Sidor Adventures: January 2016

The trip to India was not the first, but it was a new experience in many ways. For the first time since 2008, I went on a couple of tours, to use "tour credits" from GAdventures. I always said I'd explore more of India. This time, it actually happened. The trip started in southern India (Kochi) and brought me up the east coast, into Kolkata. From there, a second tour brought me north...to Sikkim, and the start of the Himalayas. Why I ever thought being at those elevations in winter was a good idea, I will never know. But it was certainly an experience. I survived. Then I went to Udaipur for 2 weeks to recover from my tours. :) This photo above is one of the few of me from the trip...and definitely a favorite. Clayton was a crazy Canadian and he got to fake kiss me 15 times while Ian looked for the shutter button on my camera. :)

I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet. Fort Kochi.

Chinese fishing nets, Fort Kochi.

Can't get further south than this. Kanniyakumari.

Backwaters, south India.

Kanniyakumari.

I went to a temple. I photographed this. I have not a single photo of the temple. Kanniyakumari.

Trash rabbits were everywhere!

Wedding party. I followed them through the streets for quite a ways. Kanniyakumari.

Puri.

If all the street dogs were spayed, treated for mange, and given a rabies shot SO much would be better for them.

Kolkata. Santa devils.

4 weeks of train travel. I love trains. They have simple sleeping setups that are just perfect.

Entering Sikkim. If I had known at this point how completely AWFUL the next week would be, I would have signed off of the tour and split. But it was...pretty.

Gangtok. It was fucking freezing here. I can write that. This is my blog. I looked it up, it was up to 50 during a good day, and then plummeted to 35 at night. Not quite enough to freeze the water but that was what you were in ALL THE TIME. Night and day. They DO NOT have heating systems in India. Go light a fire on the street if you want to be warmer. I'm serious.

Darjeeling. Toy train tracks.

Darjeeling. After freezing for 6 days, we went to LEAVE the hills. The clouds lifted, and I finally saw the Himalayas. It was ALMOST worth having been frozen for 6 days. Almost. (See? Those aren't clouds.)

Varanasi. By the time I got to Varanasi, I was getting sick from having been so fucking cold for so long. I spent the whole time feeling like crap. It's too bad. Varanasi was one of the places I specifically went to again because I'd liked it so much the first time, in 2008.