So begins the final blog post about our journey (I actually may end up posting some more photos, so it may be the next to last). I ended up spending about a week in Delhi but unfortunately wasn’t able to take full advantage of my time there as I had just about run out of money. I was able to do some exploring around the older part of the city and visited the Red Fort and the Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India, in Old Delhi which was actually fairly interesting and much more vibrant than the commercial districts of New Delhi where I was staying. I find it kind of ironic that some of the most revered and visited sites in India, such as the Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Agra Fort, etc. were constructed by the Muslim Mughal rulers of India and yet today many (not all) Indians pride themselves on the country being a Hindu nation. One of my favorite quotes from the trip came when I was in my hotel’s lobby and the receptionist was trying to help out an Australian girl who had been swindled by some tour agency. Trying to give a helpful suggestion, he said, “This is India. Don’t believe anyone. Not even me.” What good advice that is. On my last day in Delhi I was able to meet up with my friend Kenny (who is teaching English with the Peace Corps in Kazakhstan and who Mike and I had visited there about 2 ½ months earlier) for lunch. One of his traveling companions had a friend whose father is a doctor and lives in Delhi and he took everyone out for an incredibly tasty Indian meal at a “Coffee House” (more like a really nice restaurant) that he patronizes on a daily basis. He was extremely friendly and we had a nice conversation with him and a friend over some delicious naan and Indian wine. I then said goodbye to Kenny and his pals and headed to the Delhi airport, which turned out to be one of the less nice airports I have slept in, mainly because the authorities do not even let you enter the airport until 3 hours before your flight due to security concerns.
Following a forced signing up for the Qatar Airways frequent flier program (seriously, they held my boarding pass hostage until I completely filled out the form) and a quick layover in Doha I finally arrived in Munich and met up with my little brother Tyson who is studying abroad there for the year. The airport is actually pretty far outside Munich proper so we had to take a 45 minute train into the city through the Bavarian countryside. We picked out a good selection of tasty German beers at the supermarket and had a fun night hanging out in the “City of Students” where he lives after grabbing some food at an American restaurant called Dillinger Chicago Grill for a friend’s 21st birthday (I ordered some German food that really reminded me of the pig legs I ate at La Piojera in Santiago, but which turned out to be pretty good) Tyson showed me around the old city center which had a bunch of cool buildings and Italians playing the accordion, as well as some Germans surfing on this river running through the city in the cold autumn air. One day we took the regional train to the city of Salzburg just over the border in Austria. It’s a very picturesque town, complete with a castle on a hilltop with an awesome view of the Alps and of course, a cathedral (for what Bavarian town is complete without one?). We enjoyed a nice day walking around town and taking photos (Tyson took like 400, I think I finally found someone who takes more pictures than I do) After a long a futile search for some cheap schnitzel I settled for a tasty döner kebap (there are millions of Turks in Germany so I had the opportunity to practice some of my Turkish and even made a few friends in the döner shops) and we headed home.
I joined Tyson’s program for a delicious Thanksgiving potluck dinner (we made brownies) with all of the students and professors. Since everyone is supposed to only speak German with each other and just about the only thing I knew how to say was “Bratwurst”, I just sat back and enjoyed the meal, getting a little tipsy off the provided beer and wine and ending up talking to one of the German instructors and this guy who was on a Fullbright teaching English in Austria who had done the program a couple of years before. The next day I took a two-hour bike ride along the Isar River to try to work off some of the turkey and beer from the holiday. It was really fun to bike through the leafless trees and under assorted bridges, passing many an older German couple who glared at me for disturbing their peaceful walk through the woods. On the last day of my visit in Munich we took a train with a couple of Tyson’s friends from his program out to a small town called Herrshing a little way outside the city next to a beautiful lake. We got some Italian pizza at a lakeside restaurant and after wandering around the shore for a bit we headed out to find a nearby hilltop monastery. The road started out in town but soon took us through some Blair Witch-type woods and up over a ridge. The monastery itself was beautiful and ornate, but we soon became distracted by the massive beer hall next door (apparently the monks have a long tradition of brewing beer). I picked up a mass (1 liter) of the delicious brew and we ended up walking back to Herrshing as the sun went down to catch the train back to Munich. Saying farewell to the city the next day, I grabbed a giant cinnamon-nut pastry thing to sustain me for the multiple train rides up to Frankfurt to catch my flight and parted ways with my brother after a short visit to the famous Christmas market in Nurnberg. I had to take several trains to get to Frankfurt and was questioned by the police for the third time in the country (damn racial profiling, they never questioned anyone else in the train cars). I slept overnight in the Frankfurt airport (possibly the best so far, complete with comfy reclined chairs and footrests) and then headed off to New York and back to the Western Hemisphere.
The Bowers were nice enough to host me for the week in the city in their beautiful home in Brooklyn. New York was a lot of fun and I got to see some Stanford friends (Bern, Dan, and Becca) while I was there as well as explore the city and see some of the famous landmarks. I also enjoyed some greasy American food for the first time in a long time (you gotta love burgers and pizza). One day I went up to Greenwich to see Dan’s hometown and his awesome dog, Cracker, then headed back to the city just in time to lose some money in poker to Bern’s friend. The last night of the entire trip was spent enjoying dinner and some drinks in Manhattan and then taking the subway at 4am to the airport to catch my 7am flight. I slept pretty much all the way back to Reno and got back to my house almost 120 days after leaving for Beijing in August. What a trip it’s been; I’m sad that the adventure is over but it is nice to be back in the country and see everyone again. I’m planning to stay in Tahoe for about a month for the holidays and then head out east to try my luck finding a job in Washington DC. I hope to see those of you out here in the west before I leave, and I’ll be seeing the rest of you in the east very soon!
Trying out some betel nut in Yangon, Myanmar
At Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon with our new friend Arakan
Locals shepherding cattle near Inle Lake, Myanmar
Artsy photo in Mandalay
Tibetan fried bread-so good!
Taking shelter from the torrential rain at Shwedagon with Arakan
Local market in Kalaw in Shan State
Just one of the 4400 temples and stupas around Bagan, Myanmar
Mike in the Bangkok airport after staying up all night before he flew back to the U.S.
Sunrise view of Kanchenjunga, highest mountain in India and 3rd highest in the world (28,169 ft)
Pigeons flying around the courtyard of the Jama Masjid in Delhi, the largest mosque in India
It does exist! (and its pretty tasty too)
Monastery at Andechs outside of Munich