Allahabad and the Kumbh Mela

March 1,2013: The train arrived in Allahabad at 5am. A van was waiting to take us to our tents. Christine and Bridget (friends from Norway) are sharing. but since Neil and I each paid for our own room, the rest of us have our own tents. (Gavin gets his own without paying for it since there's no one left to share with)The tents are huge- 3 rooms plus a private bathroom with Western toilet behind. We were able to wash and brush our teeth right away - so nice after the sleeper train. Then we had buffet breakfast at a little place under a canapé: fried Indian pancakes, Indian potato curry, corn flakes, and white bread toast. Also coffee or chai. The chai is really good here- lots of cardamom.
After breakfast, we took a walk by the river. Then we were driven into town to see the home of Nehru. It wasn't nearly as interesting as the Gandhi museum, but it had a bookstore and i bought Gandhi's autobiography. My Kindle isn't working so i need a book to read on the boat tomorrow. I was annoyed because it's always impossible tp get change here. The book cost 45 rupees. I gave the man a 100 rupee bill. He said he had no change. Gavin was behind me and talking to me. The man told me to pay for mine and Gavin's so it would be 90 rupees. At least I got a 10 rupee note in change. (Good for tips-which you need constantly) We had lunch at a restaurant in town.
The weather was very cool in the morning, but got quite hot in the afternoon. We rested in the tents in the afternoon.
At 4:00 we walked over to the Kumbh Mela festival by the river. We are constantly passing stray cows and bulls who just wander the streets. People just ignore them. Today, one put his head down and went after me with his horns. I think it's because my jacket was dangling from my arm. I scooted away quickly. I think it may have looked worse from far away because I knew he didn't touch me, but Neil said, "Did you not feel that? He came after you" Then the bull was digging his horns down kind of angry. We walked away. At the Kumbh Mela, there were many people but the biggest crowds have left. There were families sitting on the ground. People swam in the Ganges. We got some nice photos. Then we walked back to have dinner (Indian buffet) At dinner everyone was laughing that I got chased by a bull on my birthday. It seems it looked more dangerous to them than it felt to me. 

We stayed in Ritz India tents.   

Taj Mahal and Agra Fort

February 28, 2013: This morning we went very early to the Taj Mahal. It was still dark when we got there. We were first in line to go in. That's good because it gets very crowded as the day goes on. The story of the Taj is that the emperor Shah Jahan loved his third wife Mumtaz tremendously. He married his other three wives for strategic alliances. So when Mumtaz died, he built the Taj as a tomb for her. It really is very impressive. It's very beautiful and much bigger than I expected.
Later we went to the Agra Fort. It's a fortified palace where Shah Jahan and Empress Mumtaz lived. It's not so beautiful because all gold and jewels have been stripped from it, but the tour was actually more interesting than the Taj because of all the interesting stories.
Then Gavin, Neil and I got lunch at Pizza Hut.
We just kind of hung around the hotel in the afternoon, then went to a restaurant and had a delicious dinner and got the sleeper train to Allahabad.

Going to Agra

The train to Agra is a sleeper train. We had to be ready to take the car to the train station in Haridwar by 4am, so I got up at 3. In the station, I bought a little bottle of milk flavored with cardamom. We went into town in Rishikesh last night to stock up on cookies, etc to eat on the train. The train left at 6 and then we all settled down to sleep a little. Every so often a man comes through selling chai. He puts a tea bag in a 4 oz paper cup and fills it from a thermos with a very sweet mixture of milk and water. Only 10 rupees (20c) and delicious. Later many people came selling lunch. Christine and I ordered lunch from one man but then accidentally bought from another man before the first brought our order! So we ended up with way too much food.
We arrived in Agra at around 4 pm and took the car to our hotel. It's lovely - and has a Pizza Hut next to it. ;)
We will go to the Taj tomorrow (VERY EARLY) but today we went behind it and saw it at sunset. Then we went to a very nice restaurant that served MEAT and beer - two things that were unavailable in Rishikesh. No one seems to drink wine or coffee in India.
This hotel charges for WiFi but I will probably pay it and post this. Tomorrow evening we sleep in a sleeper train and the following two nights are in a tent so I will be incommunicado until at least Sunday.

Beatles' Ashram

Today we walked to the place where the Beatles studied transcendental meditation with the Maharishi. On the walk there, I took some photos of the cows in the street and a monkey eating a kit kat with her baby holding on to her. The ashram where the Beatles stayed is now closed. We paid the guard and he let us go in anyway. There are domed areas where the Beatles wrote their music. Lots of stuff is painted on the walls all over the place. It was very interesting. (Rishikesh in general looks like hippie heaven and there are lots of whites here dressed in Indian clothes and very serious about the rituals.).
Going to bed early tonight because we have to leave at 4:30 am tomorrow to get the train to Agra (site of the Taj Mahal). We'll spend one day in Agra. Then we take a sleeper train to Allahabad where we will be in a tent for two nights. So, unless there's Internet in my Agra hotel, this will be my last post for a few days.

Whitewater rafting on the Ganges

This morning we had breakfast at a little German cafe - coffee and banana porridge. Then we got in the jeep that took us to our whitewater rafting spot. The weather is lovely here in Rishikesh-sunny and in the 70's during the day. So the river was cool, but very nice. The water here is pristine - just down from the Himalayas. The river was pretty calm. There were only two spots of rapids and they were never very rough. We got very wet but there was never any danger of falling out of the raft. Gavin even jumped in the river and swam a little. The trip was about 40 minutes. Then we got out of the raft and walked up the hill to our hotel.
We are having fun looking at all the cows wandering the streets. They are just everywhere. Tonight when we were going down some stairs to a restaurant for dinner there was a cow on the steps! There are also street dogs. They enjoy lying around in the sun. People must feed them because they're not too skinny. There are also monkeys in the trees.

Rishikesh

We met our fourth person last night. His name is Neil and yesterday was his birthday. He's thirty. He's a very nice guy. I really like everyone in our group.
This morning we left the hotel at 5:30 to take the train to Rishikesh. The hotel here is really nice. We all have little balconies. We had lunch in the hotel and then had time to organize ourselves in our rooms. I fell fast asleep! They had to call me to wake me up at 4 so we could walk down into town. There are monkeys in the trees and cows everywhere. We saw a Hindu ceremony. It happens at sunset on the riverbank. Some boys who are training to be priests were chanting. There were many people on the steps - both Indians and whites. People bought little cones with flowers and an incense stick in them. They would put them in the river. Afterwards we went to dinner and came back to our hotel.

New friends

This morning I went to a huge Hindu temple. It's quite new and very beautiful. Then Jami joined me to go to the Gandi Museum and assassination site. It's an excellent museum.
My tour was supposed to meet at 2:00 so we did only a half-day touring. When I went to the lobby for the meeting, there were 2 others reading the G-Adventures announcement that the meeting would be at changed to 6. Gavin is British and just finished college. Christine is Norwegian and works for Save The Children. She has friend who will be joining us in Agra. That leaves one other guy. We know he's British but haven't met him yet. Since the meeting was postponed, we took the opportunity to go see Humayyan's tomb. It was impressive. We took the metro (very nice and modern, but quite crowded. Then we took a three-wheeled taxi. They are very funny little cars. They have only 3 wheels. When we got back to the hotel, Binu, our tour CEO was in the lobby. He said we will meet on the roof for a general meeting and then go out for dinner. We will leave Delhi at 5:30 tomorrow morning.