Return to India

A couple of weeks ago, we got back from an awesome trip to India! We went to the south of India two years ago, but this time we went to the north and traveled with our amazing friends! For the first part of the trip, Baba, Jojo and I traveled to Dharamshala, the home of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Before we went, we studied lots about the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism, and Tibetan history (more about that in the next post). We stayed the first few night at the Norbulinkga Institute,and we visited Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and convents and temples.

 

We ate yummy Tibetan food: momos and Thenthuk soup!

 

And we learned some basics of Thangka painting.

This was our class. Our Thangka teacher is the cool guy with the camera!

 

Okay, this isn't really my painting! But if we'd stayed 3 more years, I could have produced this!

We met to great Tibetan monks who took us to their monastery for tea (Tibetan tea has butter and salt in it!)

 

Then we said goodbye to Dharamshala and traveled on to Delhi....

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We then said goodbye to Baba (who had to go back to NY) but we said hello to my great friend Zeke, his sister Uma, and his mum, Luisa! We then spent the next 10 days with them doing the famous Golden Triangle: Delhi, Jaipur, and Agra.

Me and Zeke in Lodi Gardens, Delhi

We stayed in a really cool fort/hotel in the Rajasthan desert! (where we went on amazing zipline...see below!)

We also went camel riding.

In Jaipur, we drunk the tastiest lassis! (here we are with our great driver, Ramesh)

 

Amer Fort, Jaipur...

 

Hanging out at the hotel...

 

We met and hugged and rode elephants!

 

We moved on to Bharatpur, where we went birdwatching at the amazing Keoladeo National Park. We saw these two cute owlets!

 

On the way to Agra, we went to see an huge mosque called Fatehpur Sikri.

 

And of course we saw the Taj Mahal!!

And back in Delhi, we went to the Gandhi memorial and museum. We saw the spot where Gandhi was shot and the bullet that killed him.