Day 92: A Raj Kauchori in Old Delhi

We decided to walk to Old Delhi from the backpacker district of Paharganj in the New Delhi part of town. What an adventure! Walking from one part of town to another is something of a test to see how well you can keep your eyes open and on everything around you at the same time. Because, if you fail this test, you'll likely be run into by a rickshaw driver, motorcyclist, or you'll step in poop. We walked through sections of town that reminded me of a more chaotic and dirty version of Seoul. Entire rows of buildings selling kitchen accessories. Then one street devoted to paper. Card shops lined the street behind rickshaws weighed down by industrial sized packages of uncut paper. I wasn't paying attention at one point and was nearly knocked over by stacks of cardboard on the back of one rickshaw. I walked away more annoyed with myself than rattled by the slight collision. We arrived at Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India, just in time for prayer, which meant we weren't allowed in until it was finished. We relaxed and then made our way to Old Delhi, and the infamous Haldirams for a snack.

I think I get pretty lucky when it comes to people allowing me to take their picture. I think a lot of this luck is due to being a woman. Andrew can't get away with photographing a group of little girls quite like I can. I love this about being a female photographer. I think we (as females with cameras) aren't as scary as men. I also think despite having thousands of dollars worth of gear, I'm not taken as seriously as other photographers. You know, the ones with the vest and the obvious camera bag and possibly two dslrs slung around their necks. I often get disgruntled about this kind of bias, but I try to use this to my advantage when it involves photography.

I've become so smitten with the school children piled into rickshaws that we've been seeing since we arrived in Delhi. Backpacks are piled on the roof or bunched up, hanging off the side of the rickshaw. I've counted as many as fifteen bags hanging off the sides of one rickshaw and I'm only assuming that just as many school children are piled inside. I love it. It also makes me chuckle a little thinking about what their reaction would be to the spacious yellow school buses back home. I bet they could fit their entire school into one of those buses, but no way would it be able to navigate down the skinny streets of Delhi!

I pointed to my camera when we walked past a few rickshaws with children in them, obviously waiting for the rest of their count to get out of school. The girls started squealing with excitement and quickly pulled eachother together for a picture. Then they pointed to their friends in another rickshaw. Then the driver pointed to one girl off on her own who was too shy to ask me. None of them spoke English, but that didn't stop us from having fun taking pictures and then looking at them on the LCD screen. 

After the improptu photo shoot, we ducked into Haldirams to try some lemon soda (a new favorite drink of mine, especially if it has some mint in it!) and a Raj Kauchori. The guidebooks insisted we try both and I was not disappointed. It may have been too soon for Andrew to try something so adventurous, but I enjoyed trying something incredibly new. It was nothing like I've had before and every bite felt a bit like a surprise- in a good way. Basically a Raj Kauchori is a crispy "puris" think: a giant hollow cheese ball without the cheese flavor. The puris is then filled with different stuffings with different kinds of chutneys. The Haldiram's version is smothered in yogurt with more, different flavors of chutney drizzled on top and some crispy bits thrown on for good measure. Usually when someone says something is "interesting" to taste, it's not necessarily a good thing, right? But in this case, it is. A very, very good thing. 

I've seen versions of this on the street (not quite so elaborate) but have been too nervous to try it after our bouts with food poisoning. On the street it's a much more simplified version- Just the puff with a stuffing and then a broth spooned into it. They don't look nearly as exciting as the pretty Raj Kauchori of Haldirams.

Day 64: One Day in BKK

Arriving in Bangkok an hour early (around six in the morning), we were exhausted and not exactly looking forward to the next 24 hours of not having a bed to lay down in and more travel. Instead of another day of coffee shop hopping, we ended up camping out at a rooftop pool on Kao Sarn Road. This is a major touristy road in Bangkok, that is a little fun for the first time, but after two (or more) it's not. I was relieved to escape to several stories above the clothing and food vendors, Gangnam Style blasting (on repeat), and the tourists eager to get their drink on. We camped out, slept, swam, left our bags while we went out for lunch (and then dinner), and even showered before heading off to the airport to catch our 1:00 AM flight to New Delhi.

We didn't really sleep… But had we been coherent, there would be a picture on board our Indigo flight to New Delhi, and then when we were camped out in New Delhi's airport in the morning.

Day 60: Peace, Love, Pai

Pai offers trekking tours, elephant rides, and motorbikes and maps to explore around the outskirts of town. But really, Pai wants you to relax. It's practically demanded that you sit in a coffee shop and read, chat, or simply drink something delicious with or without company. And that's just what we did. We slept in late, we ate a huge breakfast at Boomelicious (maybe my favorite restaurant on this trip so far) and then sat with our computers and coffees for awhile. We got up, wandered, found another cafe and sat for awhile, before it was time to streetfood stall hop for dinner and then, get our portrait painted by a street artist.

When in Pai…

Day 49: Kuang Si Falls

Kuang Si Falls is a beautiful three tier waterfall an hour outside of Luang Prabang. Not only is the actual waterfall a beautiful sight, but the water that collects in turqouise pools down the mountain is equally breathtaking. It's a bit on the tourist side, but there are different pools you can seek out to get away and swim in the cool mountain water. There's also a fun rope swing that attracted quite the line by the time we walked back down to go swimming. The night before we ate dinner next to a girl who broke both of her middle fingers (she enjoyed showing those injuries off) jumping off of the rope. Her double bandaged middle fingers scared me a bit from jumping off the rope, so I wimped out and headed for another pool instead of breaking anything today. 

On our way back "home" we heard lots of drum beats and cymbals crashing around from a few steps up into a wat near our guesthouse. We decided to investigate, after all, last time we checked out drum beats, we encountered a dragon in Vietnam. This time around, it seemed like a monk jam session. I have no idea why, but in two different structures, housing big drums, several monks were inside each, beating the big drum, as well as other smaller drums, triangles, and cymbals. It was beautiful, but ended rather abruptly, as if both sets of monks in their respective drum structures had a count going or something, and they all disappeared. Oh Buddhism, so many questions I have for you!

Day 48: Lotsa Buddhas in Luang Prabang

You know you're going to have a good day when you start it off with a chicken, avocado, bacon, and cheese sandwich from a street stall followed by an afternoon strolling around the wats, chatting with monks, cooling off at a pool only to circle back to another street stall: buffet style! Luang Prabang is my favorite city in Laos. It's the one city so far in our travels that I could imagine living in. It's small, but there is quite a bit to do and if you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a sucker for street food. Luang Prabang is full of it. Sandwiches, crepes, noodles, fruit shakes, you name it, it's here and it's delicious! Oh yea, and a night market every night? Full of beautiful silver jewelry and handmade tribal clothing? Yes, please!

We strolled through town with bigger sites circled on a map, a map that was tucked away in a pocket, while we ducked in and out of smaller wats on our way to the bigger, more famous one. While we were taking pictures of one giant gold Buddha, some monks said hello and let on that they were studying English. We sat with them for a little bit in the shade, practicing pronunciation and involuntarily teaching new vocabulary just from our conversation. They were really sweet, three of the four very shy, the outgoing one surprised me when he said he wants to study banking after he finishes secondary school. I wanted to ask so many questions about Buddhism, and being a monk, because I can't speak Lao, I stuck to "Do you like being a monk?" To which he answered, "Yes" and elaborated that it's quiet (except for the morning alms full of tourists and flash photography) and he gets to study a lot.

Wat Xieng Thong is the biggest, perhaps most famous in Luang Prabang. Built in the 1500's by Lao King Setthathirath, until the 1970's it was a royal temple where kings were crowned. It is said to display traditional Lao artwork and is one of the most important monasteries in Laos, even though we only saw one monk there. The wat felt old, and while some details were certainly eye-catching, I preferred the many statues of Buddha within one of the many buildings within the temple walls. 

Over breakfast, a girl staying in the same guesthouse told us she had stayed in Luang Prabang longer than planned (obviously easy to do) mostly because she had been going to a local swimming pool for the past five days. We haven't had enough beach time on this trip, so I've been itching for some sunbathing and swimming. La Pistoche swimming pool is a big fat MEH in my book, but it was better than taking a nap in our guesthouse. After the pool, we headed straight for the night market and the 10,000 kip (a little over $1.00) buffet, and maybe a little bit of market shopping.

Day 15: Suit up!

Back at Mr. Xe’s in the morning, Andrew was pleased with the linen shirt and got some more measurements done for a suit… So Andrew could Suit up! One of my favorite students at Eonju was (is still, I’m sure) obsessed with How I Met Your Mother. Any and all jokes and/or expressions Barney makes makes me think of you, Seungyoun!

After Mr. Xe measured him, we were led down the street for a second measurement. Surrounded by boys on sewing machines, I amused myself by taking their picture. I played up being bored, waiting on Andrew, so they seemed amused when I began photographing and showing them the pictures (on the LCD screen) that I took.

We biked it to the beach. We got harassed by more vendors. We ate more bahn mi. We ate more cao lau. And then I saw rompers outside of a tailor shop on our way home. (I’ve developed a little habit of calling wherever we may be sleeping that night “home.”) At only $15.00, I figured it was worth it to have for the trip and got my own measurements while Andrew played with the shop dog, Rabbit.

Day 4: A Rainy, Low-Key Day in Hanoi

A bit worn out still from the move out of Seoul, the day in Kuala Lumpur, and the night spent in the airport, we both welcomed the rain and the excuse to relax in and around the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel. We planned and booked trips to Halong Bay and Sapa, chatted with fellow backpackers, wandered out for lunch, only to come back in to camp out on our computers for a bit, and then wandered back out for some banh mi sandwiches made in a makeshift “kitchen” consisting of a portable burner and a couple of portable cabinets. We sat on stools an average American would deem fit for a three year old and ate our sandwiches before we schlepped back to bed.

Day 3: First Pho in Hanoi

We got into Hanoi around 8:30 in the morning. Exhausted was an understatement. Luckily Andrew was more coherent than I was and led me away from the airport information desk trying to scam us into an expensive ($20.00) taxi into the city. Instead, we headed towards the Vietnam Airlines shuttle into the city center for $2.00 each, and walked to Hanoi Backpackers Hostel. Anxious for a bed, we splurged (a whole $5.00) for our own room and promptly passed out. When we woke up to darkness, we ventured out for some pho and walked around until we got lost in Hanoi, the first time of many.