We are in Goa now, on the western coast of India. It is absolutely beautiful here, with lots of mostly empty beaches along the Arabian Sea, markets, and restaurants/bars. We rented a couple of scooters, and are having a great time beach-hopping and sight-seeing. Goa was a Portuguese colony for a long time, and there are lots of Catholic churches and Portuguese names here. It is a really interesting mix of cultures. There are little Hindu-style shrines all over, but with pictures of Jesus instead of whatever Hindu god. We visited a church called the Basilica of Bom Jesus today, in which the body of St. Francis Xavier is displayed in a glass casket. Conor - I took an "X" picture for you in front of the church.

Mumbai was awesome, and has probably been my favorite place of the whole trip. We were warned by so many people before going there about how dirty and crowded it is, but I actually thought it was a lot nicer than Delhi. We went on a tour of Darhavi, which is the slum from Slumdog Millionaire (our guide was not a fan of the movie). Darhavi has 1.5 million people living in a 1.75 square km space. It is all a maze of incredibly narrow alleys and streets - really fascinating. We also went to the house where Gandhi lived in for 17 years while he was in Mumbai, saw some good museums, visited Elephanta island where there are 1500 year-old caves with huge carvings of Shiva, and ate lots of very good Indian food.

I have some great pictures (including one of me and Nancy with some Bollywood actress who was on our flight), but don't have time to post now. Hope everyone is doing well at home!

My failed attempt at almost-Everest

It's been a busy couple of days in Darjeeling. Yesterday, we watched the sunrise from Tiger Hill, a high point outside of Darjeeling with 360 degree views of the Himalayas. Although it was a little cloudy, we had excellent views of Kachenjunga (the 3rd largest mountain in the world) and, if I hallucinated a little bit, the tip of Mt. Everest. In the afternoon (after a long nap - the sun rises here at 5 am), we hiked down to the Tibetan Refugee Self-Help center. The center houses 700 Tibetan refugees, and teaches them skills like carpet weaving and metal work. It was really neat, especially seeing the women working at their looms.

Sunrise over prayer flags on Tiger Hill.

Today we hired a guide and went on a day trek along the Indo-Nepal border. The hike was really beautiful, up in the clouds with amazing views. We made it about 6 km (all uphill, btw), with a stop at a hilltop Buddhist monastery, before it starting storming - torrential rain, hail, thunder, lightning, the works. We didn't have any rain gear with us, since we were only going for a day, so we got absolutely drenched. We were rescued by a 700 year-old Nepali lady who invited us into her house, let us warm up by the fire, gave us hot tea, and called a Jeep to come get us. By the time the Jeep got there, it had stopped raining, but we were all so cold and wet that we threw in the towel and drove back to the hotel. The experience was the closest I'll probably ever get to climbing Mt. Everest, and it was a big Fail. Jordan Romero, I am not. Despite the insane weather, it was a great, although short-lived, Nepali trek.

Nancy and I, in raincoats borrowed from a generous guide, attempting to stay dry under an overhang.

After we made it back into town and dried off, Jeremy and I wandered around for a bit. He came upon a monkey that was clearly not happy to see him, but he thought needed to be taunted anyway. Well big surprise, the monkey attacked him. Jeremy ran down a hill and the monkey turned on me, chasing me up the hill and actually grabbing onto my leg. I screamed like I was being murdered and it backed off and jumped up onto a nearby fence. I had to wait until a big group of people came by so I could safely walk past the monkey, down the hill, to where Jeremy and a policeman were having a big laugh at my expense.

Tomorrow we are leaving Darjeeling, and its over-population of monkeys, for Mumbai, the "New York City of India".

Darjeeling limited

We have finished our time in Delhi and have moved on up to the mountains of Darjeeling, in the state of West Bengal (no sightings of Bengal tigers or Ochocinco's yet - sorry Dad and Conor). The ride up the mountain was without a doubt the most terrifying 3 hours of my life. The last half of the trip, we were driving through a cloud in the dark, so our driver had about 3 feet of visability, and could have driven off a cliff at any second. I said 2 full rosaries, I'm pretty sure I gave myself a new forehead wrinkle, and I woke up with a sore left forearm from gripping onto the door handle so tightly.

Once we arrived, things improved drastically. Darjeeling is stunningly beautiful, with some real rustic charm. It has the biggest mountains I've ever seen. Supposedly you can see Mt. Everest from certain points in town, but so far it has been too cloudy. Everyone hangs their laundry outside to dry (which I assume takes forever since everything is usually within a cloud), which makes it very colorful and, I think, really homey.

There are monkeys hanging out all over town. May is apparently the month for baby monkeys because they are everywhere, and really funny looking.

Darjeeling is famous for its tea, and there are tea plantations all around the outskirts of town. We visited one of them and saw the whole tea-making process - from the women picking the tea on the hillsides to the withering/rolling/fermenting/drying of the tea leaves - and got to taste some different teas. It was like a less-fun version of a winery tour, but still really interesting.

Tea party!

We visited the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, which has a trekking school and a museum about climbing Everest. The sherpa who was on the first successful trip up Everest, Tenzing Norgay, was from Darjeeling, and the museum had all of his climbing gear on display. His stuff was pretty low-tech - he just had woolen mittens and socks, and some furry boots with spikes on them - which makes the fact that he made it up alive and with all of his extremities intact even more impressive.

A lot of our time has been spent just walking up and down the hills of town. Darjeeling is kind of similar to Dharamsala, in that there is a very large Tibetan/Nepali population here and lots of Buddhist temples and monks. Unlike Dharamsala, however, it is much less westernized and still feels very much like we're in a crowded third-world country. I actually really like it here - it has all the charms of India without so much poverty, and no "beggar mafia". If only it was about 6000 feet closer to sea level.

A very ornate Buddhist monastery.

Jeremy joined us Sunday in Darjeeling, after 2 days on his own, during which he managed to amass some very classic India stories. He went down to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, and his train caught on fire. Seriously. His railcar filled up with smoke, and he was shoved out the door onto the tracks by 50 other panicked passengers. The train stopped, the fire was put out with a fire extinguisher, and they were loaded back on the train and went on their way. Only in India. In Agra, he met a very helpful auto-rickshaw driver, who took him around all day and showed him the sights, and even let him drive the auto for a bit. I'm very glad I wasn't there to see it.

The train on fire.

Jeremy driving an auto-rickshaw. He's lucky to be alive.