No hurry no worry. no chicken no curry!
For those of you who believe we are on a relaxing vacation around the world, we would like to share the story of our last few days!!
Objective: Jaisalmer to Amritsar, to see the famous Sihk golden temple.
We left Jaisalmer on a 6 a.m. bus to Bikanear. We arrrived 6 hours later to find out that the 3:30 train we were going to take was full. After MUCH hassle we arranged to take a 9 pm local train to Bethinda, a diffferent station, where we would be able to connect to go to Amritsar. The local train was quite an akward experience. Lisa woke up with about 5 men staring at her. Not looking at her… staring, like they never saw a white girl before. We arrived in Bethinda at 7 am. We are under the impression that Bethinda has never seen a tourist before!! No one spoke English, even in the enquiry office. Eventually we found out that the train to Amritsar had already left, and no busses. Or thats what we think they were telling us!! But.. our commen sense took us to the bus station where we were pushed onto a bus going to Amritsar. This bus was SOOOO ghetto. It was filthy, and had bench seats like a school bus. To top it off, we were in the last row… and believe us when we tell you these busses ain’t got no shocks!! They pack so many people in the bus they are coming out the doors and some people even go on the roof. Also when they let people off at the smaller stops they don’t even stop, they just slow down and people jump on and off. It’s Nuts. We arrive at 1:00 in Amritsar!!!!!
This story is not over…..
The Golden Temple is where the Sihk’s make there pilgramage to. It is packed with Indian tourist. We struggled to find a decent place to stay. By the time we got one washed up and went to eat, it was 4:00. We were a mess!! A little food and a walk around the temple helped us out but we were dragging ass. We were seriously looking forward to a shower and bed!!!!. However, as Lisa fell onto the bed, she spied BED BUGS!!!!!!! It only took us about 5 minutes to pack up and get the flock out of there (mind you, we still haven’t even showered). We read about a freindly tourist guest house outside of town, and decided to head there. We grabbed a cycle rickshaw and started going. Except, our non-English speaking driver had no idea where to go and took us all over town. We even had to get off the rickshaw and help push it up a hill. But, then we arrived at the hotel, got a room (with HBO), took a shower and colapsed!!
Amritsar was really great though. It is spectacular, and amazing to see all the people coming to pray. It is in Punjab, so everyone wears cool bright turbans, pointy shoes, silver daggers and those funny moustaches. It was a hoot, until we got back on the bus, which broke down on the way here!! We are now finally up north in the mountains. We are in a town called Mcleod Ganj. It is a beautiful little village full of Tibetans. It is also the home of the Dalai Lama. This town is great!! It is perfect weather, beautiful mountains and full of Buddhists!! Not to mention they have delicious food here.
We were able to upload but we have been in this cafe to long, so no captions… just pictures. We miss everyone lots. It feels like we have been gone forever!!!
Just a little note– You will notice the picture of Todd reading… of WHAT.. yes Todd finished a whole entire book!! (Davinci Code). Lisa is so proud of him.. who says you can’t change a man!
Tags: Travel
Lisa and Todd-Blogmasters
Two important questions for you:
– does the new dance “The Camel” require you to fart while dancing?
– do you know that all the gas stations in New Jersey are run by Punjabis??
I hope you get to stay a long time up north with the Tibetans. A better group you cannot find.
Love,
Momma J.
Wow, sounds like you are having some amazing (although tiring!) experiences…it is great to hear what you two are up to! Hope you don’t run into too many naughty monkeys and farting camels along the way!! Safe travels. Adrienne
Okay, so Todd is dancing AND reading. What kind of drugs are you giving that boy? Todd probably started the book about 2 years ago!
Oh my goodness, your pictures are amazing. I am vicariously getting over my fear of the third world!!!! It DOES feel like you’ve been gone forever. I love seeing pictures of your smiling faces–even if the smiles were probably fake when you realized that the Taj was CLOSED!!! I can’t tell you how much I love reading your stories. I miss you both lots…..
Amritsar – where have I heard the name before? Oh yeah, “Bride and Prejudice” with Aishwaraya Rai – GREAT movie. At least I thought so. Loved the dance scene in that movie. And “DaVinci Code” is a great book 🙂 GREAT pictures. Pictures DO speak a thousand and one words 🙂 The pictures speak the story – no captions needed! GREAT pictures – I especially enjoyed the pics of the monkeys and the holy cow! Todd – cool haircut – didn’t notice it until I saw one of the pics just now.
Thanks for keeping us posted!
Living vicariously through you both!
Hugs.
lisa – nice work getting todd to cut that mane. give the daali lama a pound for me if you bump into him.
Nice pics…looks nice…like the fountains…
looks fabulous! have fun!
Just some random thoughts…
Ever since I first met Todd…I kinda thought of him as the strong quiet type–kinda like a James Dean or Marlon Brando character….but since you told us in your previous post that he failed his motorcycle test…I must have been wrong….In this post, I see he seems to do much better on a camel than on the motorcycle ….but I can’t figure out what to say about that…perhaps some others reading this blog can tell me what that means…
Also, if you expect us to feel sorry for you because of your “suffering” ghetto bus and train rides and bed bug ridden beds…forget it…!!!!
love,
Dad D.
We can”t believe all that you are doing. What an awesome site to keep tabs on your travels. Great photos. Great idea. Hope all is well.
Your Cali Cousin
wow, I am so jealous. And still missing Todd’s food.
Heard about the earthquake, if you need anything at all, if you need any help, call us. Home: 44 207 812 1177, Cell: 44 782 115 9637
Be safe, have fun. xoxo
Just read about the earthquake myself and went immediately to the blog to see where in the world you are. Still not exactly sure, but i will assume safe and sound! Maui is still…Maui, although the mornings are dipping to a frosty 70 degrees. brrrr. I’ll be sure to kick it with the Punjabi gas attendants when I’m in NJ next week. Do you now how to say, “My friends are having a great time visiting your beautiful land”?? Yeah, didn’t think so. xoxo
It has now been just over 24 hours since the earthquake hit. We haven’t heard from Todd or Lisa yet and as far as I know neither has anyone else. This post puts them right on the edge of the earthquake area at the south end of the Northern mountains of India about 200 miles or so from the epicenter. We know that the town that they posted from (4 days ago) ,Mcleod Ganj, was joustled and jolted, but survived OK with some relatively minor damage. Since this a popular area for mountain trekking, we think that they might be off somewhere hiking in the mountains, perhaps even unaware of the fact that there was a major earthquake…but we have no real idea of where they are or what they are doing at this point. Since they may be out of touch with phones and computers in some mountain wilderness, it could be a while before we hear from them. IF ANYBODY HAS ANY INFORMATION ABOUT WHERE THEY WERE PLANNING TO GO AFTER MCLEOD GANJ/DHARAMSALA PLEASE LET US KNOW.
As soon as we hear from them, we will be sure that this Blog knows about it too.
Love to you all,
David (dr4u@virginia.edu)