"Holy Cow! Do You Use Toilet Paper?" And other reader questions...

We've been on the road now for about 4.5 months, and we've had a lot of questions from our friends and family - so we thought we'd write a post answering some of the more common questions. If you have others, send them to us at stephanieswain2010@gmail.com

"Do you miss cozy bedding?" - Question from Lauren Funk

You have no idea. Honestly, this must rank with one of the top things we miss. But it's less about "cozy" and more about "clean." We use our sleep sheet almost every night because the sheets and beds don't meet our Western standards of cleanliness. 

Incredible India! (Delhi, India)

We knew that when we decided to stay in Arambol a second week (read here) and fly to Delhi, India's capitol, we were going be in both ends of the India spectrum in the same day. It was very surreal to spend the morning doing yoga in Arambol and have a comfortable day among hippies and then arrive that late afternoon in the madness of Delhi. We met my mother at the airport, who had just arrived from North Carolina- she has always wanted to come India and decided to join us for a few weeks before heading off to Thailand and Australia. We had decided to stay in a few nicer places in Delhi because the cities can be intense and because we wanted my mom's first exposure to India to be comfortable, so we hopped in a taxi and headed to our home stay, K-One-One, in a nice neighborhood called the Defence Colony. After a good night's sleep, we ventured out into Delhi to explore. Since we were attending Nakul and Kunjan's wedding in a two days we knew this first day in India would be spent getting clothes for the wedding. While the neighborhood and the guest house were nice, the metro station is on the other side of an 8-lane highway that had to crosswalk/subway/overpass, so we had to make a terrifying trip across two four lane highways to get to the subway station. It was a real life game of Frogger. Going forward one lane while a rickshaw zooms by and stopping in the road because we didn't know if a motorcycle bearing down on us was going to going in front of us or behind us. This first day, a young Indian man saw our confusion and fear and stepped out in the street to and helped my mother cross the chaos of the street. We made it across, sighed in relief and then headed for the subway into downtown. Everything in Delhi is draining- crossing the street, haggling with a shop keeper, getting on the subway, getting OFF the subway, waiting in line for a restaurant, shirking beggars. As a tourist - it is all so overwhelming. 

Once we made it to the subway our battle had just begun. The subways are packed, and even when an empty subway car pulls up, Indians rush on and off the trains, pushing, elbowing and clawing to be the first on or off the train. Once we had fought our way into the city center we headed to a government emporium for Indian clothes so we could get saris for the ladies and a suit and kurta pyjama for myself. This took most of the afternoon, but the staff was very helpful and got us set up for the wedding. After hours of shopping and struggling with the crowds we decided to head back to the rooftop of the guesthouse (surviving the 8 lane highway again on our return) and drink some of the whiskey my Mom brought from duty free, and prepared to take on Delhi the next day. 

Mom and Steph in a bicycle rickshaw

What's in YOUR Wallet?

I keep thinking of that commercial that asked, "What's in your wallet?" I'm pretty sure it was a bank card ad, but it's got me thinking about what Tom and I carry in our bags each day. We're pretty proud of how we've packed - we have less stuff than most long-term backpackers we come across and, when we aren't loaded down with things we've bought, we can fit all of our things into our 2 large packs without even needing to carry a day pack. These days, we're traveling pretty light. The below list is just our essentials, though we do have a lot of other stuff with us. These are the things we use every day and recommend to other travelers. If you're using this list as a packing guide, please note, this list is what we've been carrying in India - in the south in October and November and in the north in December and January. (For a full list of what we brought with us, visit this page, but note that it needs a little updating.)

This is what we started with...

Nomadic Goat Herders

This blog is turning into a Hampi blog, isn't it? These are things we wrote about weeks ago, but haven't posted yet and are trying to catch up...so, sorry about the Hampi inundation.

In Hampi, we loved that the town's main road was lined with shops on one side, and with rice fields on the other side. To us, this meant that Hampi had the conveniences we want (restaurants, activities and shopping), but was also full of local charm. (You might remember that we love Hampi. That's still true.)

Because we walked and motorbiked around a lot, we saw most parts of the town and we always noticed the family of farmers in a field with their goats and cows. They lived in tents made of straw and scrap material and plastic and were always working. The animals slept around the family's tents and we would often see the women cooking with propane inside the tents. They wore simple clothes, hauled their water to their tents each day, never wore shoes, and, generally, lived a very basic life. By American standards, they were quite poor. Still, they seemed happy with their simple life and were always kind to us. Their two young kids were usually helping with the work and always looked at us with curiosity, obviously intrigued by our foreignness. Their curiosity surprised me, as Hampi is a pretty popular backpacker destination, so it wouldn't have been strange for a Hampi resident to see foreigners. One day, I asked their father's permission (with rudimentary miming/sign language) if I could take a photo of the kids and he gave me the affirmative head wiggle. The children were fascinated when I showed them their photos on our camera.

Do You Think Babies Grow on Trees, Like Money?

Our love affair with Hampi is no secret (read about it here), and our time there was full of beautiful experiences and wonderful people and we still miss it. And not just in Hampi, but in all of India, we've been so impressed with the practice of religion. Unlike many followers of Western religions, the religious population here is seriously devout, and their religion permeates every part of their lives. While we're not religious at all - largely due to the hypocritical behavior of many so-called "religious" people in our own culture - we have been in awe of the devotion shown by India's religious, including Hindus, Muslims, and even Christians.

A Hindu woman stops to touch a holy cow in the market place of Pushkar

Getting Bendy in Goa (Mandrem & Arambol, Goa, India)

After Hampi (read here), we headed back towards Goa to do yoga for a week in Arambol. Before our course started, we stayed just south, in Mandrem, for a few days because it's a much quieter beach. The two different towns are accessible by about a 30 minute walk along the beach where you pass hippies twirling sticks, hawkers, and plenty of beachside shacks where you can order food and drinks while relaxing on a beach chair. We decided to splurge a little for our time in Mandrem because we were both desperate for a hot shower after sweating like crazy for 3 weeks. So, at $30/night at Cuba Retreat, we were looking forward to the royal treatment. Unfortunately, we were a bit disappointed in our room. It had a great, hot shower, but the room was pretty depressing, and it wasn't even on the beach. Still, we both decided it was worth the stay for the shower alone and spent 3 nights there before moving down the beach to Arambol. We spent most of our time in Mandrem lounging on the beach and boogie boarding. It was really hot, and we were pretty lazy. It was great!

A Happy Birthday Wish!

We haven't had internet for awhile, so we're going to try to catch up on some posts quickly. A few days ago, my BFF, Ashley, turned 30 on January 4. Her awesome husband, threw her a surprise party and I was so sad not to be a part of the planning and celebration. I became desperate to find a way to participate from long distance. So I made her a video toast with pictures of us growing up together. I'm so lucky that she's been my BFF for nearly 20 years!

Click the image to watch the video!

I spoke to her while she was at her party (after the big surprise), and she sounded SO happy. Her sister, Michelle, flew in from Arizona to surprise her, tons of her friends and family came to the party, and she sounded as giddy as a little girl. It made me think about how much fun we had together when we actually were little girls and I missed her even more! So, a late, but sincere Happy 30th Birthday to my BFF, Ashley!