Rachel is off to China

Hi everyone

Ameet and I started this blog in 2009 when we backpacked around India, scroll down to read about some amazing and inspiring experiences in India. I am now off to China and getting this blog re-started by posting blogs throughout my trip IF I can access it in China. China has very strict rules and access to various websites and we will soon find out if our blog is one of them! If it is, bon voyage and you won't hear from me for a while, if it does work YIPEE you'll hear all about my amazing time in China.

My friend Michelle is also very bravely joining me for the first couple of weeks in China so stay tuned for some interesting (and entertaining) posts about our experiences. Below are the rough details for my trip;

16 Nov 11pm (zzzz) fly direct via China Southern airlines from Auckland to Guangzhou which is in southern China. I have 4 days in Guangzhou then fly direct to Kunming in the Yunnan Province on 20th Nov where I am studying for 4 weeks at the Yunnan Normal University on scholarship. Kunming is south west in China. Then on the 16th Dec fly direct to Beijing in the north to have 4 days of sightseeing. 20th Dec I fly to Guangzhou and then home to Auckland, arriving on the 21st! I will be having lots of afternoon, day and overnight trips to various places in China while I am away so stay tuned!!

From Rachel ^_^

Chennai and our departure from India

We are in Chennai now, arrived here from Goa by flight on Friday night. We haven't done too much here, just relaxed and spent time with friends here. Went to a bookstore, took an hour drive to the beach for a hash run and along the way there were shacks to replace the houses that were destroyed by the tsunami. After the run caught up with a friend at her work party, had a small dance to Tamil music which was a first for us. Very interesting dances these south indians come up with. We also went to Pondy Bazaar for the last of our shopping. We fly home at 2.30am tonight/tomorrow morning. We are very sad to be leaving, we have had an awesome time here. Below are a few things to recap, a bit hard to remember everything so means we can leave some stories for when we get back :) Enjoy!

Highlights:

Shopping and eating in Mumbai, seeing the Gateway of India and staying next to Big B, Amitabh Bachan.
5 Star Thali in Ahmedabad, Gujurat.
Sunset and watching Octopussy in Udaipur, Rajasthan.
Monkey Temple in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
Camel Safari in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.
Nek Chand gardens in Chandigarh, Punjab.
Golden Temple, Amritsar, Punjab.
Sunrise in McLeod Ganj and being near the Dalai Lama, Himichal Pradesh.
Bargaining in the Palika Bazaar and the India Gate in Delhi.
Sunrise Boat ride in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
Luxury Hotel and dinner in Delhi again.
Being with family and seeing a monster mega-mall in Faridabad.
Taj Mahal in Agra (dur)
Backwaters in Kochin, Kerala.
Goa in general. Jet Skiing, Parasailing, eating beachside, the sunsets, Anjuna Markets and being with Rita and Yasmine.
Relaxing in Chennai.

Bloopers:

Jaisalmer, 18 Nov
A bird shat on Ameets hair, face, shirt and glasses while we were getting in to our jeep for the Camel Safari.

Jaipur, 20 Nov
Taking a cycle-rickshaw for the first (and last) time and getting a driver with a bung leg so it took one hour to get somewhere that takes 10 minutes by auto rickshaw!! We felt so sad for the poor fella who was sweating profusely by the time we arrived.

Delhi, 4 Dec
Feeling good for bargaining from 300 rupees down to 230 to get to Uncles house and when we arrive being informed that it should have only cost 60 rupees...
Meeting a Pakistani man on the road who asks if I'm from England, with his english being really bad I just nodded rather than trying to get him to understand New Zealand, he then asked me how I felt when Princess Diana died....... I didn't answer.

Varanasi, 7 Dec
At the Puja on the Ghats a skinny, pathetic holy man (beggar really) came to Ameet and with the strangest and weakest voice said "Om Namay Shiva" (praising Lord Shiva) with his hand out for some money. We have a video that you all have to see when we are back!

Shimla, 9 Dec
We are walking to find our hotel at 6 in the morning, after walking round in circles to find it Rachel steps in some fresh cow shit and was not impressed. Took about a week to get it off her shoe!

So there are obviously more highlights of our trip than there were bloopers, the trip was a wonderful one, a once in a million experience and we couldnt have learnt about India better than we did over these last 2 months. We have grown a lot and bought so many wonderful things and can't wait to share them all with you once we are back in NZ. Thanks for joining us along the way and sharing our excitement with us. We will be having plenty more wonderful experiences in our next stop, KL Malaysia which we will also blog about so stay tuned for that.

Lots of love
Ameet and Rachel
xxx

Goa - MIND BLOWING!

Goa...... Absolutely amazing, relaxing, serene, surreal and utterly MIND BLOWING.

We spent one week here. We arrived by train on a Sunday morning. After one hour of driving through beautiful landscape we came to our Guest House for a much needed shower and then set off to explore Goa and grab some breakfast/lunch. We ate at Electric Cats. The place didn't have any relevance to cats anywhere but the menu was so good, seafood all around. We soon realised that was the best part about Goa, the food. We bummed around for the day, looked at some shops, walked on the beach then watched a beautiful sunset. Next day Rita, ameet's mum, and Yasmine, Rita's friends, joined us. We hid on their balcony to scare them as they arrived then spent the rest of the day stoning together, taking in the sights and sounds of this wonderful place. Another amazing sunset as we sat on the beach having the best food and some sheesha (hukka).

Next day we set off on a boat to Anjuna Markets. Its a market place, described by Lonely Planet as "a place where you must remember to bargain hard and take along equal amounts of patience and stamina, and that once you spend just a couple of hours here you'll never want to see a mirrored bedspread, peacock feather fan or floaty Indian dress again in your life" And it was just that. The market place was so massive that it starts to become generic and overwhelming after a while and the shopkeepers yelling at you to buy their goods tires you down faster than you can imagine. The hot sun doesn't help either. It was a great experience though. The beggars dancing on the beach also adds another touch of difference. My favourite though was a lady selling bags but was wearing one on her head to escape the sun, she looked so silly and just couldn't understand why all the tourists were laughing at her!! We ate beachside then headed back to offload all the heavy shopping and relax on the beach. We had the most relaxing afternoon and evening there, ate a sad looking lobster and some other seafood.

Next day Rita and Yasmine went to have a day of pampering. Facial, manicure, pedicure, hair done while Ameet and I went for a day of water sports. We had such a great time. First we held onto a round donut looking thing that was tied to the back of a boat and got thrown about the Arabian Sea (which had us gagging as the water is soo salty!) Then once our arms had a bit of strength back we sat into another donut looking thing again tied to the back of a boat and got our backsides having a workout. Then after a much needed swim in the beach, while btw wearing our life-jackets. We had to wear them for the activities and without thinking just kept them on and went swimming, soon after we realised how stupid we must have looked, esp since the water isn't that rough! We did some Jet Skiing which was so awesome!! We had a guide at the back, went by individually with him and got to drive it but with him guiding you. It went so fast I was screaming my head off making a fool of myself! Had two rounds on the water each then we took a boat further offshore to deep water and went Parasailing. Amazing!! So so fun!! You go really high and can see the land for miles. I'm sure this was another painful experience for Ameet since the harness isn't exactly comfortable. Afterwards we sat for a while on the beach stoning over all that happened then went and met the dolled up ladies for lunch. After lunch I had a South Indian Ayurvedic Massage. Really good massage! By now we are all relaxed and feeling good. We got all dressed up in our new clothes and headed to a french restaurant for dinner. The restaurant was sooo beautiful!! It had a nice passageway lined with delicate lights and palm tree's with which you enter through. Then it opens up into this beautiful beachy restaurant. The art works were so individual and really made the place. Each table had a different colour an art work theme. There was one Rajasthani corner, one Buddha corner, one Africa looking corner. One metropolis corner with a collage of cut out magazine covers with beautiful Indian models on front. After a really good meal us ladies spent half an hour posing near the toilets where the lights meant we were only silhouettes (will put some pics up) after we realised we looked like idiots we sat near a small fountain with a comfy bed that was made for sitting on and had desert. All the while drinking wine like there was no tomorrow! After dinner we went to Tito's, the most happening place in Goa!! It was a Thursday night and they had an awesome DJ playing bollywood mixed with trance and house which was soo good! Free entry and unlimited free drinks for ladies so we sent Ameet down the road to pick up some stuff and we headed inside for a dance and some more drinks. Once we were all hammered we dragged ourselves home and stayed up til 2am talking about the awesome week we'd had as the next day and complaining about tomorrow as we were leaving :( Next morning we had our last beachside breakfast, sat there in silence as we were all sad to leave and hungover from the night before. A few nights before we met a young boy on the beach, one thing about Goa, and the rest of India, is no matter where you are or what you are doing, the locals selling goods will come up to you and try to sell things to you, the beach as you can imagine was filled with these people since there were so many tourists there. The young boy was .. on the other side of the fence from his peers if you know what I mean, and it was the first Indian one we'd met, we were so intrigued that day we'd met him that as we all sat there stoning on our last day and he walked past, we called him over. Bought some of his goods and sent him off smiling. He was soo sweet. After this Rita and Yasmine headed off to the airport while we waited around and had lunch then flew later in the day. So sad we were to leave Goa. We flew to Mumbai and then Chennai, on Anise and Thyme.... We flew with Spice Jet airways and they name each aircraft a different spice. We had Oregano on our first flight with them (Varanasi - Delhi). Will update Chennai then our departure later today!

Delhi and South India

We flew out of Varanasi and into Delhi once more, this time just for one night. we picked a pretty posh hotel and went out for a nice dinner, had a nice rest on the bed in the hotel as we've only been sleeping in budget accommodation for the past couple of weeks. so it was a wonder full change and a well needed to recharge. the next day we flew out of Delhi and into Kochi, the hub of Kerala. there we stayed with aunt jean and her family in their apartment.over the next couple of days we did a variety of things including a serene boat ride down the backwaters of kerala, and checking out the ancient and very fragrant spice markets of old Jewish/Portuguese kerala(which were very similar, in terms of architecture, to the buildings of old Melacca,back home in Malaysia). The boat ride was amazing, it was like we were going down the canals of Venice,except our canals had buffalo's and people bathing in it.and our gondola had plastic chairs and it was more like an old sampan held together by string that was made out of coconut husk(which we were also shown the method of production for by the way) and our gondolier was an oooollld man who wore a dhoti that kept falling down.but along the way we saw a variety of plants and animals and it was pretty relaxing and calming.it was nice to dip our feet in the cooling waters but i don't think the fish liked it very much.
we spent the next day at Fort Kochin just wandering thru the streets and admiring the gigantic Chinese fishing nets along the shoreline. there we were seduced into buying a freshly caught fish and some tiger prawns from the beachside and one of the shops cooked it for us.turned out to be one of the top meals we've had, and i think i can say the same for the kitty who joined us for the leftovers too.we also visited a church where vasco da gama used to be buried(until he went back to Italy), and we saw the spice markets where they sell spice and all sorts of rice in bulk.the smell there was really amazing.
that night we took a train,our last for our journeys, to Goa,paradise and home to the biggest and best parties this side of the world. the train journey was a long one ,15 hours to be exact but luckily we were well stocked up for the journey by aunt jean,she had made sure we had chicken briyani, chapatis and mutton as well as sprite and mazza and some fruits for dessert.the train was delayed a bit but we managed to get our seats and begin eating by about 9.30 pm. we slept for most of the journey,this train ride wasn't as interesting as any of the previous ones but the scenery was amazing outside,mostly field and people working in them,but the way of life ,the little things that the people do along the way,that was nice.for example we saw little kids playing cricket with makeshift bats and balls,as well as bottles for stumps and an area that was so small.but it was still as intense as a game between Pakistan and India on a big scale level.we saw them ploughing their fields with their Buffalo's and cooking food on a small wood fire outside their house.bathing by the canal side and making cow dung patties for fuel.collecting coconuts and other fruits,chasing chickens and bathing cows,occasionally there was a whiff of fresh seawater in the air as we were traveling parallel to the west coast of India towards our next destination by the beach,Goa.

Taj Mahal and The Ganges

So we got to Agra by train. It was the most fascinating train ride so far, this one was full from station to station with entertainers (talented beggars) who performed things from dancing and singing to acrobats. Once we arrived in Agra the first thing we did was go to the Taj Mahal. We had a train that same evening to our next stop so just spent the whole afternoon there. First you wait in the looongest que, took about an hour, just to get into the first gate. Once we got through the first gate we were greeted by a big open space with pretty grass and hoards of tourists. Then we made our way to the second gate, through the second gate is the Taj Mahal and as you go through you are waiting for it to appear, slowly you see glimpses, wall, towers then POP it appears in front of your eyes in all its splendour. You stand for a few minutes just staring, absorbing this amazing structure, then start clicking away with all the other tourists. This moment makes all the annoying beggars, touts, dust and dirt seem worth it. It reminds you why you came to India. We explored the massive complex, there are gardens and fountains everywhere with someone posing here and there. We walked all the way around, taking in the beauty. We sat for a while stoning. Such a surreal moment. Then joined another massive que to see the tombs inside. The tombs of Shah Jahan, the creator of this wonder and his wife Mumtaz Mahal, the purpose of the creation. We sat all afternoon then watched the sunset. One of my favourite sunsets in India. We then sadly had to leave as we needed to have dinner then catch our next train. Like sad puppies we exited the gates looking behind to remember the sight.

Next stop was Varanasi. The holiest city in India, built on the banks of the River Ganges. The edge of the river is made up of Ghats, steps for you to walk down to the water. There are temples everywhere and naked holy men walking around. At first we just walked around absorbing this strange but intriguing place then we started to mix with the locals. One awesome experience was sitting next to an Aghori. For those with weak tummies look away, Aghori's are humans who feel they are closer to God by doing .... things that we would call evil. They pick bones from the cremation sites (which are open for all to see...) and eat the leftover flesh that hasn't burnt during the cremation. They then smear the ash from the bodies all over themselves. Their legs, their arms and even, yes, their face, lips, eyes, you name it. As we sat next to him, we just stared at this amazing creature who also gives you a sense of fear, intimidation. He happily smoked some kind of drug in a pipe but not before offering us some, let us take photos then went on his way. Another awesome experience in Varanasi was watching a live, mass Puja. It was a bit commercialised as prayers are usually private but it was so good to see. About 5 or 6 priests line up on podiums layed out on the River edge and do various types of religious stuffs. The crowds were massive! We also took a boat ride down the River Ganges during the sunrise and saw the prayers and rituals performed by the locals and also all the bathing of both animal and human. Sadly only had a couple of days there but it was definitely another highlight of our trip. Our next destination after Varanasi was South India which is where we are now. Can't wait to tell you all about it in our next blog!!!

Rachel and Ameet
xox

The Big Capital - Delhi

Hi everyone, sorry trying to get up to date with our blog when we have time :)

Next was Delhi. We arrived by train. We had heard that the touts etc were at their worst in Delhi esp at the train station so we hopped off the train with our bags tightly tied to us and our guards up but surprisingly it was fine, we weren't really bothered at all. Either that or we've been in India too long.....
It took about an hour to get to ameets uncles friends place with whom we were staying but at the 6 in the morning we didn't really care. Once we arrived we sat and chatted for a few hours, had breakfast showered, saw (and kind of took part in) a Puja (Hindu prayer) next door. The lady of the house had been fasting for a long time and broke her fast with the Puja. The whole neighbourhood decided to join in. It was...... interesting. The Pandit (holy man) did some strange things, and was a bit strange himself, and we stood inside the house with an open fire (they don't have smoke alarms here, tsk tsk) and threw cow dung and dirt into it and then the Pandit threw water at us all.... Enlightening. Oh and then we had to eat Prashad (food) with that same hand we threw cow dung with.... None of us realised until we finished eating. We then got ready to go out and see the sights. However by the time we left the house (indian timing) it was already the afternoon and most sights close around 4pm but we managed to sqeeze in a few things... Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, kind of like a mini Golden Temple but without the Golden structure in the middle... Ok so maybe not a mini Golden Temple but it was pretty impressive. We then went to Cannaught Place, the centre of Delhi, for some shopping. We ended up at the Palika Bazaar. It was underground shopping with all the things us youngsters desire. We got a few things and I proved to Ameet that my bargaining skills had become pretty good here during this trip. The shopping was originally about 3,000 rupess but I got it for 1,750 rupess. Almost half price... After Cannaught Place we rushed to the Jama Masjid, biggest Mosque in Asia, and then the Fort for an interesting Sound and Light show. Then a quick visit to a Jain Temple which also had a Bird Hospital. The Temple had the most amazing paintings on the walls and domed ceilings. Next door was another Gurudwara. Didn't go inside but it was pretty amazing to see. The fort, Jain Temple and Gurudwara are all in Chandni Chawk, a crazy part of town, filled with shopping eating, temples, strangely Jain, Hindu and Sikh temples are all next door to each other. After seeing all this we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Haldirams. It wasn't exactly food though... it was an All American Banana Split but OMG it was good. A little bit of comfort from back home (not that we are American, but the style was similar and when you're away from home for a long time and eating strange food anything will do!). Then we went for the hour rickshaw ride to Uncles house. Had dinner with the family then slept.

Next day we were detirmined to leave the house earlier so we could see more sights and boy there are a lot of sights to see in Delhi!! Unfortunately it wasn't much of an improvement. Left early afternoon again (think this indian timing thing has rubbed off on us!! Uh Oh....) This time we saw the National Museum. Normally we aren't so fussed for Museums unless they are short and straight to the point but reading about the artifacts this museum had for so much indian history we were tempted. Took a few hours, wasn't the most interesting museum we had ever seen but we had paid 600 Rupess to see it so were going to get our moneys worth. Once we had finished it was 5pm.... all other sights were shut. Damn. So we decided to go back to Chandni Chawk and have a look around. Just as we were about to walk out from the Museum they told us to go back inside the grounds and shut the big metal gates on us. We were a bit confused but it all made sense once we realised what it was all about. The president was about to come down the street and anyone walking down the road had been pulled behind the nearest gate and all cars were diverted. Minutes later a bunch of cars with sirens and all that nonsense came through then a few mintues later we were allowed back out of our cage. We walked a few minutes then were greeted by the India Gate in all its Glory. Its one long road (we HAD to be at the opposite end of it haha!) so we walked closer and closer. Magically the sun was setting at that time so as we got closer the lights became brighter and the streets got more crowded. We had heaps of fun taking pictures that look like we are leaning on the Gate, holding it in our hands and even licking it - you can guess who did that one... :) The area around the Gate is surrounded by people selling things, some useful, souvineirs, postcards, some just plain weird, whistles, random toys and a scary animal puppett thing! After this we went back to Palika Bazaar. We had only an hour or so and we enjoyed it there so much so went back and had a look around. Got a couple more things. Then took the painful hour ride back home for some much needed dinner and sleep.

Next day, again we were detirmined to leave early! We did leave earlier but maybe not enough. We only managed to see a couple of things. We went to Raj Ghat, which is where some of the influencial people of India had their cremations and have memorials set in beautiful gardens. We saw Mahatma Ganhi's one, very serene. It is simple, a big black stone structure with flowers around it and a flame in a glass container that burns 24/7. We then went and saw Gandhi's museum. Spent about an hour or so reading about his life, very interesting. Also saw a couple of things like a bench he once sat on to make a speech, a jeep he once sat in and a remake of a cell in prison that he once was in. We then headed off to Chandni Chawk, looked around, had some lunch, saw a Sikh Museum, spent some time there, then again took the hour rickshaw ride home. But not before eating some KFC nearby! Again, comfort food. Haha. It is soo damn vegetarian here that seeing KFC is just too tempting!! The KFC's here though are really high class. The menu is all posh, they have a bar that makes all nice (non-alcoholic) drinks, the design is a dream, feels like you are in a posh restaurant and the staff! OMG I have never been served by such happy staff before! They were working so hard and were very passionate about their work. Amazing! For all of those who buy KFC in NZ you will understand why it was so amazing. Haha. Then took the hour ride home.

Next day!! Gotta keep this blog going!! We spent the morning with Uncle, had breakfast, chatted then Ameets Uncle that we met in Amritsar but lives in Faridabad, Haryana, came to pick us up. He wanted to spend the day with us before we carried on with our travels. Faridabad is about an hour drive south, the same direction our next stop is in so it worked out good. Faridabad is amazingly urbanised. There were big fancy malls, really well done roads and highways and the houses were so pretty! We rested most of the day, sat with Uncle and another Uncle and their families telling stories about our travels and helping them to understand why we are backpacking around India haha indians just don't seem to travel like this so they were quite intruiged. Evening time they wanted to take us out to a nearby mall. It was soo massive and had everthing you can dream of inside. They wanted to buy a couple of things for us and although we resisted I left with two pairs of earrings and Ameet left with some shirts. Baqsheesh they call it. Gifts for meeting family members after a long time (or in our case for the first time) Me being kiwi the concept is hard to grab haha. Back home we all had dinner together, watched some hindi comedies on tv then slept. Next morning we had an early morning train (which we almost missed by a few minutes but lucky for us it was late!!) then our next stop was Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal. But I'll have to leave you in suspense til we can access internet again :)

Til next time!
Lots of love Rachel and Ameet
xox

Dharamshala - Little Tibet

okay so the bus ride wasnt thaaat comfortable, it was a local bus thou so one of those ricckety bumpy one where the luggage is on the roof and all.the windows were always opening or closing depending on the bumps we went over and the amount of people changed at every single stop.this being an intertate bus was also doubling as a normal side street bus.so at one stop we had only 10 people,then by the next stop we were over capacity with about 50-60 people on board.occasionally there was someone selling something on the bus much like those people on the television, trying to sell things like juicers and tablecloths that would not tear.so very interesting.
dharamshala had a nice cool breeze to it as we entered the mountains.and watching the sun set over the hills was pretty amazing as well.from dharamshala we had to catch a small cab to head up the mountain, which was about 2kms away.up the mountain is a small town called mcleod ganj,the actual home of the dalai lama and the tibetian government n exhile.we found the hotel alright and spent the night with a couple of tourists,who also happened to be from nz.we found a bar and they had some shisha, so it was pretty interesting.we didnt drink anything but the other guy got himself a kingfisher and it came up to 150 rupees for a 1liter bottal.
that night we didnt sleep much as we wanted to wake up just to see the sunrise over the mountains,from our balcony we watched the sun rise over the himalayas and the buildings that littered the hillside,the light from the sun shines differently over the mountains,the glow from the clouds below casts an impressive golden-purplish light all around.but the best best part about it was the fact that there was absolute silence all around.
that day we went for a walk around the 2 streets that made up the entire mcleod ganj,a tourist hippie like place where every other person was trying to find their spirituality by some means or another,amusing for the locals as well as being very lucrative for them.so you have these people walking around buying things like tibetian bells or little figurines,hashish and crystals,clothes that look horrible on westerners and things like that.the worst was one guy who bought a stick...he bought a long stick that had no purpose whatsoever except for maybe leaning on,or poking something...so we have this weird hippie looking guy holding a stick standing in the middle of the main square looking all weird...and then...you get another weird hippie guy coming along and very happily asking,where'd you get your stick from? and then he troddles of to buy one himself...so you can see, thats why the tibetian people,monks as well as locals (who have been displaced from their country btw,something like refugees) are holding things like iphones and mini dvd player and wearing nike and things like that.really mind blowing.
mcleod ganj was a perfect getaway a well as a place to redefine yourself spiritualy, the onlly thing was we missed seeing the dalai lama by one day.but all good, it was just amazing being in the same vicinity as him.
we were there for about 3 days in total, enjoying the views and the funny people.then we left to get ourselves to shimla. the bus to shimla was an overnighter and it wasnt thaaat interesting except for the fact that we sat in front so it was pretty exhilarating.think about it, its 3 in the morning, the driver looked high, the road was less than one laned,we had a ravine on one side and a huge dirt wall on the other,and at a speed that you could never imagine a bus to be able to go at,but the cold breeze from the mountains kept us awake and fresh thru it all.
shimla is a mini england,well according to rachel at least,she's been there,to england i mean.but it was a really beautiful place,like a little european resort up in the mountains and it was very organised,having one main street where cars couldnt drive on.shimla was really clean as well,the law is such where you cant spit or throw rubbish or carry plastic bags in the city.so it was a nice change from the norm.we spent the day trying to figure out our next steps and trying to book our tickets for the next bits of our trip. that was pretty hard for us as well as the travel agent took us to a cybercafe to do his booking and then in order to pay for it all we had to find the only money changer in the entire city to change our money,then wait 30 minutes for his guy to bring a wad of cash for us.haish...india...
anyways we left with high spirits as we were going on the train to kullu which headed thru about 130 tunnels high in the mountains,althou we didnt see much as it got dark very fast. the amazing thing was that as we passed around the mountain and were going into the valley, when you look up on the other side,where the next or previous mountain was, you could see all the lights where people were living scattered on the side of the mountains,it looked like the milky way,except here on earth.that was beautifull.
from kullu we caught the night train to delhi.
next stop, the capital of India,and where all the money is being pumped into as well.