Ev Star

Tonight is our last night in Delhi.  Mad and I have been lucky enough to stay with a friend of a friend who has an apartment here.  The girl we are staying with is Lucie from France.  She’s super nice and it’s been lots of fun staying here.  Lucie has 3 roommates.  One of them has her own room and then the other two share a room.  The rooms are really nice.  Each one has its own bathroom and also its own balcony.  The four of them then share a kitchen, dining area, a living room and a bigger balcony.  Oh and they also have a male maid who comes in 3 times a week to cook, clean and do laundry.  Do you know how much they spend for rent?  $600…..between the 4 of them!!  It’s pretty crazy.  I guess Lucie wasn’t kidding when she said she lives like a princess here.The morning after we arrived in Delhi, Mad and I took the train to Agra.  It was cool to see the Taj Mahal, but we actually preferred the monument known as the baby Taj.  It is accross the river from the Taj Mahal and is in some ways nicer as the walls and ceiling are covered with hand painted murals.  It ended up being quite an expensive day for us.  I guess India has realised that almost no tourist will leave India without seeing the Taj and has decided to seriously capitalize on it.  I think I mentioned it before, but there are always 2 entrance prices for monuments and museums and so on.  One is the tourist price and one is the Indian National price.  The tourist price is always at least 10 times as much as the Indian price.  It’s pretty crazy!  The day was fun and interesting though, but it was also really long!  The train should have been 3 hours each way (long enough already!) but it was delayed both times.  We were totally exhausted by the time we made it back.  We arrived back at the apartment to a chocolate cake baked by Lucie though (we are getting seriously pampered here!) so the late night arrival was not a complete loss. Yesterday we did some sightseeing around Delhi.  It’s sort of like Mumbai in that it is a big city, but it somehow seems more Western to us than Mumbai did…maybe because it is the capital.  It was nice to see the various markets and shops and the different districts of the city as well as the big fort.  Today we took it easy and just did some laundry and packing and that sort of thing as tomorrow we are flying to Nepal (it’s hard to believe our time in India is over)!  We will be starting our trek on the 8th of April (a couple days early) as there will be elections on April 10th and the trek company thought it would be better if we weren’t in Kathmandu for that event (a bit nerve wracking that that should be a worry, but it sounds like it will be fine).  I’m guessing that internet use will be extremely limited while we are on our trek, so this might be it for the next few weeks. I’ve got my silk long johns and matching top packed along with my fleece and hiking boots.  I think it’s going to be quite an adventure! Ev