I had to see India for myself, and am glad I did, but it was a challenge. There were moments of awe like seeing the Taj Mahal for the first time, and moments of being utterly fed up with the incessant honking of car/jeep horns from Darjeeling to McLeod Ganj. Why take on [...]
#11 – From Stefan:
Here’s a new dare for $20…take a ride on the roof of a train in India.
Reward: $20
Status: Failed
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I must admit defeat with regard to this dare. I don’t have a choice….the beaches of Thailand are calling.
I only saw people on a train rooftop once, and never saw the [...]
Continue reading about Dare #11 – Failed – Ride The Roof Of An Indian Train
Feeling on top of the world after my Bukhara experience, I forced myself to walk out of the luxurious Maurya Sheraton. I deferred to my taxi driver at this point, and he drove me around the President’s house and government buildings. We then drove east toward India’s War Memorial, a large arch [...]
Continue reading about India’s War Memorial And Humayun’s Tomb
For my last full day in Delhi, and India, I spent an hour walking around Connaught Place. The park in the middle of the big traffic/shopping circle is closed on Mondays, as were many other attractions. I returned to the guest house where I splurged, hiring an air-conditioned car for the afternoon.
The first [...]
Neil, a lifelong Delhi resident, is the nephew of a woman who works at my parent’s local bank branch. I met his Aunt while I was giving my mom permission to access my bank account. Apparently she’d taken an interest in my trip because she suggested I meet up with Neil while in Delhi.
He [...]
After a halfway decent first night’s sleep at Sunny’s, I had a quick breakfast and grabbed an auto rickshaw to Jama Masjid, India’s biggest mosque. I negotiated a rate of 80 rupees ($2), only to realize a few minutes into the ride that there was a perfectly functioning meter tracking the appropriate cost based on [...]
Continue reading about Exploring Old Delhi – Jama Masjid And The Red Fort
First Half
I was confident from perusing my guidebook that a fair rate for an auto rickshaw to my first and second choice guest houses would be about 40 rupees ($1). Before I reached the rickshaws, I was picked out by a gaggle of taxi drivers. The first one quoted a rate of 550 [...]
My 4am wake-up call came a generous 15 minutes early. Already packed, I laid in bed under the twirling fan trying not to fall asleep again. At half past four, I stepped quietly past the hotel employee who had returned to his bed, the lobby bench, for a few more hours rest. I picked up [...]
Like the appeal of riding a yak in Sikkim, witnessing the daily India-Pakistan ceremony in Attari captured my imagination the moment I learned about it. In the case of the ceremony, I first saw it on a television show. If I’m not mistaken, it was part of Michael Palin’s “Himalaya” which was [...]
Continue reading about The Surreal India-Pakistan Border Ceremony
The reason I made the torturous move to wake up at 4am to catch the direct bus to Amritsar was so I could see Sikhism’s holiest temple AND the India-Pakistan border ceremony in one day. Really, it was the latter event which captivated my curiosity, though once I saw the Golden Temple, I [...]
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