Probably should update this huh?

Well due to a few reasons, I have not been able to update my blog for some time. What are those reasons?

1. I got "kidnapped" at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. As soon as I walked inside the gates, I became mr. popular and memories of Bangladesh came back. By the time I left the Golden Temple, I received two house invites. I was rude and accepted the second (if I was polite I would have gone with the first). Why was I rude? The first person who invited me was quite annoying and his English was not very good. The 2nd invite was from two good English speakers who said they lived in Amritsar. Who are they? 2 18 yr old twins killing some time before they go to Australia for college.

Well turned out they lived about 20 KM (30 min) outside the city in a small village. The upside was his family was the wealthiest in the village. Their house was quite nice and I certainly didn't feel like I was roughing it. Since it was a spontaneous thing, I did not have any change of clothes, but my host was happy to provide a couple shirts and shorts.

Due to a really big rainstorm, I spent two days in the village. It actually was quite pleasant and peaceful. On the other hand, I was not able to connect to the internet, big surprise.

2. The twins helped me figure out how to get to Manali, a popular resort town in the Himalayas. I was on a bus for a good 15 hours. Well two buses actually. The first one went to the capital of Punjab called Chandigarh (I think). There, I had to find a bus to Manali. I went up to a ticket table, asked the man sitting. He said, "Manali? The bus leaves from there [pointing to a nearby bus slot]. It should leave around 5:50 PM. Stick around and I'll help you."

And he certainly did help me. The bus arrived and there was a mad rush to another ticket table. The man (a big ass sikh dude) went to the desk, said who knows what to that ticket man, told me to sit down next to the ticket man, who then got me a ticket and gave me a seat number. Turned out the seat was in the front row, which gave me a bit more leg room. Turned out to be very helpful. Why?

Well this bus became PACKED. Imagine a MUNI bus at rush hour. That kind of packed. Imagine being on that packed of a bus on a curvy mountain road with many switchbacks- for 3 or 4 hours. Sounds fun doesn't it?

3. got to manali a little before 4 am. Obviously I didn't have many hotel options at that hour since most were all closed up for the night. Found one, and then the next day I had a nice surprise: the broadband connection here is down due to some glitch back in Chandigarh, so they say. The first day it was down, all internet places said, "Eh sorry, can't help you." A couple days later they've resorted to dial-up. Woo hoo!

So there you have it. Just kicking it here in Manali for a couple days. Reserved a ticket to Singapore today via Jet Airways. Leaving on the 9th, so I'll have 2 1/2 days in Singapore before I go back to the USA. Now all I have to do is get a bus to Delhi, and arrive there before 6 pm Friday to get my plane ticket. Fun times.

Most random question yet

Before I get to the most random question I've been asked so far on this trip, I'll sum up my "taj experience.

The first time I saw the Taj was on the train. As it crossed the bridge entering Agra, I was able to look out the window and see the Taj in the distance. Even from there, it looked quite majestic.

I ended up staying at a budget hotel called Sai Palace. I highly recommend it. For 250 rupees (little over 6 USD) I had a large room, equally as large bathroom, and a small view of the Taj. I could walk right out of my room to improve my view, and if I walked up a few stairs, I had an unblocked view of the the Taj. Not bad at all.

Ended up going in around 4:30 PM. Even at that time of day, it was pretty hot. You have to take your shoes off and go bare-feet on the white marble. Thankfully they lay a carpet-like thing (not quite soft enough to be a carpet) for you to walk on. Anyway, I'll just say it is as impressive as everyone says it is, and is worth the 750 rupees (about 19 bucks) to get into the place.

If I were to do it over again, I'd go earlier and just hang out wherever there was shade. Part of the enjoyment of the Taj was just sitting around with middle class Indians, soaking up the surroundings. Oh, and Agra isn't so bad. The touts are pretty tame. Luxor, Egypt and Fez, Morocco still hold the #1 slot of most annoying touts in the world.

So let's move on to the most random question I've been asked. Yesterday I took a 14 hr train ride from Agra to Amristar, where I am now. As I'm sure you'd guess, a large number of people came and went during my ride. The last group was these 4 sikhs (pictured above). After asking where I was from, one of them asked, "What's the price of almonds in California?"

Now had he asked me the price of any other nut, I would have had to say, "umm I have no clue." Alas, I have been buying almonds from Berkeley Bowl for the past couple years. I know my almond prices. I remembered paying around 7 bucks/lb and so I told him, "Close to 15 dollars/kilo" but then I remembered that was the highest I paid. Sometimes I paid about 5 bucks/lb so I clarified: "Actually it ranges between 10 and 15 dollars/kilo." They seemed satisfied with my answer.

Why did they ask? They were sellers of dry foods.

And now I'm in amritsar. I have yet to see the Golden Temple. That shall be for tomorrow. I haven't really gotten a good read of the the city yet; I arrived late, slept a bit late, and walked around for 45 minutes this afternoon before I decided I better get out of the heat, so I took a nap. Nap turned out to be a couple hours longer than planned. So it goes.

My future plans

I suppose this is not too interesting, but just in case you're wondering, here is what I'm planning to do in the next few days.

June 24 (today): kill a few hours. Hop on train to Agra at 6 pm. I know you're jealous.
June 25: Arrive at agra fort station at 6 am. Find hotel. Go to Taj Mahal. Take pictures to document my visit there. restrain myself from killing touts.
June 26: 8:38 AM train to Amristar. Riding high class: a/c baby, a/c! This will be my first train a/c experience in India. Better be good since i'm paying about 2x what I would be in 2nd class sleeper. arrive in amritsar around 10:30 PM.
June 27: Visit the golden temple. I can stay there for free too.

After that, it is up in the air. I know I'm going to go to Manali but I am not sure yet what day. I might also go to Leh, but it takes two days to go there from Manali. do i have the time? i don't know yet.