Not 'Goodbye,' but 'See you later!'

Of course I miss, my family, my friends, but I will really miss India once I leave. This has been the best experience of my life, and I want to thank all of you who supported me in doing this. Especially Mike - the most supportive husband ever. I would not have applied if it wasn't for you telling me "what the heck, just apply!"

I have to leave a bit earlier than the other program members for my Remicade treatment, but let's be honest, I wouldn't have lasted 2 months in India without it! India isn't the most ideal place for a Crohn's/Colitis patient. I hope that I get to see all of the kids at CCFA camp soon, whether it be at camp or the fundraiser walk, and update them on my experience here, and really 'drive home' the point that they don't have let a nasty disease hold them back from anything, including traveling half way around the world.

Goa...Can I 'GOA' back?

What a cool town...I could go on and on, but I'm really behind on posting and short on time since I'm trying to wrap things up before I leave, so I'm going to keep this short:

Top 10 (+1) reasons I want to go back to GOA:
1) It's a beach bum town - tons of hippies who never left. Great people watching.
2) The Indian Ocean felt like bath water. It sounds gross, but it was still fun to play in.
3) You can rent scooters and actually drive in India! I didn't drive, and I still had a blast. Reid rented a scooter and Greg a motorcycle. I was Greg's +1.
4) I got a nice tan in 1 day!
5) The shopping is outrageous. Great bargaining opportunities and beautiful handmade jewelery.
6) The restaurants are on the beach. Literally. We ate dinner both nights with our feet buried in the sand.
7) Delicious seafood. I think we ate calamari in every way it can possibly be prepared.
8) $2.60 Pina Coladas...keep 'em coming.
9) Veer - oh Veer. People are generally laid back and super friendly, hence our new friend Veer (who loved Greg's eyes). Locals creeped up on us started taking snaps of us without permission, so I insisted on taking pics with them too! They were so excited that we wanted to take pics with them that they cheered as they walked away.
10) Bollywood dancing at Titos
The last reason I want to go back to Goa is so that I can bring Mike...I know he would love it there.

'The Wall' on the Ganges

Angela Coleman Sherman officially did the most daring thing in her life...white water rafting in the Ganges River. Kate, Greg, Becky and I set sail on Friday, May 8 to Rishikesh to conquer the class 3+ rapids.

Rishikesh is about a 6 hour drive from Delhi. But somehow, we made it in just under 8 hours...

About 3 hours into the trip we get stopped by several trains. In typical India traffic fashion, once the gates go up, everyone gasses it to tracks, creating a HUGE gridlock traffic jam. Another train comes and again, everyone rushes, including big buses, mopeds with families of 5 on them and cars, and no one moves.

We finally make it up to the tracks, still in a gridlock, and another train starts to come, and there is no where to go in the car. We immediately jump out and make a run for it away from the tracks on the side of the road. Talk about an adrenaline rush. Of course, the drivers smartened up and got themselves out of gridlock before the train came. A near death experience and a car accident later, we arrive at our hotel. We call it an early night since we have to wake up early.

DNA was the rafting company that the last crew of expats used so we booked them too. Eddie was our guide and he was the reason we survived. He owns DNA and has been a guide for about 13 years (I was sure to grill him about all of this before I stepped foot on the boat).

We conquered the notorious 'Wall' rapid and several others over a span of 6 hours with an hour break for a delicious lunch on the beach. We made it through without tipping, but had the privilege of watching the raft behind us tip. We couldn't have made it through without the following: muscle behind our rowing to power our boat forward, listening to Eddie for directions and team work.

Rishikesh is known for it's yoga Ashrams. All along the Ganges river there were brightly covered ashrams built and designed for yoga and meditation. We woke up early on Sunday morning and took a yoga lesson from a yoga guru in an ashram, overlooking the Ganges. It was a great way to end our adventure packed trip.

The Taj

What an eventful day! Kate and I headed to see the Taj Mahal 8am Saturday morning. It's about a 4.5 hour drive from Gurgaon to Agra. About 3 hours into the trip, our car started to make a really loud scrapping sound. Then it got very hot...the AC went out in the car....not cool. After insisting that our driver pull over, we popped the hood, and realized the belt had snapped (not sure what belt, but there was a big piece of rubber that did not look like it was connected to anything hanging out of the hood).

me before the car broke down

and after...

So, Kate and I found us the nearest shopping center and had to wait for another driver to pick us up from Delhi. 8 hours later, we were at the Taj...totally worth the fiasco. It ended up working out in our favor because we arrived around 5, the sun was going down, and it was much cooler out (cooler being about 95 degrees instead of 100).

The Taj Mahal was breathtaking, everything I hoped it would be. Our guide's name was Manash and he got in trouble by security in the Taj for taking a picture. It was pretty funny watching him get yelled at. Better him than us.


1 out of 7 wonders of the world...check!

Kerala in a weekend...

I did not spend enough time in this state. Kerala is beautiful, and it's where my good friend Sandhya is from. Kate, Greg and I got on a plane Friday evening and met up in Kochin, Kerala's capital city.

We woke up early on Saturday and started our 2 hour drive to Alleppey. Alleppey is known for it's beautiful backwaters.

On our houseboat, we toured the backwaters all afternoon and then docked overnight. As we rode through the backwaters, kids would smile and wave at us from the shore. We thought they were yelling 'friends,' at one point, and we were flattered, but really, they were yelling 'pens!' This little girl came up to our boat as we were docked and asked for 'pens,' while making a writing motion with her hand. I dug through my purse and found one for her.

Sunday morning we woke up on the houseboat and we could hear singing from the Christian churches across the fields. It was so bazaar. We couldn't see the church, we just heard the chanting and it was really just so serene.

We toured Fort Kochi (not an actually fort, but the name of the city) on Sunday. From the first European church to Chinese fishing nets to Vasco de Gama's tomb, there was plenty for us to see.

Below is a video of a wedding that we got to sit in at, at Saint Cruz Basilica in Fort Kochi. I felt a little weird dropping in on their wedding, especially since I would have been mad if someone crashed mine! But here, it's almost like a compliment that we would want to sit in. Can you tell from the decor that this is a Catholic church???

Enjoy the rest of my pics!

Sunday Brunch

Sunday we had brunch at the Novatel and noticed a huge, gold, elaborate archway in front of the hotel that wasn't there two weekend ago. Sayid guessed it was a wedding and he guessed right. I slyly asked the concierge at the hotel if we could check out the reception area and he was more than happy to let us in while they were setting up.

If I didn't know better, I would have guessed they were setting a stage for a concert. This 4,000 person wedding (yes, 4,000 people Mom) was to start at 11:30pm and go until the lasts guests arrive. Guests arrive, eat, dance, bless the married couple, and then leave. It was amazing. I've never seen so many crystals in my life! I asked the concierge if he thought I could get away with crashing the wedding.

(alter/stage set up for wedding)

Charminar & Chowmahalla Palace

(Charminar monument)

Charminar means '4 towers' and is one of the seven wonders of Hyderabad. Sayid took us to this monument Saturday morning and was our tour guide for the day. He did a great job. We climbed the 45 steps to the first level (piece of cake compared to Notre Dame Cathedral). There are no guard rails when on the first level, and the wall only comes up to your thighs. From here you can see pretty much all of Hyderbad.

(Mecca Masjid Mosque, outside of Charminar)

(typical traffic in Hyderabad...mass chaos)

Our second stop on this 106 degree day was Chowmahalla Palace. Absolutely beautiful...reminded me a lot of the Palace of Versailles. Kate and I toured this palace for about 20 minutes until we came across the world's most embarrassing tourist trap ever, and we gave in...I've been sworn to secrecy :)