Touchdown.

Namaste folks!
I'm very sorry that I couldn't update you guys earlier about my journey, but my email didn't work. But hey! We made it safe and sound to India and we have been travelling without any problems whatsoever for more than a week now! The cultural shock was less intense than expected to be honest. I did see some shocking things that you wouldnt see anywhere else, but I guess you just deal with it in some sort of way. The first few days were spent in Dehli where we hired a private cab driver for the whole day to show us arround Dehli. We drove a bicycle cab throught the narrow smokey streets of the oldest market of the city and we visited one of the oldest temples in the city where we were blessed by a priest. Dehli was fine, and after that we went to the holiest city of India; Varanassi. People say that Varanassi is the city where life and death go hand in hand. You could say that this is true since every person in India wants to be cremated here at the banks of the Ganges. So the whole city kind of stinks like fire burning and when you go to a cremation ground, prepare to see shocking stuff like half burned bodies in a pile of fire. Also, beware of people trying to scam you (This is actually a general advice for India as a whole). Agree on a price before hand and stick to it, and make sure you don't get pulled into parts of the city where you didn't wanted to go in the first place because people make you pay big time. But all in all we managed to survive Varanassi pretty well, and we ended up taking an early morning boat ride along the ganges with the most amazing sights and doing yoga for the first time! That was interesting I must say and we were sore for a few days after, but I liked it! After Varanassi we went to Agra, where the Taj Mahal is. You'll immediately notice that this city is far more better organised and cleaner than any other city. The Taj Mahal is not cheesey at all. It is truely a must! It's far more bigger than you would expect and when you go at six in the morning prepare yourself for perhaps one of the most beautiful sights in the morning. When we were there, the sun just came up colouring the sky with blue, pink and orange and there was low-hanging fog to add an air of mysticysm to the whole scene. We took some pretty amazing shots I must say. Yesterday we went to a nature reserve to get out of the city for once. It was very beautiful with birds in all shapes and sizes and the most amazing colours! We also saw two pythons, antilopes and many deer. Yesterdayevening we took a sleeper bus to Pushkar, which is in the desert of India. It is beautiful here, but we're taking it mellow today since we are all very tired, but maybe tomorrow we'll go on a camel safari and sleep in the desert overnight! I'm so excited! I'll try and update you soon!

Oh btw, if you want to see more pictures, I've uploaded many of them to my facebook. Just search me up on facebook and hit the India album. (:

The countdown begins...

I just can't believe I'll be flying to Dehli on monday! It's surreal!
There was a little stressfull moment last week concerning our visas; the people of the visa agency called that we had to send additional information for our application within the hour, or our visas couldn't be arranged in time. With stress levels reaching into outer space, eventually everything worked out. Tomorrow we'll hear if our visas have been arranged in time. I'm a little worried though, but if they aren't on time, we'll just fly in one or two days later. So one advice people; if you are about to go to a country where you need a visa, send you application a few weeks before you leave and also get your shots a few weeks before you leave! It's so stressful if there's trouble with arranging it.
Anyways, Eva and me skyped Kaylee yesterday and I think everything except for our visas is arranged! I'm packing lightely for the journey. I will only take two outfits with me and only the essentials. The rest I'll buy in India. This because I don't want to have to carry a heavy backpack for a month with me. That was the case in Italy last November and I can tell you; it's no fun. So yet another travel advice; Only pack the essentials for your journey and a good, thick book!
Having watched the movie Darjeeling Limited last week with Eva made me so excited for India! It's a very good movie about three brothers travelling through India together on this awesome train! I hope the trains in India do look like that! Anyways, I recommend that if you go to India, you watch this movie together with Slumdog Millionaire. That will get you in a good Indian mood.
I think I will have trouble sleeping this last week before I leave. This week is already going too slow. Please! Make this week go by fast! Please!

Preparations.

Here I am in gloomy, grey, cold Holland. Sitting at my desk at work. I probably should be working right now, but there is no work to be done right now. So I took this oppertunity to tell you about the preparations that I've done so far for India!

First of all, when you go to India you need shots. India is not the most hygenic country, so you should protect yourself against scary diseases and make sure you eat only good food. Good food in this context is cooked food. It kills the bacteria in them and for as drinks, you should only buy bottles that are sealed with a cap. I've also been warned about waiters serving your drinks with their fingers inside of the glass. Since I work at a company which makes vaccinations, I got the shots for free! I needed three of them and I got three different pills to take when I'm in India. Bad side of shots was that I had sore arms for three days afterwards...

Second of all; you need a visa. To be honest, we are still working on that. I had to fill out two forms with my information and what I was going to do in India and hopefully that will be sufficiant to get a visa.

Third of all is to book your first hotel in India. I got the news that Kaylee's mother booked a hotel in Dehli for us for three days! A shuttle will pick us up from the airport, which is really handy because we arrive in Dehli at one in the evening! I hope Eva didn't forget to thank her, I'm really gratefull!

It's really surreal to think that I will be in India in 18 days... many people already warned us about a heavy culture shock, esspecially about the beggars everywhere that won't leave you alone no matter what you do. I'm curious; I can't imagine travelling arround India with beggars EVERYWHERE you go. That would be annoying.

But I guess we'll see. Our plans for so far are to be spending several days in Dehli, than make our way to Rajasthan where we will be riding camels, after that to some kind of temple at a sacred lake and to going to visit Mumbai. We don't have anything confirmed so far! That means that we will be planning our trip along the way. Adventurous huh? Haha, we'll be fine though, I'm sure!

Ok folks, I have to get back to work! I'll keep you updated!