We're Back!

Here’s a map of our trip, so you can know where exactly we were for almost a month!

India was amazing. It was overwhelming and frustrating, but also awesome in the truest sense of the word. We arrived in Delhi and were bombarded with everything: smells, requests for money and food, endless honking, cold and fog. Some highlights from Delhi include:

-Old Delhi

Jama Masjid, the largest and best-known mosque in India

-Qutb Minar

-Our first taste of delicious food to come throughout the trip
-Everywhere we went: more and more people, and honking

After a few days in Delhi we took a 7am train to Agra. Getting on the train was quite the experience. The train pulled up and there was a mad dash by hundreds of people to cram into the cars. We had to run down 7 or 8 train cars to find ours and then push our way through a crowd of people pushing in every direction just to reach our car door. Once inside the car, people had boarded from both sides without knowing where their seats are so there was a jam of people in the narrow aisle, everyone with luggage, and no one making any concessions to let people through. Anyway, we finally made it to our seats and slept and read for the 3-3.5 hour ride to Agra.

The Taj Mahal is incredible. It’s hard to put into words. Everyone has seen pictures, but standing in front of it is indescribable. It’s beautiful.

Taj Mahal:

Close up:

The following day (we were only there 1 night), we were both starting to get sick so we sat on the roof of our hotel (with a view of the Taj Mahal) and drank tea and read all day until it was time for our train that evening.

Here's a video from the roof of our hotel:


When we arrived at the station for our train to Jaipur we realized our train was 8 hours late (supposed to leave at 5:45pm but not going to arrive until almost 2am) – and we were told that it would likely be later than that. Instead of waiting for our very delayed train, we found a car and arrived at our hotel in Jaipur by 10:30pm.

Jaipur was great, but we were both sick so we took it easy. Everyone always hears and talks about the unavoidable Delhi-belly while travelling in India, but we were both fine stomach-wise the entire trip. We both caught colds somewhere along the way because it was colder than we were expecting and hadn’t brought enough warm clothing with us. We were in Jaipur for Christmas, and the big highlight was buying textiles. Jaipur is known for their textiles, and we bought some for ourselves and gifts for our families.

Showing us how the block printing is done:

A finished block printed textile:

After Jaipur, we took a train back to Delhi where we stayed for 1 day before catching a flight to Bagdogra. Bagdogra is the nearest airport (and it’s very small) to Darjeeling. From there we took a car up to Darjeeling. It was about a 3-4 hour drive up a huge mountain with great views, lots of switchbacks, and not a great road. I was expecting to get carsick, but never did! We also shared the car with a Buddhist nun from Scotland, Kay, who was preparing to do a month-long solitary meditation at a temple there. She does a lot of this kind of meditation – her longest time was 9 months without seeing or speaking to another person!

Darjeeling was beautiful, and a nice change after the hustle and bustle of the Golden Triangle (Delhi-Agra-Jaipur, called that because so many tourists visit those three – and they form a triangle on a map). It was very clear (but cold) 5 of the 6 days we were there so we had great views of Kachenjunga almost our entire trip:

In Darjeeling, we visited the Happy Valley Tea Estate, the Himalayan Zoological Park (the highest altitude zoo in the world!) and the Himalyan Mountaineering Institute. Tenzing Norgay was part of the team to first summit Mt. Everest, along with Edmund Hillary in 1953. He lived most of his life in Darjeeling, and was the first director of field training for HMI.

After a 3-4 hour car ride down the mountain on a very windy bad road, we took a 7 hour train to Guwahati in Assam where we stayed for the night before taking another 4 hour car ride to Kaziranga National Park. We arrived mid-afternoon and met Jacob’s aunt and uncle, Anya and Joe, when they arrived around 10pm that night. Kaziranga was great, we went on a couple game drives, did a lot of bird watching, went on an early morning elephant ride where we went right up to a mom rhino with her calf, and took walks in the nearby villages.

Our elephant ride:

Here's a video of the mom rhino with her calf:


Here's a video we talk on one of our walks, school was out for the day and these kids were playing in the street:


From Kaziranga we went to stay on a tea plantation in Balipara. We stayed there for the next few days and went on lots of walks, went to tea plantations, explored a local market, and went to a few different local villages for meals. Assam is a beautiful and diverse place, and it was great to meet people and learn more about the history of the area.

Jacob, after he tried the ghost pepper:

We flew from Guwahati to Calcutta and spent the last 4 days of our trip touring the city. We were with Anya and Joe for this part of the trip as well and went to one of Joe’s talks. Anya had arranged the same tour guide she had used when she was in Calcutta in November with her parents, and he did a great job showing us around the city for 2 full days. Here are some pictures from our time exploring Calcutta:

Flower market:

A Calcutta street:


It was wonderful spending time with Anya and Joe, and it was amazing to see so many different sides of India on our trip. We drank (and came back with) lots of tea, read a lot, and came to appreciate many aspects of our lives, and the life we’ve created in Bangkok. On our flight back, we talked about what a remarkable time we had in India, but were both very much looking forward to getting back to Thailand.

After returning from India we had a couple days to rest, then Jacob’s parents, Eloise and Alan, arrived in Thailand for a weeklong vacation. We had a great time showing them around Bangkok, and it was fun being tourists in Thailand with them. The first day we went to a couple different tailors and we each placed orders for a few items. Jacob and I hadn’t done this yet, but in certain areas of downtown Bangkok there are blocks and blocks of tailor after tailor. We consulted Trip Advisor to pick the ones we used, and were very satisfied with the final products.

Jacob's fitting:

View from our hotel:

The next day we went to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. We had a guide at the Grand Palace and it was pretty spectacular. Jacob and I had put off going because we knew we would go when Eloise and Alan were in town. Wat Pho was also amazing, it’s known for the Reclining Buddha, which is 15 m (49 feet) high and 43 m (141 feet) long. It’s also known as the home of one of the earliest Thai massage schools. Jacob and Eloise both got foot massages when we visited.

At the Grand Palace:

Wat Pho:

The next day we took a flight to Chiang Mai and spent two great days exploring the city. We went to an elephant show (the elephants played harmonicas, kicked soccer balls, and painted landscapes!) and on an elephant ride, played with tigers, visited a hilltop temple, walked around a huge night market, and bought jewelry and antiques. It was a wonderful two days with cooler weather (and it wasn’t humid either!) than we had in Bangkok, and this is when Alan started talking about retiring in Thailand! :-)

Here are some pictures from Chiang Mai:

A video of elephants playing soccer!


We returned to Bangkok for 2 more days and spent some time getting fittings for our tailored clothes, relaxing riverside at our hotel, and in a sky bar (31st floor with great views of the city!), exploring Bangkok’s Chinatown during Chinese New Year, going on a dinner cruise down the river, eating lunch at the Mandarin Oriental, and visiting the Jim Thompson House. It was great spending time with Eloise and Alan and we’re glad they had such a great time here. Watch out everyone, they might be moving here in a few years!

I haven’t sorted the hundreds of pictures from India or our Thailand travels, but will get them up eventually and send another update with info about what Jacob and I are up to now that all the excitement is over, and we’re back to regular life.

We miss everyone, let us know how you’re doing!