A map of our journey. Yellow shows where we'd been already. Light blue shows where we've just been. Dark blue shows where we plan to go next. Note: Those light blue lines aren't very long. Yeah - a trip of less than 600km took 20 hours! And the math breaks down...
Christi in front of the minibus in the Ladakhi highlands. "It feels soooo good to stand up!" -she thinks. Starting at 2am, every second of the journey was the bumpiest thing imagineable, quite often involving butts flying from seats and heads hitting the ceiling!
"Oh look! A hotel. I bet it got a five-star rating."
"Ooooh, and they have a restaurant. Let's eat!"
Mama and daughter whip us up some chowmein and chai. That Israeli guy is admiring the chefs at work.
"Okay, enough of this yurt town!" Tauru cries. "Let get moving. Onward! To Leh!"
Tauru feels studly modeling his personalized attire in front of this Buddhist prayer wheel. (Ladakh is up on the Tibetan plateau, and the people are far more similar to Tibetans than Indians.)
To get in shape for this mountain we were supposed to hike with our friends (who never came), we hiked up a pretty big hill to this gompa 3 or 4 times a day. At the least, it allowed us an excuse to indulge on all the apple pie down at the bakery in town!
A Yak Fashion Weekly centerfold.
(Is that paneer or panirs around your middle, Tauru?)
The beautiful view of Leh (3500m) from the gompa (some few hundred meters higher).
Christi gives a shout out to her dad in her NY Yankees logo hat in front of the gompa.
The view from the top looking in the other direction - not much out there!
"I wonder if I could park the van somewhere down there..." Tauru contemplates. The mountain we never climbed can be seen behind him.
"Hello, stranger!" Every September, the Ladakhi people put on a big festival for tourists. You can ride a double-humped camel through town. These fellas were left around from the silk road days.
"My humps, my humps, my lovely camel lumps. Check 'em out!"
"After this festival, I promise I'll give you a whole bushel of apples and not make you do this again until next year."
"Okay! I'm doing this for the apples. And check out my beautiful mane! Tauru's hair ain't got nothin' on mine. I'll be on the cover of next months issue of Yak Fashion Weekly!"
All that talk about apples made Christi hungry. "One kilo, please!"
She's shopping at the Ladakhi SuperFresh.
It was time to leave the Himalaya and return to sticky India. The only road trip worse than our ride to Leh was our ride from Leh. We were stuck in the back of a Jeep. Imagine sharing the space behind the back seat of a Jeep Cherokee with four people. Now imagine bumping up and down like that for 20 hours. Now imagine that you're at 5000m and shivering. Now imagine that you get a flat tire and have to stand in the rain while the driving borrows a jack from a random guy on the road and fixes it. Yeah- it was intense!
Oh, the road to India. Wasn't it just a month ago we were lounging on a beach in Thailand?
From Delhi, we went to Pushkar and Udaipur in the Rahjastan region. MORE TEMPLES!! Aagh! So here are some photos and videos that we thought were fun and better than images of temples. We will fly to Cairo, Egypt on September 23rd -- so stay tuned for Pyramids!!
Here's a camel-drawn cart in the streets of Pushkar, which is out in the desert region of India. Kind of strange seeing them in town pulling carts...
Pushkar's bus station... are those cows waiting for the bus, too?
Whoa!!! Whoa! Elephants? Here's a video...
More of the bus station in Pushkar. No, I don't think these cows are waitin' for a shave.
But Tauru is! For just under $0.50, how can Tauru refuse!
Video of Tauru's $0.50 deal...
A nice veggie cart at the bus station...
From Pushkar, we went to Udaipur... here's a view of it.
Update: October 3, 2008 Aswan, Egypt -- Pyramids in Cairo!
India was just TOOOO DARN cluttered ...so it was off to Egypt as we slowly made our way around the world. From Delhi, we flew to Cairo via Bahrain and spent a couple of days there before making our way down to Aswan. We arrived in Egypt during Ramadan (ended Sept 30th-ish) and so getting food was difficult. During Ramadan (a whole month), Muslims fast all day long ...so breakfast is at 6pm! Now, we all know Tauru cannot go without eating THAT LONG!!
It's been 20 months total since we've been on the road. Red lines are our trail in N. America and Asia; dashed blue lines are our flights over the Pacific and from India to Egypt.
In Bahrain's airport as we transit through, Christi meets the Muslim version of OB1-Kenobi. This is the garb for Muslim women. Incidently, Bahrain's airport was REALLY nice -- couldn't help but think that it was all (or mostly) US money from oil. So every time an American buys a gallon of gas, money trickles into countries in the Middle East like Bahrain. Our Foreign Policy depends on oil.
In Cairo, we came across this place. WOW!!! Hmmm, ...ymmmmm. It was during Ramadan (where most or all Muslim restaurants were closed) ...and this was one of the places that was open. Who is that in front ...just under the "H". Well... that's Christi. She's been wanting Pizza Hut since Beijing back in March.
Yeah, she's definitely been wanting pizza for some time now. Tauru was just a little disappointed when he realized there'd be NO PORK on the pizza (Muslim country -- if they only knew what they were missing!). "God Bless America and Pork!"
Cairo life...
Finally, the Pyramids of Egypt! Just out of Cairo, these three pyramids were HUGE! Here's Tauru in front of the Great Pyramid (just over 500 ft tall). This one is 4600 years-old. Tauru still thinks aliens built these pyramids.
Here's the Second Pyramid -- it still has limestone at the top. Over the millenia, people stripped limestone from these pyramids to make palaces, mosques, etc...
Video: The Pyramids.
Camel. Wanna ride?
Tauru touching the top of the Second Pyramid.
Tauru roaming the desert.
Christi walking like an Egyptian.
Unfortunately, the sun was behind the Sphinx, but you can see the silhouette here. Tauru asked the Sphinx a riddle: "What magical animal can be bacon, ham, chops, sausages, tenderloin, AND ribs?"
Video: The Sphinx.
Back in Cairo, Christi enjoys a glass of fresh mango juice (with juicy chunks of mango in it!). Mango pants to match the drink.
Tauru's Arabic lesson: How to count from 1 to 5 in Arabic.
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