India - Jodhpur

Our 'express' bus to Jodhpur made a stop every ten minutes. It was a weird scene in there, with the foreign tourists all sitting in the seats on one side and the locals squeezed in the sleeper beds on the other side. The 'Jain' bus in the background was our bus and it looks deceptively clean from the outside:

Meherangarh Fort and the blue houses of Jodhpur:

Old city Jodhpur. I love the auto rickshaw rides; it's like walking, except you are not actually making contact with the filthy street surface. My shoes will be burned at the end of this trip:

Hindu temple in the nearby town of Osiyan:

We had planned on taking an overnight train out of Jodhpur rather than spending a night there. So we booked one $20 room to use as luggage storage and to relax until our train time. We did not count on the train being sold out and us having to spend a night in Jodhpur. When we tried to get one more room at our hotel, the hotel was also sold out! 4 people + 1 bathroom + eating curries all day = :

India - Udaipur

I think Udaipur is the most dirty city we have been on this trip. After two years in Newport Beach, my tolerance for filth has gone down significantly; the sight of cow dung with a bunch of flies around it makes me a bit nauseous. And it has a large number of children 'collecting foreign coins.' (At least one tourist fell for this one, because we had a kid following us around trying to exchange his US quarter coin for Indian rupees.)

At the same time, Udaipur is absolutely fascinating - magnificent palaces and temples along the lake, women wearing colorful saris, people bathing in the lake, holy men in orange robes, artisans doing leather work, cows everywhere...

Women doing laundry at the lake:

Street cows - they don't belong to anyone and just roam the streets:

Jagdish Temple - first Hindi temple we have ever been to:

Almost all women wear saris here:

City palace:

Poor Susan has a bad case of 'Delhi-belly' and was laid up for a whole day - I am pretty sure she was wishing she had gone to Hawaii for her vacation instead:

India - Delhi & Agra

We had heard so much about how dirty and chaotic India is, so perhaps we were mentally prepared for much worse. Just as I was thinking 'this is not THAT bad,' some man grabbed my behind. Oh well.

Our friends Ben & Susan (a.k.a. Mr. & Mrs. Brooklyn) are travelling with us in India for two weeks. Hopefully we will still be friends at the end the two weeks.

We made the mistake of visiting the Taj Mahal in Agra on a Sunday; the painfully slow security line to get into the place was a mile long. This is us in line - the pink gate in the horizon is the entrance:

Touts were helping foreign tourists cut line for a fee - they would literally push tourists to the front of the line amid loud complaints from other people. After one hour in the line, I was sorely tempted to hire a tout, but Bill said no, we wait in line like everyone else, which I thought was a very mature thing to do. Yelling "cheaters!" to other tourists that did hire the tout, on the other hand, was probably not so mature.

Ben, Susan and Bill at Taj Mahal:

These kids wanted their picture taken:

View from an auto-rickshaw:Street monkeys:

Bill's $1.5 haircut in Delhi:

On Christmas eve, we went to Ben's friend's friend's sister's ex-roommate's wedding in Delhi - call us the wedding crashers. All dressed up for the wedding:

Bill and Ben's outfits are compliments of our friend Jimmy - thanks, Jimmy! Everyone had assured Bill and Ben that it was common for men to wear the traditional outfit to a wedding. Nope, all other men at this wedding were wearing regular suits.

Bill and Ben looking at the choreographed dance number of the groom's friends to Bollywood music:

Rwanda - Kigali & Lake Kivu

In Kenya, due to Nairobi's terrible reputation as a dangerous city (a.k.a. 'Nairobbery'), we didn't venture out on foot that much in Nairobi; then we went on the safari which is an organized tour. Rwanda is a very safe place to travel for tourists, and we were glad to be back on the public transportation trail.

Lake Kivu:

Rwandan cities are connected by a network of mini-buses. Everyone does get a seat in the bus, but no one buys a ticket for children and there is no space for luggage, so it gets pretty packed in there. We kept on getting stuck in the most uncomfortable flip-open seat in the aisle. One time Bill managed to get a real seat and was very proud of himself, then a lady with two children sat next to him. But the little girl held Bill's hand during the ride - so cute!

In land-locked Rwanda, Lake Kivu is its vacation spot. We wanted to stay at this lovely hotel, but it was full and we got stuck staying at the not-so-nice hotel next door:

This is me trying to minimize surface-contact while sleeping in the dirty room:

We took a moto-taxi to the small village of Rubona, to look at the traditional boats at the dock there:

I don't think they get many tourists in Rubona, so people were very curious and friendly. 70% of people we passed said hello, and I think the rest 30% wanted to, but were too shy! I entertained the village ladies by attempting to carry my bag on my head, and we may have a new pen-pal named Fidel. We had quite an entourage following us:

The boy holding a bag next to Bill followed us for 2 kms uphill hoping we would give him money. Upon seeing me give money to a beggar with an open wound the size of my palm, the little boy even showed me his little scalp on his knee! An idiot tourist before us must have given him money - you are not supposed to give money to children, as it teaches regular village children to beg.

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Kigali:

Kigali is the capital city of Rwanda. Called the 'land of a thousand hills', Rwanda, including Kigali, is very pretty, with lush green hills:

Wedding at a park:

This is the Kigali genocide memorial. During the 1994 genocide, over 1 million people were killed. The population of Rwanda is 8 million, which means just about everyone we passed on the street had lost a family member or suffered through other unspeakable tragedies. In the room where they had hung clothes found in the mass graves, we saw a Cornell University T-shirt:

However, despite the terrible history, it feels like Rwanda is coming back around. There are new construction everywhere in Kigali and the newspapers talk of incoming foreign investments. But the most impressive are its hardworking people - we would say good night to a waiter at a hotel and go to bed, only to find the same waiter serving us breakfast early next morning. We left the hotel at 6am for the gorilla trekking, and the whole town was already up and about! Everyone we met were friendly and kind, in a polite, shy kind of way.

Rwanda - Volcanoe National Park & Musanze

The biggest tourist attraction in Rwanda is the mountain gorillas in the Volcanoes National Park. Diane Fossey (i.e. Sigourney Weaver in the movie 'Gorillas in the Mist') did her research and was eventually killed here.

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Seeing the mountain gorilla costs a fortune - $500 per person. Also, for the protection of the gorillas, only a limited number of people (about 35) are allowed per day and only one hour is given with the gorillas. It is a very well set up operation - they call it gorilla 'trekking', but the park rangers had actually located the gorillas in the morning before we got to the park. We were divided into groups of eight and each group was assigned a guide and couple military men for protection. The gorilla group we saw was only 45 minutes hike into the mountain.

Look at this face!:

The big gorilla that the young gorilla is sitting on is the silverback - a gorilla group generally consists of the dominant male silverback, 3-4 female gorilla and the young gorillas:

Female gorillas sitting together:

Mom gorilla holding a two week old baby gorilla:

We stayed in the nearby town of Musanze for the gorilla trekking. We were walking around the town when we passed this church holding an outdoor concert:

We watched the concert while little kids watched us - we entertained them by taking photos and showing it to them on the screen. Here are some of the kids that weren't too shy to pose for a picture: Walking to the bus station:

Kenya - Masai Mara National Reserve

We were at the Masai Mara National Reserve for the remainder of the safari. We saw this cheetah feeding on a young wildebeest there - we could even smell the carcass!:

More animal sightings -

Lion:

Lion carrying her cub:

Elephants:

Baboon carrying a baby baboon on her back:

Wildebeests:

Hippos:

Hyenas:

Before going on the safari, we were worried about annoying travel-mates, but everyone (there were 11 of us) was very nice and low-key. In fact, I am afraid Bill and I may have been the loud and obnoxious couple, full of original comments such as 'wow, it's just like on National Geographic!' This is me trying to insect-proof the bed after having killed a cockroach on it:

There are 42 tribes found in Kenya. Many Kenyans in fact speak three languages - the tribal language, Swahili (the national language spoken between different tribes) and English (the official language, in which school are taught). Of the various tribes, the Massai people has still retained a strong traditional culture. I think the very elaborate red outfit with headdress were worn solely for the tourists, but we have seen many Massai cattle herders wearing the traditional checkered shawl, such as the one worn by the young man jumping:

The safari was one of the best experiences we've had on this trip - it's highly recommended! I know flights to Africa from the US or Korea are very expensive, but there are 'budget' safaris once you get here - our basic camping safari for 5 nights/6 days was $700 per person, and it included everything (transportation, food, park fees) except for drinks and tips.

Kenya - The Rift Valley

We spent the first two days of our 6 day safari in the Rift Valley region, visiting the lakes. The Rift Valley stretches over 5000 km, from Turkey and Jordan to Botswana and Mozambique.

View of the Rift Valley:

We camped at Lake Baringo - hippos came up to the camp grounds at night to graze. Between the hippos and the loud snoring from the next tent, we did not get a good night's sleep:

At Lake Bogoria, we saw boiling hot springs - these hot springs can boil an egg!:

Lake Nakuru National Park is famous for its flamingos population - 1.5 million of them during season:

Rhinos:

Buffalo:
Baboon scratching its behind:

Baboon?:

Crossing the equator: