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That last line in the last post was all part of our plot to keep our parents clueless about our surprise arrival today! And clueless they were. Shocked, confused, and overjoyed. Brian, Kate, and Aria picked us up from the airport to take us home. It's a good and long-awaited day.

The travels have left us relishing memories and experiences. We are satisfied and ready to be home. So, thus ends the blog. Thanks for reading and keeping in touch.

Much love,

Andrew and Kristin

Trains

We woke up at 5 and took a shared jeep 3 hours to the train station.
It took about an hour for the jeep to fill and then we were off on the
beautiful drive down the mountain. Women waded through seas of green
as they furiously picked tea leaves. Everything looks so magically
beautiful with the striking contrast of green and sudden bursts of
bright colors flowing from women's saris. Even while breaking rocks
with sledge hammers (which is often seen on the road side) women wear
the saris and jewelry.

The train from Darjeeling to New Delhi would have been our longest
train experience yet, so we decided to pay a little more money and
travel on the express train. The Rajdhani Express makes less stops
and serves meals, tea, and snacks for free.

It was our nicest Indian train experience. The food was an Indian
version of airplane food, but it was filling and good. Plus free
water bottles! No steady procession of salemen and people asking for
food or money. Overall it was quieter and clean. The route took us
through rural areas with fields of rice and swollen tributaries. The
remoteness and hardships of rural Indian life is apparent even from a
window of a passing train. Terraced rice fields, banana tree
plantations, and green ponds reflecting clouds lined in water lilies.
Muscular buffalos. People farming and squatting. Always the beautiful
sari colors. The landscapes were rich in beauty.

We have a brief Delhi interlude before heading down south.

Last Day in Darjeeling

During the day it is usually foggy, making it a treat to glimpse the
mountains surrounding Darjeeling. But, we woke up early one morning
and the higher clouds were leaving the peaks in clear view. The
rising sun was a fiery orange throwing soft pinks against the
iridescent white of the Himalayas. This lasts some brief moments, but
it is breathtaking.

We've been going on little walks around the city often in the late
mornings after it warms up. One steep and long trail took us to a
gompa or a Buddist temple. The temple is perched on the edge of the
mountain surrounded by tall green trees and flower bushes. The
shifting fog added to the mystery. The temple is brightly painted as
if by set of 6 magic markers. Prayer wheels and sun-bleached and wind-
torn prayer flags surrounded the temple.

On our way back we tried a delicious new snack: chips made of smashed
chickpeas coated in salt, chili powder, and lime. It's soooo good!
We are surprised we can still find new foods and snacks and be so
impressed. Then we sat and watched a monkey family. They are so
entertaining to watch while jumping and hanging from everything. It's
wild how similar their faces and fingers are to ours. Maybe that is
why they never cease to capture our attention.

We found a place that sells "real coffee" as advertised. It's been a
familiar comfort and a regular stop in our days.

We've leave on an overnight train back to Delhi tomorrow.

Momos

We think we've mentioned momos a few times (only every post from
Darjeeling). Last night, we found the tastiest, most savory momos
around. We walked into a hole-in-the-wall restaurant, which looked
more like someone's house with a dining area connected to a kitchen.
We sat down in plastic chairs at the plastic table, covered in white
and red plastic tablecloth. And sat unnoticed. For about 10 minutes.
It wasn't busy. There were 3 Nepalese men sharing a small bottle of
whisky at the table next to us. It was them who alerted the owner of
our presence.

There were no momos, but the woman/cook offered to cook them up for
us, though it would take a while. We said yes but quickly wished we
hadn't. During the waiting time, a rat scurried in from outside and
made some hasty runs through the kitchen. Then a furry black dog
poked his snout through the door crack, opened the door, and walked
about the small room. We tried to remain distracted by our books. We
have been in these types of situations too many times in this trip.
There are 3 possible results (all extreme):

1. We eat (the food is ok) and wake up very sick.
2. The food tastes horrible.
3. The food tastes delicious.

We relished the momos (number 3) so much that we split seconds. The
dinner was tasty and cheap. We had a conversation with the Nepalese
men. Not really a conversation but there was some communication.

Darjeeling and the Zoo

Darjeeling is a great place to recover from the exhausting and
sometimes debilitating intensity of the other Indian cities we have
visited. It is quiet and some streets are pedestrian only. Believe
it. Pedestrian only. The weather cool which makes our long forgotten
fleeces (at bottom of our bags for almost 4 months) extremely
comfortable. There are lots of little shops and cafes to explore.
And we've been reading a lot. A sweet Nepalese family owns and
manages the hotel we are staying in. It has internet, a library, and
a restaurant, so we can easily just move around in our pyjamas
(pyjamas is a Hindi word by the way). We've decided to stay for about
a week here and just enjoy ourselves. Darjeeling is the first place
we have stayed more than 3 nights for the last 4 months.

Yesterday morning we woke to knocking on our door. The Nepalese man
wanted us to come to the rooftop to see "the mountain". Also, he has
been greetings us in the mornings saying "good morning balance" which,
we have gathered, is because he thinks we are a good balance unlike
other couples where one "talks talks talks" (hand signals included)
and the other just sits there (sad face).

It has been cloudy and misty and the views are often obstructed, but
for brief moments we gaze in wonder at the crisp snow-capped peaks of
some of the Himalaya's giants, including the third-highest mountain in
the world. The name is long and starts with a K.

Then we went to the zoo. It is small, but packed with Himalayan
fauna, such as, the Himalayan black bear, wolves, black and snow
leopards, red pandas, Indian tigers, and more. Next to the zoo is the
Everest Museum which showcases news articles and trekking gear from
famous climbers of Mt. Everest, including of course, Tenzing Norgay
and Sir Edmund Hillary. It's as close as we will ever come to Mt.
Everest. Never know. But probably.

On the way back we sampled some side stall savoury snacks served in a
newspaper cone. It was like Indian trail mix.

Varanasi to Darjeeling

Varanasi is a pilgrimmage site for Hindi people. One of the seven
sacred cities in the Hindu religion. People come to wash themselves
and throw offerings into the Ganges river. Our hotel overlooked one
of the ghats, which is a place where stairs enter the river for people
to bathe. Many throw colorful flowers into the water. Some ghats are
cremation ghats where bodies are cremated in public. We did not see
this. We only saw men in the water. And buffalo.

Varanasi is full of cafes, eateries, tailors, and shops selling music,
scarves, jewelry, and other souveneirs. These shops and cafes are
linked in a maze of narrow alleyways full of wandering cows, fighting
monkeys, lazy dogs, and people. We saw many people kissing their
hands and then touching the cows. Yesterday we took a 29 hour train to
NJP, a junction center in northern West Bengal. The train had a
constant procession of people selling
tea/coffee/snacks/toys/books/massagers/scarves/etc. Children in torn
dirty clothing would hop on the train and circulate asking for money.
Once a man without legs came through. So many sad and shocking sights.

Later...

Our train to Darjeeling was canceled, so we jumped on a land cruiser
and drove 2 1/2 hours along the switchbacks of mountain ridges and
through tea plantations at the base of foothills and multiple
waterfalls. It is gorgeous! So fiercely green and misty. As we
ascended we were driving through clouds. The car stopped along the
way for a snack break of delicious momos (Tibetan dumplings). Finally
the sun broke through and we were above the clouds in a hill station
town of Darjeeling. Darjeeling is above 2000 meters high. The air is
crisp and clean. It is quiet and beautiful. The city stretches over
the side of a mountain with tea plantations and the tallest of the
Himalayas in the horizon. Most people are Nepalese or Tibetan, which
means noodle and dumpling dishes. It is superbly relaxing.

To Varanasi

We enjoyed a relaxing few days in Jodhpur. We were the first
foreigners (and only) guests at a very very friendly guesthouse.
Friendly in the slightly irritating way. We got a lot of
attention...like calls on the phone at 7:00 am or 9:30 (asleep both
times) and knocks on the door sometimes just to say hello or to offer
us water every couple hours. All things considered the family and
helpers where incredibly sweet and helpful.

The day before yesterday we took a sleeper train to Varanasi. It was
a marathon 29 hours long (we gathered the delays were due to problems
with the brakes or "vacuum"). We slept in a 3-tier carriage with a/c.
There was also sleeper trains and chair class below us. The
airconditioning was nice but for 29 hours almost nothing would be
confortable. The room had 8 beds in it. It was clean, as was
the squatty toilet with the exception of a few small rogue cockroaches
The people around us were friendly and nice, and we had some good
discussions with them about Indian politics and culture. One man
bought us tea from the circulating tea-man. Part way through a young
girl and her husband joined our room. As the train pulled away she
had tears streaming down her face and her mother was running with the
window of our carriage until she couldn't anymore. We found out that
she was leaving her parental home after a visit. When a woman leaves
the parental home, she paints the tips of her fingers with henna. She
offered excitedly to paint Kristin's too. It was a fun and bonding
experience.

Train stations are another world. A sort of purgatory. Young boys
walk around reparing zippers or shining shoes for money. Young girls
and old men and women
walk around begging for money, often making gestures to their
mouththat they are hungry. People sleep on the floors, and often we
find ourselves weaving through them to walk. Have they been there for
days? Weeks? Mangy dogs roam around eating trash and pooping
everywhere. It smells bad and flies are everywhere. It's all in your
face, and crazy. Once you get on the right train, and it begins to
move, a weight is lifted off you. The experience for locals we
imagine is much different.

We arrived to Varanasi yesterday. After a wild trip on a rickshaw, we
arrived to our guesthouse on the Ganges River.

Today we have explored some of the back-alleys. The alleys are too
small for cars, which is great, so it is quieter and less intense.
Still enough room for cows, and motorcycles and bicycles
unfortunately.

The shopkeepers are not as aggressive. It is one of the more mellow
places we have been in India. Smells are fragrent and pleasant at
times, and the calm but massive river adds to the peacefulness. Maybe
we are starting to understand the peace travelers talk about when
coming to India. Maybe?