Hotel The Pearl - A Royal Residency Mussoorie

... the advertising posters in the phone booths and we can't use them. Finally I call them and they tell us the car has broken down, and we can either wait for another car or take a taxi they will pay for. The obvious choice at the time is the taxi, but this is India and nothing is what it seems. They have "prepaid" taxis so you don't get ripped off which the hotel told us to use, so I line for this. If you ever come to India you need to know one thing, Indians don't line up. They ...

... to walk to go get some more cash. It's about an hour walk there and it is really steep (John&Spence think horse trail steep). It takes about an hour and a half back. Andrew says that he'll update once a month. Tomorrow is officially our one month in India, so we'll see if he keeps his promise. Sorry for the ****** update, I promise I had a better one, I just can't post it now. Love all your guys' comments. Keep 'em coming.

... get up to the shower head, so instead you fill a bucket out of a tap and then use your hands to splash yourself with the freezing cold water. They call it a "bucket shower". Needless to say, my hair is going crazy. But at least it's not hot here so I don't need to take a shower everyday (like in Delhi). I can usually get maybe like 10 cups of water out of the tap before it runs out. And that sucks because then ALL the water in the bathroom runs out ...

Sorry I haven't updated in so long. I have no time! But I edited a video together, so hopefully I'll still be able to capture some part of the experience together. My videos and pictures will be here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/maymesteri ndia08/sets/72157605267765559/

... his (rather impressive) teeth at me. Hmmmm. I go over and open the normal door (rather than the 2nd story window he's come in through) as another exit, and while my back is turned, the little bugger jumps up on the couch, grabs a plastic bag full of cookies, and gives me a "seeeya, sucker!!!" look as he heads out the window! The little thief! Based on the advice of Jampa (our travel fairy), we decide, one more time to take the road less traveled down to Dehra Dun. He assures us ...

... have been spending a lot of time reminiscing. I hope everyone reading this at Skidmore right now appreciates the beauty of Murray-Aikins, the pool, and lap top computers. These are luxuries that are not afforded to us. Last week, in fact, we were so homesick for Chicken Finger Friday that we tried to recreate it here. We bought fifteen packs of frozen chicken nuggets, four packs of potato wedges, and three packs of smiley fries for the program's ...

... It was raining as we walked up the steep hill towards the makeshift temple in the defense area. And at first we thought it might not be happening because we couldn't hear any chanting or music being played. However, as we approached, we began to hear people singing and clapping, and musicians playing various drums and bells. We approached the celebration from the back of the makeshift temple (really an open-air gazeebo-like building) and ...

... rolling valleys full of flowers, ten different shades of green, strange birds, mongoose?, mountain goats, and snow pack melting into thousands of frigid streams and waterfalls. Something about growing up in the plains of the midwest makes the mountains seem otherworldly. There's such a sense of time and the fact that we humans are nothing in the face of nature. Every afternoon the sky would darken and a storm would creep slowly up through the valley. The temperature went from ...

... to join other groups. It's a very different feeling to travelling in a couple. Being a vegetarian in India is an absolute joy. Rather than having a small section of 'Vegetarian' dishes relegated to an obscure corner of the menu, in India they will have a few options called 'Non Veg'. It's great! Infact whole towns, Rishikesh being one, are meat free. Unfortunately Rishikesh is also alcohol free but we got round this because Flic and Alex bought some bottles of vodka ...

... the clouds break, and the Himalayas crack through the various whites and grays of the clouds with their whites and greys of snow and rock. They look violent. But its a type of violence you have to respect, if for no other reason than because you are left trembling in its presence. Here, though, it's all forrest. We are in the foot hills, 8,000 ft as I said, and surrounded by vegitation. There are more than 1,300 different types of flowers and plants, and in the ...