India/Nepal Trip - Part 2

Jan 5 - Wow - what a day! After a very early (and utterly frigid) train ride to Agra, we went to see the Red Fort, one of the biggest attractions in India. A massive and beautiful structure with a fascinating history, it really was quite impressive. I'm not usually a fort kind of girl, but I really enjoyed our visit. After a nice lunch (an eggplant dish with naan), we headed to the biggest attraction of all - the Taj Mahal. While the insane crowds there were a bit overwhelming and frustrating, it still lived up to all the hype. Amazing. Afterwards, we had a free evening to wander the area and relax.

Jan 6 - Caught yet another morning train to the small town of Orchha. After dropping our stuff off at the hotel (where we were assigned to sleep in the fanciest "tents" I've ever seen), we headed to the Raja Mahal, and beautiful palace that we all agreed was actually our favorite so far. It was particularly special because there were only a few other tourists there, so we basically had the place to ourselves, a true rarity in India! In addition to very impressive architecture, it had extremely well preserved 16th century fresco paintings and a resident population of monkeys that weren't the least bit scared of people. After a chai break, we had free time to explore the town a bit before going to an interesting Hindu ceremony at a local temple. We had a cheap and delicious dinner and beers at a restaurant nearby and went back to the hotel "tents" to continue the evening into the wee ours of the morning. Very fun night!

Jan 7 - Best day yet! We had a free morning, which most people (myself included) spent sleeping in, then we rented bikes and rode around the area. We toured a local NGO that makes recycled paper from cloth scraps, visited a small poor community, and saw a family farm. As our guide put it, "this is the real India." While it made me really miss The Gambia (the similarities were striking), I feel incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to have had those experiences. It's not always easy to get out and see that sort of thing as a tourist, but it's something I was really hoping would be possible. After returning our bikes, we stopped for chai and a big of shopping, then headed back to a local woman's home for a cooking lesson and dinner. In a homey, authentic setting, she showed us how to make masala chai tea, vegetable pakora (fried vegetable and chickpea flour dumplings), chana masala (chickpea curry), rice pulao (friend rice with vegetables), guava chutney with cilantro, boordi raita (yogurt sauce) and puri (puffy bread served at special occasions here). My favorites were the chana masala and guava chutney. I look forward to making them at home. After dinner, we headed to the train station to catch an overnight train to the holy city of Varanasi.

Jan 8 - We got an upgrade on our train, so to use a British-ism, last night's train ride was "heaps" better than the last one. Once we got to Varanasi, we spent the day exploring the city and shopping at a silk shop with our guide, then we went down to the Ganges river in the evening. The river really comes alive in the evening with people doing everything from playing cricket or flying kites to conducting cremations and other Hindu rituals. We went out on a boat on the river and, while being entertained by traditional musicians, lit candles on tiny leaf and flower rafts, made wishes, set them afloat on the river, and watched our wishes twinkle away. The whole experience was hard to put into words, but it was incredible.

Jan 9 - We were supposed to do a sunrise boat ride on the Ganges today, but it was too foggy to see the sunrise, so we slept in, had a nice breakfast and went for a mid-morning boat trip instead. Two of the guys in our group and our guide took advantage of the opportunity to take a dip in the holy river to cleanse themselves of their sins. Given the level of excrement, human ashes, trash, and general filth in the river, I opted to pass. Afterwards, we wandered the city for a while longer on our own (getting lost, naturally), did a bit more shopping, and prepared for our impending12-hour bus ride to Nepal...

India/Nepal Trip - Part 1

After a wonderful two weeks in Thailand with my parents (pictures to come once Dad gets them up), Jacob headed to France to start language classes and I flew to India to see a little more of Asia before meeting him in France. As this is my first solo non-work trip, and I have heard India can be rather overwhelming for first-time visitors, I opted for an organized tour with GAP Adventures. The trip started in Delhi, then we will be working our way towards the Nepalese border, crossing into Nepal, and finally finishing up in Kathmandu. Time and internet permitting over the next couple weeks, I will post updates (and pictures if you all are really lucky, but don't hold your breath). Here's what I've done so far in 2012:

Jan 1 - New Year's last night in Chiang Mai (northern Thailand) was really special. Nowhere else I would rather have been. Paper balloon lanterns and fireworks were beautiful. Happy 2012!! Thankfully not too tired this morning. Got up early for a cooking class. Made Panang Chicken Curry and Tom Kha Gai soup - my favorites! Unfortunately the results weren't quite as tasty as I'd hoped, but it was certainly operator error, so I guess that just means I need more practice. Definitely an interesting class though and I'm glad I got a chance to do it. Left Mom, Dad, Daniel and Jacob at the class and headed to the airport. Small airport, well run, so I got there way too early, but better safe than sorry, right? Uneventful flight to Bangkok. Found free internet kiosks in the international terminal of the Bangkok airport. Awesome. Relatively uneventful flight to Delhi, minus the airplane food not agreeing with me. The first thing I did upon arriving in India was throw up in the airport bathroom (sorry if that's TMI). An auspicious start to the trip, right? Found my airport transfer guy without any trouble, got to the hotel, and crashed.

Jan 2 - Freezing and no heat in the hotel, but I was tired enough that I slept fine anyways. Thought about exploring the area, but most things are closed on Mondays here and it didn't seem like the greatest neighborhood, so I opted to stay in, relax, and watch TV all morning instead. I'll have plenty of time for exploring later when I'm not alone anymore. Had our trip orientation at 2pm. Seems like a good group. 13 people and a local guide. People from Australia, UK, Denmark and US. Mix of couples, friends and single travellers. Took the subway with the group to see the "India Gate" (which wasn't particularly exciting). The subway was crowded but not as bad as I expected. They had separate men's and women's cars, which is actually pretty nice, particularly because there aren't many women on the trains, so the women's care are less crowded. Had a good group dinner (chicken and veggie dishes, rice, naan/roti, and Kingfisher beer) and made it an early night.

Jan 3 - Had to be up super early to catch an early morning train to Jaipur. Managed to get in a hot shower beforehand, which was nice. Getting on the train was pretty nuts. I'd hate to see the train station at rush hour. Uneventful train ride, arrived in Jaipur late morning. Took a rather harrowing tuk-tuk ride (motorbike pulling a seat for passengers) to our hotel, dropped off our stuff and headed out for lunch. Explored the city all afternoon with stops for chai tea and snacks, then had the opportunity to experience a Bollywood movie in an authentic Bollywood theatre. Even though it was mostly in Hindi, we were able to follow the plot decently well. For the most part, the movie was a surprisingly typical action flick. There was less singing and dancing than I expected, although our guide informed us there usually is more. The Indians in the audience still got really into it though! Maybe it's just because I hadn't seen a movie in a movie theatre for more than two years (!), but actually really enjoyed it. Fun experience.

Jan 4 - Had a leisurely morning and headed to the Amber Fort a little after 9am. Afterwards, had a nice lunch (lentil soup and garlic naan for me), then visited the Windy Palace and the Observatory and wandered the city. Quite interesting, but we were all pretty wiped by late afternoon. Headed back to the hotel to rest for an hour or two. About to go meet for an early dinner before making it an early night in preparation for another early morning train tomorrow to Agra. More to come later!

Next stop - Thailand!

After a wonderful whirlwind week in Vietnam, we head back to Bangkok tomorrow to meet up with my parents and brother for a bike tour in Thailand. I can't wait! :-)

Check out my new Vietnam pictures at the same link I posted before (new pics added on to the end of the album) - https://picasaweb.google.com/sgardiner84/Vietnam?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJm5ltTpv8Xldw&feat=directlink

Oh and in case I don't get a chance to post again before Christmas/New Years...Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy New Years, etc!! We're thinking about all our friends and family and looking forward to spending the holiday season with you all next year.

Vietnam pics

Hey everyone!

We arrived safely in Vietnam and have been having a great time so far. I posted some pictures at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/sgardiner84/Vietnam?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJm5ltTpv8Xldw&feat=directlink

I'll try to post more pictures whenever I can. Enjoy :-)

Looking forward...

First, thanks so much to everyone who has supported us over the past two years of our service, whether by reading this blog, sending us mail, or simply by keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. From the bottom of our hearts...thank you. It means more than I can say to know that out of sight is not out of mind and you all have not forgotten about us while we have been on the other side of the world. This has been an incredible and life-changing experience for both of us, and we could not have done it without all of your support.

That said, our adventure is far from over. For the next two weeks, we will be hanging out in the capital, wrapping up various administrative stuff for Peace Corps, packing our things, and submitting our applications for graduate school. Jacob is applying to public policy and international affairs programs, and I am applying to public health and international development programs, all in the DC and NYC areas. After that, we will fly to Vietnam, spend about a week there, meet my parents and my brother in Bangkok, and spend the following couple weeks doing a bike tour of Thailand with them (hopefully not keeling over trying to keep up with them after two years of minimal real exercise and relatively poor nutrition). After that, I will fly to Delhi and do a tour of northern India and Nepal. Jacob will fly directly to Normandy, France and start French language classes. I will meet him there when the India/Nepal trip is over. After that it gets a bit fuzzier, but our priority is to pack in as much French language immersion as possible before the end of May, when we head back to the States. We're planning on doing a bit of a US country tour June-August before (hopefully) starting grad school in either DC or NYC in the fall. Whew! We'll be in touch as that time approaches - we want to see as many of you next summer as possible :-)

I'm not sure how much we'll have a chance to post pictures or write blog posts over the next 6 months, but we'll try, so check in every now and then if you think of it. Otherwise, thanks again and we look forward to seeing all of you in the not-so-distant future!

Reflections

I haven't made any particularly reflective posts in a while, perhaps because everything is becoming so commonplace now, or maybe just because I'm getting lazy :-) Anyways, here are two topics I've been pondering lately:

1) Fear of losing one's job makes people work harder and is one of the things that makes economies tick. When people have no fear of losing their job, whether it's because socially and culturally they know their boss won't fire them, or because their employer doesn't have the desire or ability to enforce consequences for low performance, they don't do their best quality work. This is certainly a problem here, but it is definitely not problem limited to the developing world. Ten points to anyone who knows the example I'm thinking of in the US...

2) Inability to get student loans is a major barrier to obtaining higher education here. Higher education, while hugely valuable, is expensive. There are a few scholarships available here (if you know the right people), but the only place to get loans is from banks, which charge astronomical interest rates (due to high default rates and inability to reclaim losses). Bank loans also often require guarantors, which are hard to come by around here. As a result, many smart, motivated young people seek full scholarship programs to study abroad...and never come back home. This has made me realize exactly how important student loan programs are to building the human capital of a country.

Thoughts/comments welcome.

Event with the President, Tobaski and Saying Goodbye

It's been an insane last couple months, which, among other things, included a celebration at the President's residence for Peace Corps' 50th Anniversary, Tobaski (one of the biggest Muslim holidays) and wrapping up our service. That's right, believe it or not, our time here is coming to a close. Peace Corps came to pick us up from our site on Monday, and now we will be hanging out in the capital for two weeks or so before flying to Asia. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Here are the pics:



Peace Corps/US Embassy motorcade heading into the president's residence


Welcoming band

Walking in

Lunch

What's a Gambian program without a good dance party?

Gambian soldiers presenting the flags (Gambian, American, and Peace Corps)

Hanging up the flags

Yes, that's me shaking hands with His Excellency himself!

Some of the boys showing off their fancy outfits the President gave them

Transition to Tobaski in our village. Our village and the neighboring village gathering on the traditional prayer grounds.

Getting ready to butcher one of the many rams that were sacrificed. Not for the faint of heart.

Aminata making ebey

Mariama

Everyone wants to get in on the butchering action

Cucheng and her friends/sisters

Amie and SeedyFo looking fly

Mmmm...organ stew

Transition to Jacob's going-away party at the Community Health Nursing school. Some of the girl students making wonjo (bissap) juice.

Female staff members cooking

Awww...

Speeches


Soma Major Health Center staff waiting by the road to greet the President as he came by on his election tour. Green is the President's color and the neem leaves are often used to show support for him.


He's coming!

Fatou braiding my hair one last time :-/

My going-away party at the Health Center