Hi everybody! Hey hi hello how are you yes we’re alive and well and we hope that you are too!

I’m interrupting your programming for a moment to drop a little update since there is much to update about, and we’ve been fairly out of touch (or so it feels anyway) since we got better –finally!!!- from our Indian pneumonia and able to be up and about, having more adventures than time to write about them.

There’s still lots to tell you about and we want to get you in a fairly cohesive, chronological order from Point A (Ellora, where we’ve left off) to Point B (Delhi, where we are now after a stop off in Agra for a final farewell to the Taj, and packing our bags one last time in India to catch a flight tomorrow on to the next major point of the trip, starting –unexpectedly- in Singapore).

So much has changed in the past few weeks. Our long tenure in Varanasi, which was only supposed to be a couple of days, ended up being a month and so effectively demolished our pre-determined (but flexible) itinerary and routing which was set to coincide with the best weather patterns through the various countries.

That plan scrapped, we were left to re-create a new one. But we still had the same amount of countries we wanted to visit and things we wanted to do in them, but now less a month in which to do it. The two major factors constricting our time schedule besides the weather were: going to see the whale sharks in peak time in the Philippines, and getting back to Nepal (probably from all the way out in the Philippines) to trek to Everest.

So we were trying to scramble to figure out a guiding company and the time that would realistically be needed to complete the hike so we wouldn’t pay for all this only to not make it all the way to the base, and just end up being out a lot of money with a big goal not even achieved. But meanwhile, even with all this up in the air, time had dictated we needed to move on and keep doing stuff while we still had a last couple of weeks in India, and our time and attention turned to Bandhavgarh National Park to seeking out wild tigers in the jungles of Central India.

That’s right, WILD TIGERS!!!

And we saw one – and even a wild leopard! But even better than the glimpse of tiger we caught through the trees were the travel-friends we made. We ended up sharing a jeep with an Irish couple who were also both 27, and when our safari with them failed on the tiger spotting thing, we agreed to stay an extra day to try one more time and then share a taxi between the four of us to the otherwise ridiculously difficult-to-reach Khajuraho (involving an hour-long bus, an hour-long train, another several-hour long probably-delayed train, probably an overnight somewhere and a rickshaw ride, and then another multi-hour bus ride… or one 5-hour taxi).

Sadly, the final tiger safari was also a dud tiger-wise (did always see loads of other animals at least), but the taxi ride was smooth and beautiful and much more affordable with 4 of us, and the temples of Khajuraho were astounding and fun to explore with our new Irish friends.

Ray and I had been hemming and hawing about whether to go up north to Rishikesh to try out some yoga since this is, after all, India and the birthplace of yoga, but the logistics of it were seeming overly-complicated and the fact of the matter was, especially after talking so much to Amanda and Cathal about their awesome experiences they’d had in Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand and about what awaited us in the near future, we realized our hearts had quite simply already moved on.

They were headed to Agra to see the Taj for their first time and Ray and I had wanted to go back to Agra as the last stop in India to say goodbye to it, lest I never lay eyes on it again (hard to imagine…never seeing the Taj again!??!). It made a lot more sense to skip Rishikesh and just go to Agra, then Delhi…logistically, and emotionally. Apparently, even though we had other plans, in our hearts, we were ready to move on from India. Sometimes it’s just time.

So we went to Agra with them, and got to spend a couple more days together having a blast and hearing some great stories and got a lot of really useful information that has ended up shaping our trip quite profoundly.

They had done a lot of trekking in Nepal, and they assured us emphatically and without hesitation that we don’t actually need a guide for Everest Base Camp. We’d heard this before, and especially for the time when we’re going, I’d also read this before, it’s like a trekker freeway. It’s a beaten path so not something you could get lost on even if you did manage to break away from the stream of people, and food and accommodation is plentiful enough that you really don’t need to be catered for either. EBC was something Ray and I had planned to and were willing to spend a lot on, but that was because we thought it was something you unequivocally needed a guide for. Not only would it save us money not to get one, but more importantly, we could for sure then go at our own pace (if you’ll recall, my hike to the summit of Humphrey’s took me exactly double what it takes normal people to do – not an experience I was looking forward to repeating, or attempting to not repeat by hauling at a speedy rate every day, for a 15-day trek). So we started considering just self-guiding.

Then we realized…wait. If we’re not going to use a guide, we no longer have to scramble to arrange one. Wait. If we’re not going to arrange a package…actually….we don’t have to go this year at all. It’s not like we’re saving any money by doing it this year since at the time we want to head over there, we’ll be just about as far distance- and cost-wise as you can possibly be from Nepal before you’re back in Arizona (since we’d probably be on an island in the Philippines).

So for fun, we tried taking out Everest from now and moving it to April of next year. And bam. We had another month at least free, which we could now spend in the remote regions of un-tourism-spoiled Laos which we’ve heard across the board “spend as much time as possible there” but to which I’d allotted an ungenerous seven days, and a couple of weeks or three in Vietnam, which I’d also initially dismissed as relatively uninteresting but upon further research have found more and more worth sticking around to explore, and the same with Malaysia and the Philippines.

And so there you have it: suddenly a brand new shape of trip. My, how things opened up once one time-constraint was removed. It is very exciting, and we are so stoked for this new chapter of our journey. It was all rather unexpected, and now that it’s happened, all rather perfect.

Furthermore, after talking with Amanda and Cathal, it was established that Singapore was a great place to shop for electronics. And so, since we need a new waterproof camera (story coming soon) and have decided a couple other gadgets will be worth the investment for the duration of the rest of our trip, we rerouted to go from Delhi through Singapore for (a likely VERY expensive ) four days, then head to Thailand, Laos, the Philippines, and back for Vietnam and Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia and onwards.

It had been really neat to travel with Amanda and Cathal because they had just arrived in India after traveling through SE Asia and so had a lot of valuable comparisons and contrasts to draw as they took it all in. We totally ate up all the information, in eagerness for these beautiful new places and fun experiences they were describing that we had only read about so far.

For our part, their perspectives on India threw into sharp contrast just how much the norm this crazy India place had become to us. Since we started here, and had left but then returned twice, this seething, undulating, overwhelming country had somewhere along the way become our home base, and in so doing, become our home. We had unwittingly imprinted its ways and customs, and so it was with great shock and disbelief that we heard from them that actually, no, not all Asian countries operate this way, with the constant assault of the senses. In fact, none do. Not quite like India.

Apparently, there won’t be men peeing everywhere on buildings and in the streets anymore. There won’t be cows in the cities, or people who just STARE at you constantly. Look, yes, and with great interest sometimes. But with warmth and smiles. This is all rather hard to imagine, believe it or not!

It will be a total headtrip to go from what has gotta be the dirtiest country in the world (not hatin on India, believe me it’s worthwhile despite the filth), to the cleanest (no gum allowed). For sure it will be a shock to go from what has been absolutely wonderful incredible budget prices to some of the most expensive. But why not. We like shocks to the system, right? We started our trip in INDIA, after all!

And India has been absolutely fantastic. Yeah men pee in the streets and people stare and it’s quirky as all hell. But it’s an incredible, marvelous place, and I’ve no longer any doubt that I’ll be back. How could I not? It’s India. It’s INDIA! And India is AMAZING!!!

We’ve still got some stories coming for you on the places we were able to visit in India:

Delhi
Amritsar
Mcleod Ganj
Manali
Leh
Agra
Jaipur
Pushkar
Bikaner
Jaisalmer
Jodhpur
Udaipur
Surat
Ajanta Caves
Ellora Caves
Mumbai
The beaches of Goa
Alleppey
Kollam
The backwaters of Kerala
Madurai
Trichy
Tanjore
Varanasi
Bandhavgarh National Park
Khajuraho

These 26 places in India all mean something to us now more than just dots on a map. Every place has held unique, wonderful memories, stories, and experiences. So much so that we’re still trying just to catch up!

And of course in these past six months on the Subcontinent, there was also 5 weeks in Nepal, seeing: Kathmandu, Chitwan, Lumbini, Pokhara and the Sun Kosi River.

And there was Sri Lanka, which we haven’t even mentioned yet, with: Kandy, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Nuwara Eliya, the elephant orphanage, and Colombo!

It’s not just leaving India but a HUGE chunk of our trip time-wise and developmentally. Cathal and Amanda made it pretty clear that while SE Asia will still have its fair share of challenges, discomforts, oddities and annoyances…by the sounds of it, it won’t come close to those we’ve dealt with in India. And frankly, India hasn’t been so bad, not at all. I’m so glad we jumped in headfirst to this crazy, churning sea of chaos. It was one of the best swims of our lives.

So tomorrow before daybreak, we will hop in a cab and head for the airport and begin the next chapter of this trip. We are so curious and excited to see what differences and experiences lay in store now. If it’s any bit as enriching and rewarding as India and the Subcontinental countries have been, we’ve got some truly amazing times ahead of us. MAN, it is good to be alive and have a backpack on our backs!! Vive la vie folks, and we’ll talk to you again from Singapore.

Goodbye from India!!