously, this is something yours truly are not into but this is Abbas’ speciality so any of you out there that want to experience that type of adventure contact Abbas (his email and company’s link on side bar) and make his day! With us less adventureous types, Abbas was relegated to showing us the sights as well as a few simple hikes which he did with much zeal. We walked (rather hiked) through the city streets, perused the Baltit Fort and its rich history, enjoyed the local chappati bread and dhal, and on our last day in Hunza experienced a 5 hour hike to the Ultar Meadow. Wow…..what an uphill journey! We hiked over boulders, glaciers, around sheep, and finally found ourselves at the foot of Ladyfinger Peak. After some tea at the loneliest eatery in the world (try 3 hours uphill a mountain for a commute) we made it down in half the time and Lil’ Ms Surefooted ended with only a few scrapes and bruises.  

Well….as many of you know our plans in travelling the world are fairly ambitious from a time perspective so after a few very fulfilling days we all piled into a minivan and headed out to conquer the final 500kms of the Karakorum Highway. 500kms = Two full days of driving!!!! As we found out the roads are tight, turns even tighter, landslides frequent, and the constant threat of plunging into the river 8,000 ft below reminds you that slow is good and we are happy no matter how long it takes as long as we make it in one piece. In addition to the entertainment of watching Jeff grip his chair and lean away from the window as our van careened around turns there was a lot to see on the KKH. We followed and crossed the great Indus River, stretched our legs at the intersection of the world’s three greatest mountain ranges, and passed through many a Pakistani town which is always entertaining. Many of those towns are now home to the refugees and relief efforts of last year’s giant earthquake in the Kashmir region. We saw very little of the physical destruction as the EQ happened on the other side of a large mountain range but we saw much of the human damage as the region is just now starting to wake up from the long winter. There are tents and camps scattered on any open space and people queued up for hours in an effort to petition relief organizations for jobs, financial, or building assistance. Positively, the relief efforts look to be overly abundant with many of the world’s countries as well as the UN and WHO offering much assistance.

Our journey on the Karakorum Highway came to an end a few hours short of Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan and we trekked the rest of the way to our resting point and got ready for a Pakistan that was completely different from the North. The next few days were spent in moving toward the Pakistan-India border of Wagah and partially viewing the cities of Islamabad and Lahore. Besides the weather inching over 105F the cities are much different from the enjoyable Hunza Valley. We visited the giant national Mosque in Islamabad, saw the city from atop, rambled through the famous fort in Lahore (quite a cool sight) and then with the grace and ease of a non-Chinese border crossing Abbas dropped us at the border and we easily passed into India…ending our 25-day Silk Road guided adventure.

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Hello readers.....

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