Jaisalmer Photos

Jaisalmer Fort (our hotel was in here!)

Megan on a camel!

Camel Trekking with our guide Suban

Wedding!

We had an amazing time getting married in India! Erin's sister Megan flew to Delhi where we picked her up, and then we were off to Udaipur! If you want to check out some photos, we have posted them here.

Varanasi Pics

After taking pictures of us, they invited us on their boat.... For them we were the tourist attraction ;)

Varanasi

After we left our foster family in West Bengal, we took an overnight train to the ancient city of Varanasi. The people in India have been incredibly friendly, as we've already recieved three legitimate invitations to come and stay with families in their villages! We spent an entire day on the Ganges river, walking up and down the Ghats, where we witnessed bodies being cremated right next to a pick up game of cricket! Truly wild. We visited Sarnath, where the Buddha Shakyamuni gave his first sermon, and did some shopping too! India is a tough place to travel (filthy, open sewers, and lots of noise/commotion), but for us so far has been incredibly rewarding ( beautiful people and lots of love). We were invited to take a boat ride with a big friendly group of Indians (Thanks Shiva!), and witnessed the nightly puja, or offering of thanks to Mother Ganga. What a wild place. Next we go to Delhi to pick up Megan and after that we're off to Rajastan to get hitched...... Looks like I'm going to have to save the skull bowl for another time (sorry ben and cam). Bye for now!

Makaibari

I should have put my Topens in the bank

Anjelina!

More Tibet Pictures

Gaining Merit

Cute

The Potala!

The Buddha (Gyantse)

You kinda had to be there

Tibet Pictures

The Friendship Highway... 5000 km to Beijing!

On the Road

Almost 5000 meters!

Darjeeling - Makaibari Tea Estate, Sept 5th - 7th

Namaste!
After Tibet, we spent a long travel day heading to the Makaibari Tea
Estate in Darjeeling (West Bengal, India- our last border crossing of
the trip til we're home). May not have heard of Makaibari but they
supply tea to Tazo which is distributed in the US. We stayed for
three days with an incredibly warm local family, the Lamas, who live
in a community of ~150 tea plantation workers. Darjeeling is beautiful
with the culture, language and food, a mix of Indian, Nepali and
Tibetan. The entire time we were there we drank amazing tea, ate very
well and generally just participated in the family's daily life -- a
very authentic and rewarding few days, only wish we had more time with
them. We've gotten behind in posting pictures but plan to catch up
over the next few days. Love E & W

7 Days in Tibet, Aug 29th - Sept 5th

Tashi Delek!
On August 29th we joined a group tour into Tibet, driving overland
from Kathmandu. The first four nights were spent on the road in
increasingly more developed cities as we went along: Nyalam, Lhatse,
Shigatse, Gyantse to spend the final three nights in the Tibetan
capital, Lhasa. The drives ranged in length each day from as short as
~2 hours to as long as 13 (with some unexpected delays factored in).
Absorbing the natural beauty of Tibet as we drove made the road trip
more than worthwhile: the arid Tibetan plateau, Kharala Glacier,
Emerald Lake... Needless to say we have many pictures to share (but
will be a bit before we can post as Blogspot is blocked in China). At
times we reached elevations of 19K feet, at one point on the 13 hour
travel day getting stuck at that level for several hours by road
construction!

The Tibetan people are amazing: warm, shy and beautiful, particularly
in light of the history with China. We were fortunate to join in a
midday prayer service at Drepung monastery in Lhasa- the most
inspiring religious experience of the trip.

We were also very lucky to have a great group of people in our tour.
Thanks and best of luck on the rest of your travels: Shani, Eduardo,
Lara, JB, Ben, Maggie, Lola, Axel, Hanna, Kerstin, Vera, Luis,
Catherine and Dorothee