Varanasi

What to say about Varanasi...India is unlike anywhere else and yet this city is completely foreign even here. Between the washing ghats, bathing ghats and burning ghats, holy Sadu men roam amongst pilgrims making their way to the holy Ganges river. It is a place that offers more sights, smells and sounds packed into each square inch. This will likely be our last stop in India and it is quite a place to wrap things up!

Great retreat!

The past 5 days in the mountains have been a great retreat. We have been so lucky to be welcomed into Dane's home and to be able to relax in such an incredible setting. Although it is freezing cold, we all huddle around the fireplace each night and put heated rocks into our beds to help take the chill off in the night. This is truly a special place, it is almost hard to believe this is still India as it is so tranquil. Tomorrow, we get right back into the thick of it and head for Varanasi. We are going to try to make it to the Kumbh Mela festival if possible.
Now that we have the opportunity, we wanted to post a few pics from the past few weeks, we hope you can enjoy the beauty and diversity of what we have been exposed to so far.

  

Sand dunes and Mountains

We have made our way up to Mussoorie and are currently visiting Dane, Ryan's brother, who is here teaching for 2 years at an international school. He is stationed 7000 feet above sea level right in the Himalayas. It is beautiful!!!! We have done some day hikes from here and it is getting us even more excited for Nepal. It has been great to be out of the hustle and bustle of the cities and take a few relaxing days in the mountains to reflect on how amazing the trip has been so far. Just before we headed up, we did a 3 day camel safari based out of Jaiselmer. It was such a fun and unique way to see the Thar desert. We were in a group with two Irish girls with whom we really got along with. We slept under the stars right in the sand dunes while all our food was prepared on an open camp fire by our camel driver, Poosaram. 
Each experience continues to add to an amazing trip. India is such a unique place where anything can happen and does!
 

Cooking class, fort and room service

Jodhpur has proved to be a great stop so far. Yesterday we toured the incredible fort, mulled around the local markets and admired the "blue city" under clear skies. The highlight of the day was spending the entire evening in a local cooking class. We were welcomed into a traditional Indian home and learned to make everything from local breads to a dessert lassi. We plan to spend another day here before we head to the desert. Today is our last day with our German travelmate, Sebastian, who has proved to be great to have along over the past few days.

Pushkar to Chittor and onto Udaipur

We have really covered some ground in the past few days and are now relaxing in the beautiful lakeside city of Udaipur. We saw the biggest fort in India while in Rajasthan and are about to see the biggest palace in India today. We continue to meet such nice people and eat incredible food. We are making our way towards the western border where we will do a camel back safari!

Pushkar

We are riding the bus from Jaipur to Pushkar having had a very busy last few days. After saying goodbye to Jeff we continued to explore Jaipur. A big highlight was seeing a Hindi film at the cinema. The locals really interact with the movie by cheering and clapping, overall a really fun experience. The sights in Jaipur were incredible. The Amber fort was Chad's favourite to date.