Coming Home

Greetings from Delhi! +1 managed to book an earlier flight home for me so I won’t have to spend 4 days in Delhi alone as he’s heading south for work – hurray! We used a few more miles to upgrade my seats to business class, which means I’ll get a seat that lays flat.  Airline miles are no joke. A little credit card coordination goes a long way; this year alone between the Philippines and Europe/India I’ve received over $6,000 in free flights. If you are interested, you should bookmark and scan blogs from www.boardingarea.com

Our last week has been amazing. In addition to paragliding, we held angora bunnies, +1 showed me up at a carnival style shooting game (“and you call yourself an officer”), and we repelled down waterfalls. I thought I’d be all slick and bounce down the waterfall like nobodies business because the Army has forced me to repel down numerous large wooden towers. Wrong. The surface under the waterfalls was slippery as hell.  I suppose we could have mitigated the effect with appropriate shoes (I was in walking sandals, +1 in knockoff crocs), but perhaps not as the algae was pretty thick. It was a lot of fun, though probably much more advanced than what beginners should be doing.

Last night we stayed in a Country Inn and Suites, complete with free breakfast, wifi, all the hot water you can stand, and a really nice outdoor pool surrounded by a vertical garden – much, much nicer than any Country Inn and Suites you would encounter in the US. AND – it was free! I stayed at Country Inn and Suites one night in Richmond for work and got 45,000 points – a temporary deal found via the travel blog in the first paragraph. I have two more free stays left as this hotel only costs 15,000 points a night.

For dinner we dined at Pizza Hut in the mall nearby and got ice cream from McDonalds for desert. As with the hotel, they are both much nicer than at home. Jobs are hard to come by, with or without an education. This means many of the retail shops, hotels, and restaurants are full of over-qualified people who are grateful to have work and take great pride in what they do, whatever it is.

It’s not all gravy of course and I certainly won’t miss all of the cutting in line and pushing/shoving, the taxi drivers and sales people constantly trying to gouge us, or the intense pains of guilt I get when staring abject poverty in the face. However, I will miss the chai, the kindness of strangers, and the magical way India constantly reminds you what's most important in life. 

I can’t believe the summer is coming to an end; it’s been an amazing adventure.  The next few months are going to be busy as well – meeting Amelia, starting the new job, getting promoted to First Lieutenant, transferring units, and house hunting. I am very happy and feel extraordinarily lucky.  I love you all and am looking forward to catching up this fall.

Hugs and hugs,

Erin

Manali

Yesterday +1 and I explored Manali,which is full of Kullu shawls and other lovely handwoven goods.... I'm all shopped out at the moment.When we first got to town a small boy approached me and put his hands to his lips - a common gesture used to ask for money, presumably because the person is hungry. In the larger cities, beggars are everywhere and it's easy to lose a bit of your humanity as you turn everyone away out of fear that if you give one person money hundreds of others will ask you for some as well. This happened to me on my last trip to India when I handed a child a hair tie or a pen (I don't remember which), and within a minute I was literally surrounded by a small mob of children, wanting the same thing (luckily I had enough for everyone). Another concern is that if you give someone money, someone else will notice and steal it from them. Once while on one of my very rare trips off post in Afghanistan we handed a couple of kids water bottles and moments later they were attacked by other kids who did not have water and a fight broke out.

But Manali is a small place and when the boy approached me I looked around and didn't see any other children near us, so I gave him the only small bill I had (5 rupees = 9 cents). He immediately took it over to the fruit vendor, haggled for the best piece of fruit he could get for 9 cents, and scarfed it down like he was starving... which, you know, he was. I ran back and gave him a little more money, but of course it's not enough and there are millions more like him in India.
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On a lighter note, we found an impeccably clean restaurant that plays good jazz music. The owner is a Korean woman (fluent in Korean, Hindi, and English), and her Indian spouse. Chris had a handmade tofu pasta dish and I had veggie sushi, to die for. Very good and very unexpected up here in the mountains.
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Today we went paragliding with a professional paraglider - Chris found him on the internet (I'll refer to him as AJ for now as I don't know how to spell his name). AJ's splits him time between Manali, India and Nepal, has been paragliding for 18 years, and competes professionally in international competitions. I was really nervous, but after meeting and talking with him all of my anxiety lifted and I had zero qualms about literally running off the edge of a cliff. It was the.best.thing.I.have.ever.done. AJ gives 10 day flying classes in Nepal between September-March and I have every intention of going - probably not this year as I won't have enough leave built up, but next. I'm already dreaming of soaring through the snow capped mountains.

That's all for now. Love from the East,

Erin

Mandi

A few days ago I was in Mandi, a small, religious town composed of several monasteries and hundreds of religious pilgrims. While we were there, +1 and I witnessed a brazen, daylight theft. Most of the store owners have open air stalls and lack a front wall/door – a garage-type door is used to shut the store down at night. Each shop is usually manned by the store owner and they occasionally have to step away from the shop – to use the restroom, grab a bite to eat, chat with the store owner next door, etc. This particular shop had a slew of snacks and trial size toiletries hanging from a bar at the front of the store. The guy lifted an entire string of chips – about 10 packs total – he ran in, snatched them, and ran out in seconds. By the time people around us realized what had happened he was halfway down the street.

All you could see was a blur of monkey and a string of blue bags flapping in the wind behind him.

In addition to thieving monkeys, Mandi has a slew of trout in their small lake. Merchants sell fish food and locals throw in raw dough. Everyone seemed to feed the fish – they all congregated on one side of the lake where they were fed and were fat. In addition to feeding the fish some people also pet them, and a few tried to pick them up. The trout literally spend all day, everyday, clamoring against one another, fighting for the next bit of food. If there is a Dante’s hell for fish, this is probably one of the deeper levels. I’ll post video once I get a good internet connection.

I also befriended a baby cow and +1 and I spent some time talking to a Buddhist monk that ran a coffee shop (proceeds went to the monastery). He was very kind, but he didn’t have a family and seemed pretty lonely. I also met a guy from Philly who was insane. I don’t mean crazy like the homeless guy in the street whose eyes you avoid because he’s yelling at an invisible person. That kind of crazy is comparatively mild. This crazy was calmer, had a soft voice, spoke very very very slowly, and knowingly smiled at you as though the two of you shared a secret you hadn’t been let in on. It was the kind of crazy you inexplicably pick up on within seconds of meeting someone, even if you’ve never met anyone like them before. The coffee shop monk later brought him up and told us (without us asking) that he’d gone insane after spending 3 years in a local monastery.

We only spent a couple of days in Mandi before spending 7 hours on a local bus to travel 80 kilometers through the mountains. 7 hours. 80 kilometers. I shit you not. I sat in the suicide seat at the front next to the driver for the first hour.  Most of the roads were paved but they usually aren’t wide enough for two vehicles, so you often end up with one set of tires on the pavement and the other in the dirt. That’s fine when you’re on the inside, but when you’re on the outside and there’s 12 inches between the tire and a 800 foot drop it’s entirely different. The trick is not to pay attention, which I failed at doing. The tires had no tread and parts of the dirt shoulder that lay next to the paved road had washed away such that you absolutely couldn’t scoot off the pavement, which meant if another vehicle needed to pass in the opposite direction one bus would have to back up until they got to a point in the road with a wide shoulder. And that’s just the rural areas. In the city, it’s the opposite – rather than fearing the pain of death I was sure we were going to kill someone on the street and it seemed like I was sitting in an opening scene of a horror movie where a bus is barreling out of control through crowds of people and the camera zooms in on the bus driver and you see his head doing 360s atop his neck.

Luckily, everyone lived.

A couple of days before our trip, 40+ people weren’t so lucky – they died when their bus dropped off into a 200ft gorge in an area near us. All of that being said, the drivers we’ve had have been the most skilled ones I’ve ever seen. They make NASCAR look like child’s play.

 Now I’m sitting pretty just outside Manali at a hotel with clean sheets, hot water, a backup generator, and a balcony overlooking the valley of the gods. +1 and I just had dinner in a shack raised up on thick sticks with a wood/cardboard floor and a tarp ceiling. For 73 cents we gorged ourselves on a spicy thali. Thali is the set Indian meal served at local restaurants and is usually cheaper than any other meal on the menu. We both had veg tahli, which typically consists of rice, veggies, beans, lentils, and chapattis (a flat bread). Spicy lips, spicy belly, spicy bum. Yum yum.

I’m off to rest up for our next adventure. Love ya’ll!

Erin

Mama's Momo

About a week ago I discovered a new food, momo. Momo is a steam/fried dumpling with spiced veggies inside. It is amazing. If you buy the steamed variety you get to binge on well spiced food until you are stuffed with minimal guilt because it's just veggies and some dough. A typical day looked like this:

Wake up at 10am. Buy croissants and apple crumble for breakfast and take them to local restaurant to eat with some chai. Buy a few things from the shops. Take a walk. Nap. Eat a snack. Walk. Surf Internet. Eat momo. Read. (ok, perhaps a little more internet than that).

I looked up how to make momo and discovered it's not very difficult. My +1 recommended I open a food cart in DC and name is Mama's Momo. I thought this was a fabulous idea....

Until I vomited 2 kilos of momo a few nights ago. Now neither of us can stand to eat it (he held my hair and helped me clean up), so mama's momo is no more. On the bright side, I can see my hip bones. Illness is sexy, sort of. 

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Kasol is a popular destination for backpackers seeking to trek through the Himalayas and Israelis on vacation. The town survives on tourist revenue, apples, and marijuana. The only school here goes to the 7th grade. You hear that and it's sad, but distant, until you realize the person working 14 hours a day/7 days a week in the coffee shop serving espresso, the waiter serving dinner, the hotel staff scrubbing your bathroom and changing your sheets are younger than Matthew. I think about him a lot here because I see so many kids younger than him who are done with school and are settling into daily habits that may last the rest of their lives. 

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Someone thinks I have a nice reading voice so I've recently spent an inordinate amount of time reading Terry Pratchett novels aloud, in between kicking his butt in shithead (a 2 person card game). There's also been quite a bit of haggling, thankfully +1 loves to haggle. I do not. I hate conflict and I'm usually willing to pay to avoid  it. During my last trip, Ben and Tim did the haggling for me, so I avoided it then as well. It's an important skill though as there are few fixed prices - many things are up for negotiation (hotel rooms, jewelry  clothing, etc.). He haggles and I scrub the bathrooms in the hotel rooms. It works out well. (Bathroom cleaning techniques here leave much to be desired, but at $6 a night, who can complain?). 

Overall, it's been lovely. I miss you all though and feel a bit homesick and have started to think about all of the things I need to do when I get home. I'm hoping to spend some time with Amelia and in SC when I return as I think there will be an onboarding delay with work because they won't start the background check until I return and provide fingerprints. Also, it looks like we'll be visiting Melanie for weekend in October as +1 will be speaking at U of M - (assuming my drilling schedule is clear - I'm being reassigned in September but don't know where to..). 

That's all for now. Love ya'll!

Erin

Berlin

Greetings from Parvati Valley in Northern India. I've got a couple of weeks to catch up on as I got carried away with not working...

I stayed in Berlin for a full week - we rented an apartment off airbnb.com in what turned out to be the most popular street of the most young/hip neighborhood in the city. This meant that throughout the day and evening you could hear the street performers serenading the restaurants' customers below - the artists were all very good and it was much better than playing music from my laptop.

Food throughout the city is very inexpensive and I found an amazing sushi shop that sold 6 piece veggie roles for 2 euros each.


 Also, the public transportation is efficient, clean, and includes a line that circles the city, making it much easier/faster to get around.



On Sunday morning, Chris and I headed to a nearby park that hosts a weekly flea market, but it's more like a small festival when the weather is good. It was particularly nice the day we went - filled with cool vintage shops, excellent food, musicians, and street performers. It was very crowded, but everyone was  laid back, relaxed, and friendly - jeans/tshirts/smiles/children, etc. I really enjoyed the vibe and felt more at home here than I have anywhere else to date. If this park were in the US I'd live near it.

We saw a mime show - it drew hundreds of viewers:

This is Yaam - a venue for sports/concerts/hanging out. It was on the water and family friendly - people of all ages and colors were hanging out together.

Cash money millionaire bear.

A water pump 

I took an 8 hour walking tour of the city for 15 euros and saw:

Museum island

Government buildings

Jewish memorial. This was a very interesting place - the memorial is a set of 5,000+ bare concrete blocks, some nearly 5 meters high. Children and adults alike run across the top of them like it's a playground and there are no signs above ground that indicate what the memorial is for. For these reasons, I disliked it immensely. 

A group bicycle contraption. Next time... 

Reconstructed checkpoint charlie.

The next few images are from the Stasi museum, which showcased the methods the secret police of east germany used. 

sounds familiar

Scent samples were taken from individuals who underwent lengthy interrogations. 

A camera disguised as a button. 

These are local actors posing as Soldiers to earn money.

The next day, I took a 6 hour walking tour of Potsdam, which is just outside the city. We explored two parks, which were filled with palaces. Potsdam was a popular destination for the wealthy seeking relief from Berlin's noise and smog. 

Unfortunately my internet connection at my current location isn't strong enough for photo uploads, so I'll post them later on. Overall, I really enjoyed my time in Berlin. The history is fascinating and it was great to hear the story of WW2 surrounded by so much context. Growing up, and even in college, history classes were my least favorite courses - they were dull and history teachers seemed more interested in my ability to memorize facts than anything else.  But experiencing history as a story, without any expectation of regurgitation or having to appease a professor by explaining events in a manner that fit into their worldview was lovely. 

France

I took french classes from the 5th grade through my sophomore year in college. As such, you'd think I could speak some amount of french (I can't) or that I'd be horribly excited to see Paris (I wasn't). I had some strange sense of familiarity of the city when I saw it - probably because I've seen so many pictures  and have heard/read about it in all of my french language classes. Nevertheless, I was happy to finally go.

On the sidewalk after a rain:

A local outdoor food market. Here, people shop for food nearly everyday, rather than 2-3 big trips a month. Quality of ingredients is very important and there far fewer processed foods. 

I learned how to cook a fish and remove the bones before eating it. Bleh. If I had to prepare all of my meat meals from the animal I'd definitely be a vegetarian. 

McDonalds is much nicer in France and they have kiosks where you can place an order. I didn't eat there, but I thought the upscale decor  and relatively thin patrons were interesting. 

I'm told this is a very french park, as evidenced by the perfectly manicured trees and shrubs. It was beautiful. 

Notre Dam

Puss in boots!

The police - high speed boat chase? 

This was outside the Louvre. The guard dog had a large leather muzzle over it's mouth.

A perfect lunch in Paris - ham and cheese sandwich on excellent bread and a chocolate eclair. mmmm. We need better bread in the US.

I hiked (ok, paid a euro and took a funicular (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montmartre_funicular)) up to Montmartre. At the top was a large church, a beautiful view of the city, musicians (guitar, cello, violin), painters, and beautiful homes covered in greenery and flowers. 

In a window:

Street art

For Mufasa : ) 

Wall art at a train station.

After a couple of days in Paris I flew to Toulouse where I met up with Cedric, a guy I'd hosted in DC last summer off couchsurfing.org. He immediately took me to an excellent restaurant for lunch that his friend owns - they have a fixed menu - you pay 12 euros and get fresh bread, a salad, an entree, dessert, and coffee - we sat outside under grape vines - it was lovely. 

Next, we rented a bike to get around Toulouse:

This is a motorcycle with three wheels - I'm told locals buy them because it allows them to get a larger engine without having to upgrade their driver's license.

A free public restroom. I like the idea of everyone having access to a toilet.

A steam punk merry-go-round. This particular piece was a flying machine and the wings flapped up and down and the children could pedal. The whole thing was awesome. 

A store for jugglers:

An amazing, melt-in-your-mouth pastry with gold leaf on top. You will be missed.

Fresh bread. Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. 

A vendor at a flea market was selling things you need to make your own shot gun rounds. The shells are on the bottom right, the gun powder is in the jars on the bottom left, and the rods used to pack the shells are in the trunk. Pellets were sold elsewhere.

Smoked calf meat. I tried it. The taste was good, but the texture was terrible - very soft and tender - I'd expected something more like beer jerky. People I met in France ate a lot of meat, many 3 times a day. I went to a fancy restaurant and had a 3 course meal and there wasn't a single vegetarian option. 

This is a condom vending machine - they can be found throughout the city. I explained to my hosts that condoms in the states are usually inside pharmacies. He thought that was ridiculous and asked how people got condoms when the stores were closed.

We spent a day touring a medieval village and hiking through a canyon. It was exhausting, but beautiful.

We had lunch by a river:

I could almost hear the horses trotting through the village and felt as though I'd traveled back in the time  as all of the buildings were very old, some as early as the 12th century. I had no idea stone houses could be used for that long. Villages like this are popular retirement destinations for the English - so much so that several of the bookstores only carried English books. I can understand the appeal.