I'm still learning how to use this blog-- if you click on the pictures, I added some information about what I've learned. Next time I'll post near the pictures, but I'll always try and include an informative photo tag (as best I can). I am going to try and update this once a week; I left Monday, June 4th, and today is Monday, June 11th. So keep checking in, and thanks everyone for their help!

The trip so far has been incredible. I was nervous to leave, but was oddly comforted with my layover in Tokyo-- I was able to speak some Japanese with my seatmates and help an old Japanese man order coffee. Thailand was an incredible, fast, personal experience. As the plane approached the Bangkok international airport, a lightening storm with lots of visible cloud-to-cloud contact turned the whole sky this purple-fried white color. Once landed and in the queue for the public taxi, the dry lightening storm was still going overhead, and as I approached the city, it started gushing rain. This too, was oddly comforting. The Wendy House, where I stayed, was superb-- I recieved lots of help and good advice from the guests and staff there, and even someone to talk to and listen to pop music with at 4am when I couldn't sleep. I was only to be in Bangkok for a day and a half. On Tuesday morning, after breakfast of boiled rice, on recommendation from a Canadian round the world traveller, I took a fast, narrow boat up this channel to an area with several wats (thai word for temple). I met an Australian couple who gave me a lift on a tuk-tuk, which is a colorful, vespa like vehicle with ample seating in the back and some serious traffic-navigation deftness. I met several tourists, saw many beautiful statues and spires, saw the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha, which I recommend if anyone wants to sit and be quiet with their self. My favorite part of Bangkok were the transportation options: this small boat up the channel with tarps and ropes, the tuk tuk, and the public boat, which operates like a city bus with stops at certain docks along the way. Using this public boat and no words, one Buddhist monk helped me find my way to the Skytrain, which runs around the city, and which I was able to take back to the guesthouse. The next day I walked in the city, but wasn't able to do as much as I was on my way to India.

India. While waiting in the Bangkok waiting area, I could tell I was traveling to India. I felt I was adopted by the entire plane and many families in the wait area. I'm having such a lovely time here: The food is great. So great. I haven't been sick at all. We're eating vegetarian, and drinking lots of tea boiled with condensed milk. The heat is strong-- Dehli, where we have spent the last few days, was experiencing a heat wave. The Dehli Times paper had "stairway to hell" written across the front page, followed by a graph of the rising heat. It was 48.5 degrees celcius. In Delhi, we adjusted to the heat and purchased tickets for our next busy month of travel. We saw Red Fort, which, while built and used by Persian Kings several hundred years ago, Red Fort was the place where Old Jack (The name for the British Flag) came down and the Indian flag was raised on Aug. 15 1947. The following day we went to Lotus Temple, a place of worship for the Bahai'i faith. It was shaped like a lotus. Last night we took a train from Delhi to Nanital, a small cute lake town nestled in the foothills of the Himilayas. And I mean nestled. We slept at the Delhi train station last night because we arrived too late for a taxi. Mostly, we spent the night outside, though we did have a super hot temporary lodging place. I watched the sunrise this morning and heard the Muslim call to prayer and Hindi prayer music broadcast from someone with a boombox in the station. It was amazing. At 5 am this morning, we took a cab up through the foothills to get to Nanital (the train station was just a stop and not connected to a town). We kept the windows down until the first Monsoon rain. The smell of wet eucalyptus I will never forget, nor the fog or winding roads nor the Bollywood slow jams.

I'm a little unsure what to say on this, or how much it is possible to share. I'm realizing that loving a place is not like loving a person; it is a stranger thing. I'm grateful to be in India right now. My travelling companions-- Sameer and Jamie-- are wonderful.

Here is my travel schedule until we reach Pune, which is south and west of Mumbai (Bombay). Pune is where Sameer's mom Hema lives, and this is the place where Jamie will teach her creative writing class.

June 11-14: Nanital
June 14: overnight train to Delhi, fly to Kolkutta (Calcutta)
June 15-17: stay in Calcutta
June 17: Jimshedpur to assist Sameer on projects (more details to follow)

Then back to Calcutta, and a flight to Kathmandu, and a trek to Everest base camp, provided the weather holds.

Take care, all of you. I'm not sure how this blog will change as I do, or as the trip does, but I promise to keep it as informative, inspiring and interesting as my life here seems to be! -J