This is a guest post by Stephen Barrett. If you want to guest post on Go Backpacking, please read more here.
As part of a larger backpacking trip around the world, Stephen Barrett had the good fortune to be in McLeod Ganj, seat of the Tibetan Government in Exile, for the first day of a series of [...]

One thing I love about India is the way the best laid plans so often change.

Inside the prayer wheels are scrolls of paper with Om Mani Padme Hum written on them.

And that’s when I got the help I couldn’t do without. I used the last of my funds to get a cab from the edge of town I crawled to to get to the bar where I met two Peace Corps volunteers, mutual friends of a sorority sister, and agents of [...]

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
__________________________________
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 [...]

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 [...]

 
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 [...]