Sri Ram Ashram, Rishikesh, and Delhi (Round 2), India – September 21st – 29th, 2016

Our last week in India was spent playing with the kids at the orphanage, unsuccessfully working on our flexibility, doing cross fit, SE Asia trip planning, and taking an overnight trip to Rishikesh, all while our immune system (with the help of antibiotics) continued to ward off the malaria we have surely been exposed to through the hundreds of mosquito bites we have endured. Most days at Sri Ram Ashram have gone something like this:

• Half wake up when the 5am bell rings, consider getting up, then reconsider and go back to sleep.
• Wake up 5 minutes before cross fit starts at 6:30am, again consider going back to bed, but drag our sore bodies out of bed and make it down to the courtyard in time to be shamed by several very in-shape teenagers (side note: they love burpees. What is wrong with them?!!!!)
• Eat breakfast. This typically consists of either noodles, ramen noodles, fried rice, or PB&J. Always accompanied by curd and yummy yummy chai tea.
• Hang out in the morning/afternoon and either do some much needed trip planning (since we did almost none before leaving the States) and/or play with the 2-3 year-old kids. Play really means us pushing them on the swings or us attempting to convince them to do anything but be pushed on the swings.
• Lunch at 12:30 which is much like dinner: white rice and watery sauce (either lentils, corn, beans, eggplant or misc. unknown vegetable). The food is quite good, but after two weeks most meals taste the same and we are very tired of rice.
• By 2pm the kids have returned from school and finished lunch. From 2-3:30 is much needed nap time. We can’t believe the schedule these kids keep, we feel like we need more sleep than them and they are growing kids! There are two things happening here, we are either very lazy or they are not getting enough sleep (my money is on the first one although there is a possibility it is both).
• Between 4 and 5:30pm they study and we stay out of the way because we learned the first day that we are actually no help at all.
• Play between 5:30 and 6:45pm. Inevitably, the elementary school aged kids rope us into playing another one of their games which have very loose rules, you can never win, and always end up in screaming/slapping matches.
• Aarti prayer between 7 and 7:30. We go to this about half the time and since the same songs are repeated every day and they have a convenient book which phonetically spells the Hindi words (could also be just the way the Hindi word is spelled), I sometimes try to sing along which awards me with muffled chuckles from the surrounding girls (apparently I’m not saying the words correctly… go figure).
• Dinner at 7:30, which is actually another cross-legged session from hell, where our feet go numb and we scarf the food as fast as possible in order to stand up again, all while attempting not to spill too much food on ourselves. We really are embarrassingly un-flexible, but still I challenge you to eat a meal cross legged and report back to us. 
• Playtime again after dinner until the adults are able to get the kids to come inside for bed (usually between 9 and 10pm). Note that this leaves a mere 7 hours for sleep and that assumes you fall asleep right away.

"Dani Didi" (sister) and "Andy Bhai" (brother) with the some of the kids!

Apart from this regular schedule, there are two outstanding events which provided much comic relief for us (and now you). This first one is dedicated to my former co-workers: While playing with the toddlers, one of them took off for the bathroom. After about 5 minutes, I started hearing crying coming from the squat toilets. We located the boy, naked from the waist down, in one of the stalls hysterically balling his eyes out. Behind him was a gigantic dump. Could it possibly have come from a tiny 3-year-old?! The answer was yes, and it turned out that he was crying because he could not get the poop down the drain. It took us quite a long time to figure out that there was no flush, but a bucket that had to be filled with water and used to wash the poop down. After solving problem #1, we were onto problem #2 (pun intended): how do you help a 3 year-old wipe his butt Indian style? There were several issues here. 1. Although we had heard that they use water and their left hand, we ourselves had no experience with the proper technique, 2. Language barrier, 3. I gathered that he wanted me to do it for him (either that or he wanted to use my Punjabi (my clothes) as toilet paper). The end result was Andy and I doing charades on our interpretation of how he should clean himself and although he splashed water on himself, he never actually wiped before we were forced to give up and help him back into his clothes. Fail. The second event came during cross fit. One morning, the kids introduced us to a running belt with a chord which another person holds to provide resistance for the runner. In this scenario, Andy was the runner and one of the seniors who we became close to was holding him back. Unfortunately for the boy, Andy has a warped sense of how strong he is…. I’m sure you can see where this is going. Andy started sprinting, pulling the boy to the ground, and rather than stop due to the panicked Hindi coming from behind him, continued to run, dragging the boy behind him for a solid 20 feet before stopping. HILARIOUS! I haven’t laughed that hard in a very long time!   

The boys and "Dani Didi"

On September 23^rd and 24^th we visited Rishikesh, the yoga capital of the world (thanks to the Beatles) and Westerner yuppie retreat. Since the Ashram is outside of town and we wanted to take the jungle route through Rajaji National Park, we hired a private taxi to drive us the ~1 hour to Rishikesh. Along the way we spotted some spotted deer and a flock of peacock, as well as did two river crossings where there definitely should have been a bridge (in our small Tata taxi this was an experience in itself). After arriving in Rishikesh, we stumbled over ourselves for an hour trying to find the river guide that was going to take us rafting on the Ganga. Luckily the ashram let us borrow a local cell phone so we were able to make calls and it turned out that he got his days confused and we were really in the right spot to begin with. Rafting the Ganga was both amazing and terrifying at the same time. The Ganga is considered holy in India and bathing in it is said to cleanse you of your sins. Due to the recent rains and the season, the holy river was high and flowing FAST, 40,000+ CFS. The 19 km trip usually takes about 2.5 hours to get down, for us it took 1.5 hours including stops to scope out the rapids! It was just us and the guide in the raft with a safety kayak paddling close by. The guide was very experienced, but brutally honest about our chances in a fast and horrifying looking class 4 rapid. Apparently, the chances were good that we were going to flip the raft because the boat was so light, but not to worry because the water is so high we won’t hit any rocks. We’ll drink a lot of water, think we’re drowning, and never want to do it again, but we’ll live. Yes, he literally said this right before we entered the rapids. In good news, the guide was also really good and we made it out without flipping the raft. Later, we got to jump in the river to “body surf” some rapids and also exonerate us of our sins (bonus!). With the amount of water we got in our sinuses I figure we’re good to sin for a while. Luckily, Rishikesh is near the source of the Ganga River in the Himalayas were the water pollution is minimal. 

Rafting the Ganga. The top left picture shows Andy attempting to push me out of the boat. 

The second day in Rishikesh, we took a yoga class where I did my first yoga head stand! The rest of the time I embarrassed myself with my lack of flexibility, but at least I had one glorifying moment. Andy did great, I was very impressed – when did he get flexible? Maybe all that sitting cross-legged is paying off for one of us. We took public transit back to the ashram, which cost us 6x less than the taxi ride to Rishikesh. It did, however, involve 2 rickshaw rides and an old very full bus with no suspension.

The sites around Rishikesh. A cow was walking the suspension bridge with us!

More sites from Rishikesh. The top left picture was taken at Parmarth Niktan of Lord Hanuman splitting his chest to show that another lord is inside him. 

Before flying to Nepal on the 30^th, we returned to Delhi for a day. We were shocked at how much more comfortable we were the second time around. We even navigated the metro system! Don’t get me wrong, we still dislike Delhi a lot. There are far too many people and it is by far the filthiest city we’ve ever been to. Like true Americans though, we did manage to find a fancy mall where we saw how the elite of India live. It was literally like walking into the USA. We ate at Taco Bell and Red Mango! It even costs the same… go figure. 

Apart from our day-to-day experiences, we have learned several things of note about Indian culture:

• Cats are to be feared above all else. This lesson came in the form of ~20 screaming children who announced they had seen a cat! After attempting to inquire about the type of cat they saw, I was fairly convinced that indeed they meant a cat, as in a kitty cat. Bewildered as to why they were so afraid of a cat, I offered to scare it off, to which one of the girls exclaimed, “You aren’t scared?!” I rightfully wasn’t afraid until I rounded the corner in the dark and became increasingly concerned that the “cat” they saw was actually a man eating leopard or tiger (which according to various sources, definitely exist and are a real threat). Luckily, it was indeed an average sized house cat which scampered off to the tune of many high-pitched screams. Apparently, cats on your property are considered bad luck in India. So in summary, dogs roam like stray dogs, cows roam like stray dogs, and cats are terrifying. Oh also, you will be laughed at for being afraid of a spider the size of a dinner plate (no kidding).
• The Indian head nod is a head gesture which extends diagonally and has, as I’m sure you can understand, been the source of much confusion for us. It is used often by pretty much everybody. Best we can tell, it can be used to acknowledge your existence, gesture for you to do something, and/or to confirm or deny something. For example, we were bargaining with a rickshaw driver for a ride. He said 50 rupees, we countered with 40. Then he did the Indian head nod and walked away leaving us wondering if we should follow or go find a different driver. Bewildered, we got in the ricksaw and we were off. Since he drove us where we wanted to go and didn’t drop us at any tourist traps first (and since we were still confused as to how much we owed him) we just paid him 50.
• India is not for the type A person. For example, when a large billboard in Rishikesh says, “Daily drop-in meditation at 7am” what is really means is daily drop-in meditation at 7am for part of the year, not this part, but part. The same situation occurred via a website which advertised drop-in yoga. After wandering the streets for literally an hour trying to find the place we called and found out that they were closed for all but 4 months of the year. They acted like we should have somehow known. SERIOUSLY?! Would it be that hard to add a note to the website/billboard which specified what months it applies to?! Like I said, India is not for the type A person.
• Riding in a car in India, or being anywhere near a road for that matter, is… terrifying. Also very loud. There is no such thing as traffic lanes and often cars drive at each other, one or both swerving at the last second to avoid colliding. The horn is used constantly. I think they just like the sound it makes. The driving habits are even recognized by the young kids who pretend to drive by erratically moving the steering wheel and making continuous honking noises.
• Maintenance is not a thing: meaning building maintenance, road maintenance, vehicle maintenance, etc. It seems strange to spend so much money and time building and furnishing a structure, only to let it to fall apart piece by piece. Even at mid-to-high end hotels the tv, a/c, mini fridge, shower, lights, etc. are more likely to be broken than working. Regardless, rather than remove the broken amenity, it remains in the room as decoration. Why not spend slightly less to begin with and maintain what you have?

All curious cultural details aside though, we are sad to be leaving India and especially all the kids at the ashram. They were so welcoming to us and we really started to make some lasting relationships with them. We will certainly be following them on Facebook, and who knows, maybe we’ll make it back one day for a reunion visit. Although the culture in India is SO different from our own, the people are kind and exhibit an inner peace that we can learn a lot from. Their religion, which is entwined into their lives, preaches acceptance, love, and peace. Minus the driving habits, sexism, and aversion to tables and waste management (both trash and the human variety), we think they are on to something.

More pictures at the ashram. The top right and bottom photos where taken at 5:15am with the kids that got up to say goodbye. 

Sri Ram Ashram and Haridwar, India - September 13 - 20

It would be an understatement to say that we were ready to leave Delhi. The crowds, aroma, and constant attention by the masses are enough to drive anyone away, especially Dandy, who doesn't like big cities to begin with. We got up very early (before 8:30pm in NYC) to give ourselves plenty of time to get to the train. Our plenty of time, however, was soaked up by attempting to cross the busy street (terrifying), unnecessarily going to the reservation line, and making our way to the furthest track at the station. We boarded the wrong train car with less than 2 minutes to spare. After moving seats twice (because we could not find our seats) and accidently stealing water, we settled in for the 4-hour ride to Haridwar. Along the way we saw many small villages and farmland. The amount of wide spread poverty and poor living conditions were astounding.

Haridwar is a holy pilgrimage city for the Hindu religion. Accordingly, Haridwar is a major Indian tourist destination (for future reference within this post, note the emphasis on “Indian” in this sentence). About 25 minutes south of Haridwar is Sri Ram Ashram which would be our home for the next 2+ weeks. The ashram is a Hindu orphanage for abandoned and neglected children from the surrounding area. There are about 50 children at the ashram, ranging in age from infant to mid-20’s.

We arrived a little before noon and were greeted warmly by some of the children and staff. After putting our stuff in our room (no A/C and it is in the mid 90’s with close to 100% humidity) we were asked to join everyone for lunch in the cafeteria. The eating area is actually a room with rows of burlap on the floor. Everyone brings in their metal tray and sits cross legged on the floor to eat with mostly their right hand (although also given a spoon). Due to a complete lack of flexibility, already poor eating coordination, and the fact that most meals consist of rice with a sauce that stains clothes, these eating arrangements have been the bane of our existence for the past week!

The cafeteria area (notice the lack of tables/chairs, top left), how we spend most time at the ashram (top right), a shot of some of the main dormitory building at the ashram (bottom right), my punjabi pant failure (overpriced Delhi pants destroyed by playing a football match)

After lunch we were introduced to the kids’ strict and jam packed schedule. The first thing we noticed was the 5am start! Approximately every hour of the day up until 9pm is filled with prayer, work out, meals, school, study, nap, chai, study, play, study, prayer, etc. Since we are engineers (or were), we were asked if we could help with some of the high school aged kids’ study hall. We thought, “oh that will be great, we can help with math and science, no problem, we are well educated, shouldn’t be an issue.” WRONG! The 9^th graders were working on proving congruent triangles within complex trigonometric shapes and the 11^th graders were working on memorizing the parts of the brain, heart, and nervous system. Fair to say I think we hurt more than we helped and we have not since returned to “help” with study hall since the day that we arrived. Mostly we have found that pretty much the only thing we are even remotely good at is playing with the kids. They are great kids with an amazing work ethic and unlimited energy (we are absolutely exhausted!) Although we are having a lot of fun playing with them:

1. The language barrier has been a bit of an issue at times (especially with the younger kids). Although there schooling is in written English, they’re spoken English has a very heavy accent and we do not understand much of what they say and vice versa.
2. They play many of the school yard games wrong with rules that have been made up over time. This is frustrating as many of the rules don’t make sense. For example, when playing “football” the goalie is not allowed to leave a made up rectangular area with dimensions of ~8 ft. by 2 ft. deep. Also, throw-ins only exist sometimes, after a goal the goalie kicks the ball to restart, and penalty kicks are 6 inches from the goal. When we try to correct them we get shot down and told we are playing wrong.
3. The kids can be brutal to each other. Slapping fights and yelling at each other is a constant. We are still trying to determine if this is part of the Indian culture or just the culture among the kids.
4. We are very tired of pushing the little ones on the “jhoola” aka swings.
5. It is so ridiculously hot! Natural showers (profuse sweating) is occurring about 15 hours a day. On top of that, I am asked to wear the traditional Indian dress (punjabi) which consists of full length pants, a shirt down to your knees, and a scarf. Because the world isn’t fair (and sexism is real), Andy wears whatever he pleases. The actual showers consist of a tile-lined room, a bucket of water, a smaller bucket of water to use to pour water on your head, and a faucet.
6. 5am prayer is not something we have had the energy to attend more than twice in a week. The prayer and aarti ceremony is an interesting experience involving fire, conch shell horns, chants, and drums – look it up on youtube. It is even more entertaining when performed by kids under no adult supervision.
7. We are completely out of shape is seems and the running around combined with morning crossfit workouts have left us very VERY sore.
8. Monkeys are everywhere! They seem to be not too aggressive, but everyone is pretty cautious around them and tries to scare them off whenever they are seen.
9. A guard walks through the ashram campus at night (all through the night...) blowing a whistle to fend off any stray wildlife (notably monkeys). We have tried earplugs, but they are too uncomfortable.

Andy and his little buddy, Aman

Regardless of these trivial things, we are really enjoying our time at the ashram, especially now that the culture shock has worn off a little bit. A quick note about culture shock: although temporary, it’s terrible, and the first week in India was more of a challenge than either of us expected. I may have said more than once that “I want to go home”. I suppose the discomfort is part of the journey though…

Our next big adventure came when we visited Haridwar a couple of days later. We hired a taxi driver (for ~$30) to take us around to all of the sites within the holy city. We left at 7am and returned a little before 8pm. We first went to a handful of Hindu Temples (Chandhi Devi, Mansa Devi, Daksheswara Mahedev, and some smaller temples scattered around the city). There were more than a few things that were shocking to us about the temples:

1. You must take off your shoes and walk barefoot before entering. We also found out the hard way that this includes not bringing your shoes into the temple inside your backpack. Also, the floors are absolutely disgusting, making me 110% sure that we’ve both contracted an incurable foot fungus (symptoms have not yet presented, but I’ll keep you posted).
2. At the main temples (Chandhi and Mansa Devi), you are forced into these small rooms with about 1000 of your closest Indian barefoot friends where you are confronted by a man who ushers you to him, he hits you hard on the back multiple times, puts paint on your forehead, then yells at you for not giving money to the god to which the shrine is for (or at least that’s how it happened for us). We were bewildered to say the least.
3. The shrines were not what we expected, but to be fair I am not sure what it is that we expected. The only way we could think to describe the first shrine that we came across was “a pink playdough blob triangle face”. We clearly have a lot to learn about the Hindi culture.
4. One of the traditions is to wrap string around a specific type of tree. We understand that you ask the gods for a favor and when it is fulfilled you remove your string.
5. Seeds/nut necklaces are a thing. Like I said, we need to do some research or ask someone what all of this means.

Scaring a monkey and then being scared by a monkey (top left), prayer strings on a tree (top right), giant statue of Shiva along the water (bottom right), how we felt after seeing the Hindu holy men (bottom left)

After temple mania, we went to see a rock which was floating in water. We are again still not sure of the significance of this since it is just a large porous pumice stone. After taking a quick walk through a National Park with our driver, he dropped us off at a busy market near Har Ki Pauri (where the aarti ceremony would be held at sunset) and told us (in broken English) that he would meet us here in 5 hours. We looked at him horrified, but were not sure what to do since he did not seem to understand most of we said (or us him). So… we set out walking, feeling very much alone and unsure of what we were going to do for 5 hours. Here is where the “Indian” tourist destination really comes into play. Apparently, white people are so rare in Haridwar that we were constantly stopped and asked if they could take a photo with us. If they were too shy to ask, they simply stared (or I should say gawked) at us. In one instance we were sitting down in a park drinking some water, a man walked past, saw us, sat down about 10 feet in front of us, and then stared right at me until we couldn’t take it anymore and we left the park (~ 5 min). Because after 3 hours we were out of places to walk and tired of being stared at we took shelter in an upscale, Indian hipster coffee shop where we hid for 2 hours before aarti began. The aarti ceremony was out of this world. Thousands of people flock to the banks of the river Ganges, sit cross legged, and sing the Hindu chants, while holy men perform the ceremony. Many send prayer leaf boats with candles down the river (although many sank in the rapids). We really enjoyed the ceremony, which was only hindered again by our complete inability to sit cross legged for more than a few minutes. In this case, we had to sit for over an hour, I thought my legs were going to fall off (or I’d have to cut them off). On our way back to the ashram, we saw an elephant on the side of the road!

More of our Haridwar experience: Daksheswara Mahadev temple (top left), Har Ki Pauri in the daytime (bottom), preparing for aarti at Har Ki Pauri (top right)

Also, this week we visited the nearby town’s Sunday market (lots of nice looking farm produce) and the nearby Gujjar village, which is a nomad village in the jungle. To get to the village one of the employees at the ashram took us and one of the older kids via tractor. The Gujjar people are Muslim and a lower caste that raises cattle for milk to sell. They live in dirt huts which are surprisingly well kept. The people were very nice and welcoming to us.

Our Gujjar village trip

So to wrap up this ridiculously long post, after 10 days we can say that India is rubbing off on us and we are beginning to really like it here (at least here at the ashram). The shoeless traditions, our celebrity status, and what we perceive as cultural contradictions aside, the Indian people are warm, welcoming, and always willing to help us out. On multiple occasions the Indian people have helped by calling our taxi driver (when we have lost him), given us directions by walking us to where we are trying to go, and been patient with us when we are being unknowingly culturally rude. 

Delhi, India – September 10th – 12th, 2016

Before arriving in Delhi, we had a 3 hour layover in Moscow. Although exhausted, we managed to learn a few tidbits about Russians (who in our limited experience seem to be pretty nice): 1. They like their duty free stores (they were literally everywhere) 2. They have seriously uncomfortable benches which are literally impossible to sleep on 3. They enjoy partaking in PDA.

Enough about Russia though, we finally arrived in India after about 29 hours of travel. Although we were at the “best rated airport in the world” we could not figure out which immigration line we were supposed to stand in and ended up in the wrong line for 15 minutes before standing in the correct line behind 12 people for over an hour! They take all of your finger prints with a machine that does not appear to work very well. Perhaps our finger prints will tell them where we are in the city of 20 million + people? Lucky for us a driver was there waiting for us to take us to the hotel, unlucky for us we got a flat tire on the way and ended up stranded in the middle of the road like sitting ducks. At first we were convinced that we were being kidnapped since our driver literally just stopped in the road, got out, and started making a phone call without any explanation. Two things gave away that the worst was not happening: 1. We were stopped directly in front of the US embassy, 2. We really did have a flat tire (yes, we checked). Again lucky for us, another driver came to the rescue, unlucky for us he was an absolute maniac and took turns going at a speed just under that which would flip the van-car mobile. We did, however, make it to our hotel, which was in a crazy busy part of the city with narrow streets full of sleeping people and cows.

We slept in the next morning, partially because we were tired and partially because we were more than a little nervous to go outside. We finally ventured out and ended up hiring a taxi driver for the day to take us around to the Delhi sites. His name was Singh. He didn’t speak much English, but was nice enough and didn’t drive too scary, given Delhi’s driving standards (a couple quick notes about driving in Delhi: the horn is in constant use, driving less than an inch from each other is completely normal, and there are no lanes only space which your car is supposed to be occupying). With the help of Singh, we visited 6 ATM’s before we found one that worked to get some rupees. Getting money was an absolute necessity since while the locals pay 30 rp ($0.45 usd) each for entrance into the major Unesco world heritage sites, foreigners pay 500 rp ($7.50 usd)! We visited the outside of Red Fort (couldn’t get in because of ATM debacle), Raj Ghat (Gandhi’s cremation site), Humayun’s Tomb, Gandhi Smriti (Gandhi’s assassination site), the president’s estate, parliament buildings, and India gate. Our favorite was Gandhi Smriti, since we got to learn some of the history of his life and a bit of his legacy. Since we were told to bargain for literally everything, I tried bargaining for a 1L bottle of water. The shop owner told me it was 20 rp, not realizing that is only $0.30 usd, I tried to talk him down to 5 rp ($0.075) to which he informed us that it was a fixed price which was written on the bottle. So I said no I wouldn’t take it for less than 10 rp and left. Turns out, though, that he wasn’t lying, it really is a fixed price (we asked Singh later) and I tried to buy a 1L bottle of water for less than a dime! Later, we ate at a restaurant that Singh recommended which turned out to taste almost exactly like Taste of India in Seattle! Yum!

The not so busy section of the street our hotel was on. The typical crowd prevented us from taking a more accurate photo.

Humayun's Tomb.

Parliament building and the surrounding city.

On Delhi day 2 we ventured out to see a Sikh temple (Gurudwara Bangla Sahib) where we learned about the Sikh religion and had found ourselves having a free lunch on the floor with ~300 Sikhs. One of the pillars of the Sikh faith is to accept other cultures and religions. Accordingly, everyone inside the temple was very nice! We then ventured out to the market where we again failed at bargaining and bought an overpriced Punjab for our upcoming trip to Haridwar (I am required to wear the traditional Indian clothing while at the ashram). For dinner we ordered a dosai. At the time we had no idea what it was, but it turned out to be this delicious pancake/crepe filled with paneer and veggies (which we had eaten before at Linger in Denver!).

Taking a tuk tuk (rickshaw) ride.

Gurudwara Bangla Sahib.

Overall our trip to Delhi left us felling extremely overwhelmed. We were constantly bombarded with crowds, people approaching us trying to either sell us something, drive us somewhere, beg (mostly children), or ask us strangely personal questions (Where are you from? What do you do in your country? Where are you going? Etc. etc. etc.). It was difficult to know the difference between a nice curious person (which we did meet) and one that was trying to scam us (which we also did meet). We did learn some coping mechanisms though: denounce our citizenship and tell people we are from Canada and wear the traditional Indian clothing (just me, it didn’t matter what Andy wore). We also learned that every wall is a urinal (and smells like one) and saw a little girl taking a shit in the middle of a crowded intersection. She did not appear to be homeless, which left us wondering if that was normal. Another strange thing about Delhi: most signs are written in English, but most people speak Hindi and varied amounts of English (does this mean that the signs (notably the traffic signs) aren’t actually being read?).

Family Shenanigans – September 1st – 9th, 2016

We made it to Princeton and spent a short couple of days with my sister and her husband. We ate like champions – pizza and gourmet hotdogs and played a bunch of games (darts, impossibly difficult bean bag toss, Settlers of Catan, old school Nintendo, football). We then took the train to meet up with Andy’s sister in NYC before heading up to Syracuse. Andy’s sister got us there safely, locking up our seatbelts only 6x! The weekend was full of festivities celebrating Andy’s cousin and his new wife. We had an amazing time catching up with Andy’s family and old friends. After the bride and groom set out for their Hawaii honeymoon, the family went on a vacation of their own, up to Lake Placid. The Lake Placid Lodge was INCREDIBLE! We lived like kings and got some much needed R&R (minus the 15 mile hike to summit Mt. Marcy, the tallest peak in NY, which was not relaxing). We had a really great time and lots of laughs with Andy's family. Goodbyes were difficult again and we were starting to be anxious about leaving the comforts of the US for the culture shock of India, but we boarded the plane all the same. For better or worse, let Dandy's international adventure begin! 

View from the lodge at Lake Placid!

View from the top of Mt. Marcy.

Does it need a caption?

About to board the plane. Feeling a little nauseous, why are we doing this again?

Back in Seattle – August 31st – September 1st

Thanks to Alaska Airlines flight schedule, we were able to spend about 16 hours in Seattle on our way from Denver to New Jersey. We had an amazing time catching up with most of our Seattle soccer friends at Brouwers in Fremont and managed to get about 5 hours of sleep before heading back to the airport early the next morning.  

Back in Colorado – August 26th – 31st

Although we thought 3 days in Loveland would be enough to recuperate, pack for a wedding the following week and a year abroad, and finish up some odds and ends, we were very wrong. TWe scrambled to finish everything in time to leave for Denver on the 30^th. We tried to soak up all the time (and cuddles) we could with Tucker, although no amount of time could possibly be enough… sad. We also got to spend some quality time with my mom which is always a lot of fun! The night of the 30^th we caught up with some great friends and chowed down at Golden’s Table Mountain Inn before leaving for the airport the next day. I’d like to say that we were excited and joyously departed with our heads held high, but in reality we ugly cried (mostly about leaving Tucks, although we know he’s in great hands and the next year will fly by).

Tucker and his new big brother Eli.

Bernie Trip Reflection

In lieu of the recent Olympics here are the awards for the Bernie portion of the trip:

Best hikes

Gold: Wilcox Pass – Jasper National Park, Canada

Silver: Petrified Forest – Gallatin National Forest, Montana, USA

Bronze: Crypt Lake – Waterton National Park, Canada

Honorable Mention: Ha-Ling – Canmore, Canada

Best National Parks for Experience

Gold: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA

Silver: Jasper National Park, Canada

Bronze: Galcier National Park, Montana, USA

Honorable Mention: Banff National Park, Canada

Most Beautiful Places

Gold: Icefields Parkway, Banff and Jasper National Parks, Canada

Silver: Beartooth Wilderness, Montana, USA

Bronze: Moraine Lake, Banff National Park, Canada

Honorable Mention: Upper Kananaskis Lake, Alberta, Canada  

Best Hot Springs

Gold: Miette Hot Springs, Jasper National Park, Canada

Silver: Granite Hot Springs, Wyoming, USA

Bronze: Radium Hot Springs, Kootenay National Park, Canada

Honorable Mention: Chico Hot Springs, Pray, Montana, USA

Best Campgrounds

Gold: Shadow Mountain, Wyoming, USA

Silver: Interlakes Campground, Kananaskis Country, Canada

Overall Awards

Canada wins the award for best hygiene (easy accessibility to showers and cleanest campgrounds/bathrooms)!

Talbot Lake (shallow lake in Jasper) wins the award for best surprise experience. Marble Canyon wins honorable mention in this category.

Wind River Range in Wyoming wins the award for the most bugs

Ginger garlic seasoned cheese burgers win the award for best van dinner

Wildlife Tally: 6 bears (inc. one cub), 1 porcupine, 4 moose, numerous elk and deer, millions of mosquitos 

7,654 miles driven.

Driving, Craters of the Moon, Steamboat Springs, and NO Dinosaur fossils - August 24th – 26th

From Boise, we traveled to Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho. This is the site of a hot spot in the earth which has expelled lava many times over the last 15,000 years, the most recent being only 2,000 years ago. It truly does look like a different planet. Among many other geologic sites, there were five lava tubes you could explore with headlamps. Our favorite of which was Boy Scout Cave which has ice in the cave year round.

A view of the lava tubes

One of the large splatter cones in the park

The lava texture and patterns were incredible!

Rather than backtrack 45 minutes to camp on BLM land we ended up risking it and continuing on in the correct direction, not knowing exactly where we were going to camp. We ended up finding a place called Honey’s Park in Arco. It is private property that the owner allows travelers to camp at for free! Being unemployed and all, the price was just right. The only downside was the lake of a bathroom and/or any privacy to use natures bathroom. Consequently, we rushed out in the morning to find the nearest gas station before I wet myself.

That day, we drove towards Steamboat, CO and made it within two hours before camping on BLM land (doubling as ranch land for cattle grazing). On the way, we stopped at Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado. We were so excited to see dinosaur fossils, but instead we saw a closed visitors center with a sign that said, “There are no dinosaur fossils here,” Why would you have a visitors center called Dinosaur National Monument next to literally nothing but a scenic drive?!??? In truth, the fossils are located 30 miles west (the direction we had just come) in Utah. WTF!?!!! Rather than turn around, we continue on and played catch among the cow pies on the BLM land before it got too dark.

The next day, we went to Steamboat and did some shopping, wandering, and caramel apple eating before continuing onto Loveland, CO (where my mom lives). Between Steamboat and Loveland we missed the turn toward Walden and ended up going through Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes Park instead. Which is all fine and good except for the extra 1.5 hours and 12,000 foot climb in Bernie. He took it like a champ though and we were going downhill before we knew it. In the park we saw our 4^th moose of the trip and a bunch of elk so that was a bonus!

Driving & Gramick Monique Fantastique – August 21st – 24th

Although we intended to split the drive to Boise evenly over two days, we were on a roll and Bernie was doing great so we pressed on to Riggins, Idaho the first day. Well, I shouldn’t say Bernie was doing great, in truth Bernard showed his ugly head for a brief time when the engine started cutting out while driving again. We pulled over, jiggled some connections, and prayed to the Vanagon gods before getting back on the road. The problem never returned (probably due to the return of the fairy mechanic). We ended up staying on BLM land that night before going the rest of the way to Gramick’s house on the 22^nd (My mom’s birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!). To explain: Gramick is my Grandma who lived in France before immigrating to the US when my mom was young. When I was a kid I rhymed her name (Monique) with a bunch of made up words – Gramick, Fantastique, Unique (not actually made up), Magnifique (French for magnificent), etc. hence the nickname was born.

In Boise, we enjoyed Gramick’s company, helped steam clean the basement carpet, and identified a mystery water leak. Despite our best efforts, the source of the water remains a mystery. We also enjoyed some great food and got valuable information from some of Gramick’s friends from India. On the 24^th we said our goodbye’s and headed towards Denver on the final stretch of the Bernie portion of the trip.

Banff and Kootenay – August 19th – 20th

After a very cold night, we left Jasper National Park and drove back through Banff on our way to Kootenay National Park. On the way, we split up for a few hours while Dani did some internet research at the Visitor’s Center in Lake Louise (in Banff National Park) and I went to get campsite at Marble Canyon in Kootenay. After living in about 12 square feet for a few weeks, a couple needs some space every once in a while… or every day. After successfully getting a campsite and downloading the rest of our audiobook (The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss, highly recommended!) we met back up and waited for some of the massive crowd to die down by playing dominoes. With the crowds still lingering, but nowhere near as bad as they were, we checked out Moraine Lake and Lake Louise. Moraine Lake was extraordinarily gorgeous with a deep turquoise color and surrounded by glacier-topped peaks; no wonder it is on the Canadian $20 bill! Slightly less beautiful, greener, and more crowded, Lake Louise is a fairly commercialized lake surrounded by a sprawling Fairmont resort. Still, both lakes were amazing and well worth the time to see. That night, it was so cold that I allowed Tucker to sleep upstairs, even though we would never get out all his hair and dirt from our bedding and he typically takes up most of the bed (surprising, considering how small he is). Dani was very pleased!

The view from the "Rockpile" at Moraine Lake

The next morning, we checked out the main sights in Kootenay; Paint Pots and Marble Canyon. After seeing so many beautiful and awesome sights throughout the trip, we weren’t expecting much from these two humble sights, but we were happily surprised! Paint Pots is a collection of pools that have a high concentration of iron. A cold spring feeds a stream that spreads the iron out and creates an amazing area of deep orange-red clay called ochre. With the stream running through it, it honestly looks like a river of Tikka Masala sauce! Even more impressive was Marble Canyon, carved over thousands of years by a glacier-fed stream, the unassuming canyon hike begins as walk along a small river that has cut a few feet into the rock. Within ten minutes of walking, you are on the ridge of the narrow canyon looking down around 60 feet to the river below. In some places, the canyon walls wave and bend so much you can’t even see the river. The out-and-back hike ends at the falls that have slowly cut their way through the rock, forming the impressive canyon. This was definitely the highlight of Kootenay National Park in our book. Afterwards, we headed down to Radium Hot Springs where we soaked and relaxed for a couple hours (we like hot springs). That night we camped on Crown Land at Lake Enid Recreation Area outside of the national parks where we fell asleep to the wild, peaceful and comforting ambiance of gunshots, partiers, and generators.

The stream of tikka masala sauce at Paint Pots!

One of the impressive views looking into Marble Canyon.

Jasper - August 14th – 18th

We drove the Icefields Parkway twice: once on our way into Jasper and once on the return trip. The Icefields parkway is a famous scenic stretch of highway through Banff and Jasper National Parks. It is stunning with incredible views and massive, yet quickly retreating (sad face), glaciers along the way.  On the 14^th, we stopped to gaze at Peyto Lake, Crow Foot, Bow, and Athabasca glaciers, as well as completed a 3-mile hike along Parker Ridge to a viewpoint overlooking Saskatchewan glacier. Much to our dismay, we were not actually allowed to hike ON the glacier without paying an outrageous fee to take a glorified truck less than a quarter mile onto the ice. Oh well, the views were spectacular regardless, and we saw a black bear along the side of the road. We did, however, have to make 6 stops due to some spicy meat sticks that Andy had eaten the day before.

Peyto Lake

View of Saskatchewan Glacier from Parker Ridge.

On our way up to Miette Hot Springs the next day, we saw people wading into a gigantic lake. It looked like a bunch of Jesus’ out there (walking on water), but turns out that the entire glacier lake was just less than knee deep. We stopped and spent at least an hour walking through the water with Tucker. For those of you that do not know, Tucker HATES water, but he was a champ, followed us out there, played water fetch, and even got his belly wet… no small miracle (maybe Jesus was there!). After our adventures in Talbot Lake, we saw a momma bear and her cub along the road while we were driving up to Miette Hot Springs. The baby was adorable as it tried to play with the momma in the middle of the road! After recovering from a short bout of cuteness overload, we soaked for a few hours in the pools at the hot springs. Warmed, rested, and relaxed, we headed back into Jasper for some research and planning for the coming days.

Tucker pseudo swimming in Talbot Lake.  

Momma bear and her cub!

The following day, we ran some errands in town and saw Medicine and Maligne Lakes before starting our 3^rd backpacking trip to Jacque Lac (French for lake). It was pouring rain as we were starting the hike in leaving the trail a muddy disaster. The elevation gain over the 8 mile hike was negligible, but we were exhausted by the end of it, as our legs had still not recovered from all of the hiking over the past weeks. The Canadian National Park backcountry campground was… interesting. There was a common area with three picnic tables, fire pits, and bear poles and a separate area where the tent sites were crammed together like sardines. There were eight other backpackers at the lake, all of which were locals from the surrounding area. Unfortunately, I got pulled by Tuck into the mud along the trail around the campground and my new shoes were soaked. So being the genius that I am I took them off and cleaned them in the frigid river/lake, before realizing that now my shoes were wet and I did not have any others. So, no big deal, I’m a problem solver (and per my previous mention, a genius) I’ll just dry them by the fire…. WRONG, I’ll melt the plastic of the sole of the shoe by the fire. I was so disappointed!  

Backpacking to Jacque Lake.

On the 17^th, we hiked out from Jacque Lac and quickly went to try and snag a campsite near Jasper. It was already after 2pm and we had not reserved a campsite so we were worried we would be SOL. Luck was on our side, however, because we pulled up to the first campsite (which was reservation only) and asked if there was any chance something was available. She said no, they were full, but there may be one site available at Wapiti, only 5 minutes away. She called over there to confirm it was still available and then sold it to us right then and there. While she was on the phone another couple pulled up to the other side of the window. They were told that all campgrounds were full in Jasper and were directed 40 minutes away to an overflow camp lot for the same price as we were paying!

Basking in our glory, we went to our site and took showers. There was a humongous buck in the campground with more points on his antlers than either of us had either seen. After snapping some photos, we went to the Jasper rodeo where we lucked out again getting parking on site even though they said in town that none was available! Although the pro riders were much better than those at the rodeo in Jackson, the entertainment factor was disappointing. The speakers cut out and the clown was… inappropriate. Two examples: 1. He pointed out (with extreme enthusiasm) that a family in the audience was from the UK, but ASIAN! He made this point several times as if we should all be shocked, explaining that he was not sure if they were Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. but they were ASIAN! And from the UK! 2. He asked a man in the audience where he was from. The man responded that he was German. Then the clown (who had a mullet by the way) made hand gestures that could only be recognized as Nazi salute before partially correcting himself and altering the gesture into a touchdown celebration move. To make things even better, I got clocked in the jaw by the shoulder of a teenager trying to make his way out of the grand stands. You might be asking yourself, how did that happen?... well, I’m not exactly sure, but it hurt A LOT and that is the take away message.

Buck passing through our campground.

That night, we woke up at 2am to see the stars since it was the last night of a meteor shower. Unfortunately, the full moon was more like the sun that night and we couldn’t see anything. We got up in the morning and started our southern decent. We got a campsite at Wilcox Campground off of the Icefield’s parkway and left for a hike from our campsite up Wilcox pass. It was an incredible hike with amazing views of the glaciers. We voted it best hike of the entire trip, even though we were completely “hiked out” by this point. 

View of Athabasca and Dome Glaciers from the trail to Wilcox Pass.

View of Athabasca Glacier from Wilcox Pass.