Day 4: Leh

The plan for day one in Let was to acclimate to the high, high, high altitude and not get sick. Leh is at 11,483 feet. To put that in perspective:

Breckenridge is at 9,600 feet.

Cusco, Peru, is at 11,152 feet.

Machu Picchu is at 7,972 feet.

Those are some of the highest places I've been previously. Once you're over 9,000 feet, they tell you to take it pretty easy to acclimate. Altitude is no joke.

The tricky part is that as soon as we landed in Leh, ALL WE WANTED TO DO WAS EXPLORE. Man, this place is AWESOME. Beautiful, high, dry, sandy, surrounded by snowcapped mountains and monasteries. Buddhist monks walk around in red robes and New Balance sneakers. The local shop owners are SO POLITE.

"Hey! How are you? Have a nice day!" instead of "You need to buy this from me now."

Our hotel, which was FABULOUS, was right across from one of the many Buddhist monuments, called Gomang Stupa, and very close to one of the monasteries, this one not ancient, built in the 2000s. We were very close to one of the main roads, which was being re-done while we were there. Like 10 men, a cement mixer, shovels, and a steam roller managed to complete the whole road in the 3 days we were there. Super impress.

So what did we do this first day in Leh?

Well, we started out resting and drinking water. Then we ate the hotel breakfast, which was delicious. They served us yummy fresh apple juice and put scarves around our necks when we first arrived, waaaay before check-in time, at 9:30 a.m. They immediately put us in our room, no extra charge, and invited us to breakfast. That's how great this place was.

After breakfast, we drank more water and rested more and Taylor turned on Indian news. Then we went for a walk around Gomang Stupa. Then we drank more water and rested more. Then Taylor really, really, really wanted to climb to the monastery near us, but I insisted that wasn't a good idea, because HELLO, ALTITUDE. 11,483 feet is no joke, guys. So we ate some lunch at a nearby restaurant and he tried the local veggie-noodle broth called thukpa and I tried clear broth soup. Both were pretty good.

Then we went back to the hotel and they gave us tea and cookies. Then I decided since the hotel offered oxygen, I wanted to try it, so we got some oxygen and met a fellow American named Melissa who had been traveling around India on business, but decided to take a few days trip to Leh because the locals highly recommend it. We invited her to dinner with us, and we wandered around Leh trying to find this mysterious place called Bon Appetite that the hotel owners told us was one of the few places in Leh that served alcohol.

We ended up going around a weird path, not finding Bon Appetite, but instead going to a place that offered bonfires, called KC's. They served alcohol! So we sat around a bonfire, sipping wine and eating naan bread. Was a pretty great night.

We walked home reeking of burning wood, staring up at the sky where you could actually see the Milky Way, and were in bed by 11.

What was supposed to be an easy, chill day was jampacked with awesome, and neither one of us threw up due to altitude sickness. Success!

Day 3: Agra

Our wakeup call for Day 3 wasn’t quite as terrible: we got up at 6 am to catch a train at 8 am. Wendy caught us a taxi outside the school and told him to please drive fast because we were running a little late and the man did WORK. We got to the station with 25 minutes to spare.

We had first class tickets, which apparently means we got fed. What? The food just kept coming. First they gave us toast and cornflakes, then some sort of curry, then steamed milk for our cornflakes, then tea. I was in awe. They started the whole thing off with a rose. Yes, they gave everyone a rose. I was impressed.

When we got to Agra, the driver and guide Evan and Wendy had arranged for us were waiting. Our guide was CK, and he was great. He took us to the Taj Mahal, of course, which I wanted to see because, duh, it's the Taj Mahal, but oh my goodness, was it stunning. Pictures do NOT do it justice. It’s seriously like a castle in the clouds.

CK also took tons of pictures of us and made us do a ton of cheesy poses, which was pretty amusing.

From the Taj Mahal, we went to Agra Fort, which was HUGE. I had no idea it was so huge. It was pretty awesome, but not as beautiful as the Taj Mahal, of course.

After Agra Fort, CK took us to a restaurant. I was a bit skeptical because it was called Bon Barbecue. Barbecue in India? Um, OK.

GUYS. It was AWESOME. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet, but it started with tons and tons of appetizers, which came out on kebob sticks and were set on grill on our table. I stupidly didn’t take any pictures of the appetizers, which I think were the best part. There was spicy mutton, chicken, chicken wings, chickpeas, shrimp, pineapple, these DELICIOUS fries cover in some sort of spicy sauce (my fave, of course), some sort of chickpea patty…I can’t even remember it all. It just kept coming and coming and was so good that by the time we went for our main course, I was already stuffed.

After lunch, CK took us around to some of his friends' shops. We were totally not gonna buy anything, but once we saw how the marble and carpets are made, we had to. I guess that’s why they show you the process.

From there, we went to the train station and rode the train back to Delhi. And they kept feeding us again. We got home around 8, then packed for our flight to Leh the next morning. Yay for another 4 am wakeup call, right?

Jaipur: Elephants and Monkeys, Oh My!

I'm sitting in our hotel in Leh, adjusting to an altitude of 11K+ feet, so this seems like a grand time to write a blog post. The problem is we’ve done so much since I wrote the last one at 2 am Sunday I don’t even know where to start.

We took a taxi from the American Embassy School to the airport to catch our flight to Jaipur. SO MANY PEOPLE were outside on the green median on the way to the airport. Delhi is seriously like the city that never sleeps. Kids were playing games, men were doing yoga, friends were socializing. I saw one old man leaning back and wiggling his feet in the grass. It was awesome.

Good thing I had Wren to teach me how to go through airport security in India. I didn’t realize there was a separate women’s line. We walked through together, then she hopped up on a step, handed a lady her boarding pass, and got scanned with a metal detector. I just did exactly what she did. My niece might be the best traveler ever.

We boarded the plane, which was so teeny tiny it had propellers. Oakes insisted on sitting with Taylor so he could play Pokemon. Wren showed me her smelly markers. Somehow even though the flight to Jaipur was only an hour, they served us breakfast, which was some chicken-veggie-salad-esque sandwich with a KitKat.

Once we landed in Jaipur, our driver from Elefantastic picked us up. He had a cooler of beverages in the back that he offered us periodically throughout the day. He was great. He took us to Hawa Mahal first, some sort of palace with over 300 windows. We explored that.

Then he took us to the monkey temple, where we met up with the Monkey Man, who carried around a bag of Lays potato chips. Apparently chips are the monkey’s favorite food. He gave us the chips to hand out to the monkeys. I was a little terrified to touch a monkey, but I ended up letting one on my shoulder, then he dropped down and hung off my arm. IT. WAS. AWESOME.

The monkey temple was popping. There was a spring coming down the mountain, and a bunch of Hindi people were jumping into the water.

After the Monkey Temple, it was time for our Elefantastic journey to begin. The owner hosts each guest in his own home and serves them dinner. It was a delicious vegetarian feast. We were served some sort of curried pumpkin, WHICH WAS DELICIOUS, cabbage, chickpeas, naan bread, and rice. All of it was really tasty.

From the owner’s house, we were driven up a really bumpy road to the elephant sanctuary, where our two elephants were awaiting us. We were assigned Chakta and Shaku. The owner taught us how to handle the elephants — apparently they love being petted on their trunks, around their eyes, under their chins. He said the most important thing was to feel comfortable and happy around the elephants because they can sense if you're nervous. He said we needed to maintain as much eye contact as possible and cuddle in close to the elephants because they like to smell you.

Chakta is apparently a sassy elephant. She likes to fight other elephants, so her tusks were really short.

First we cuddled the elephants and fed them. Then we were given safe plant based paints and bamboo sticks to paint the elephants. I realize quickly we used sticks because it feels like we’re scratching the elephants and they love it. Chakta was leaning into us.

I drew a tree, an asterisks, and a cloud because I had no idea what to paint. Taylor drew a Tennessee Volunteers T. Our elephant’s handler drew a nice outline for us to color in, so we did that too.

After we painted the elephants, we took them over to a field and gave them water with a hose. They can drink SO MUCH WATER. They collect it directly in their drunks (gallons!), then dump it in their mouths. Once they’d had enough water to drink, we started spraying them and washing the paint off. After they were nice and clean, the handlers asked if we wanted the elephants to bath us. I was already pretty soaked but didn’t want it to sink down into my underwear, so I said no, but Taylor and Oakes hopped onto Shaku and got sprayed by her trunk.

Once they’d dried off, the elephant handlers hopped up onto the elephants VIA THEIR TRUNKS (it was so cool), and saddled them up with pillows and blankets. We climbed some steps onto the elephants' backs and rode them down a trail. It was bumpy at first, but once you got used to the rhythm, it was nice and relaxing. Evan and Taylor were suffering, though. The elephant is a very wide mount.

After fun with the elephants, we hopped back into the car with the driver and he drove us to some shops. I got a pair of elephant pants.

Then it was off to the airport and back to Delhi. I stupidly dropped my ID somewhere outside, but luckily that was all I dropped. We basically showered and went to bed as soon as we got home. We were all really exhausted.

All in all, Elefantastic definitely lived up to its amazing reviews. I’d recommend it to anyone. The Monkey Temple was also amazing, and having a driver to take you around in India is definitely the way to go.