Making plans (Day 21 of the world trip)

25.09.2019

Last night, we were feeling a bit "brave" and didn't go to our "regular café" but instead went to a small restaurant that offers Indian food :O Crazy. Indian food in India! That was a first for us :D You always hear so much about India and hygiene and that you have to be careful and well. We wash our camping dishes here with this "dangerous" water and have no problem with it (even though we brush our teeth with drinking water from the supermarket. We're not that brave :p ). That's why we dared to try out a small restaurant with Indian food.

Just like in the other place, the service wasn't particularly friendly. They hardly smiled and yesterday the waiter wanted to leave right after taking our order. So, Jonas ordered his dish and a drink but I didn't order anything yet. Nonetheless, the waiter thought our order was already finished :D I wonder if that's because people always order for everyone and you share the dishes? Unfortunately, he also spoke hardly/no English and the dishes were only displayed with their names, no photos or ingredients, so we couldn't properly choose what to eat^^ In the end, we both took something with "vegetable" ;-) I wanted to order a banana shake, which was also on the menu. But bananas were apparently out. So, a chocolate shake it is. How sad :p Also, I wanted to have Naan bread, because I love eating that at the Indian restaurant back home. And what happened? Naan bread was also out. Well -.- But the food itself was very delicious and the portion was big. Also, the Wi-Fi was good enough to upload the latest blog post :D

Last night was extremely hot and we both didn't sleep well. Unfortunately, despite the fly screens, we seem to have a few mosquitoes in our room and since we both have some mosquito bites and that's annoying, we covered ourselves up to our necks despite the heat... That meant sweating! :( In the morning, it was also gray and cloudy, so quite humid and today was the hottest day so far. The 37°C in Karkamis were nothing compared to the tropical 32°C here today...

Of course, we still did our daily yoga session and Ajay even took a few pictures of us :) He also talked to Jonas about handstands, as Jonas wants to learn that. Ajay said that he also teaches handstand classes but that would be boring for Ann Katirn (what he politely meant was my inability to show off arm muscles :D ). Besides the sun salutation, we did some sitting exercises today, but despite my Taekwondo background, it didn't give me an advantage :O Jonas couldn't immediately touch his toes with his legs straight, and Ajay pulled him a bit forward until he reached them. I could touch my toes but Ajay said that just meant I had room for improvement and I should wrap my wrists around my ankles and hold on. So, he pulled me too and it hurt a lot. Maybe I should do a bit less from tomorrow onwards, so that when he pulls, I can cope :D

There was also a brief interval with yoga push-ups, where Ajay noticed that I would always cheat :O Pff! Just because Jonas can do it all effortlessly... in return, I master the "dead pose" much better than him :p! We've now made the plan (which we probably won't stick to but the idea is there^^) to do yoga every morning throughout the trip. If we follow through, we will come back home super flexible ;-)

After yoga, we had Chay again and Jonas did some Theraband exercises etc. I was just dead and had breakfast, did laundry. Meanwhile, a family of monkeys settled on our terrace and watched me curiously. Since I was worried about our laundry, I got a chair after hanging it up and kept watch to make sure none of our precious clothes fell into the wrong hands. When the danger was over, I sweated on the bed :p With this weather, hiking was not an option today. Anyway, I wanted a day off and we still had to plan our onward journey.

around 12 o'clock, we went out to buy a SIM card. We had asked Ajay beforehand how much it should cost and that was exactly what was offered to us! Really cool! You always hear so many scam stories but sometimes you can trust people, even in India :) For 500 rupees (about 7€ or so), we now have 28 days of internet, unlimited SMS, and calls within India. Not bad!

After that, we went to a tour operator, as we wanted to go to the Himalayas (up to 4,000m, for more we would have had to train). The operator is a friend of Ajay's father and the man was also super friendly. He showed us photos of the trek and gave us a lot of information. The price for a 4-day tour would have been 17,000 rupees, so more than 200€/person. Since we had seen these tours much cheaper in advance, it's unlikely that we'll choose this one, which is a bit sad because he was really nice :(

In the end, we inquired online at a website that I had already seen months ago during research and, as fate would have it, there are still spots available for a 7-day, 6-night tour on the 29th. That's the day we would have checked out anyway, so it fits perfectly :) In between, we had considered going to a higher-altitude city on our own and hiking from there. Alternatively, we could also skip the Himalayas and instead visit Delhi, Jaipur, Jodhpur as originally planned.

At the moment, however, it looks like we will do this 7-day tour, the Har Ki Dun Trek. It still sounds a bit scary to me because it's demanding but the description says that children from the age of 8 can do the trek and well... it has to work somehow :D Jonas is already very excited and maybe I can also convince myself to approach it more positively. We've already done hiking tours at home, including camping, but somehow I think it's different to do it at the foot of the Himalayas, with full Indian meals and an altitude of up to 3,000m...

In the evening, we went to eat Indian food again, in a different restaurant, but it was much cooler than yesterday! It's inconspicuously located with an entrance next to a clothes shop and they extended the back wall of the building, creating a panoramic seating area. So, the table ends "in the air" and you have a direct view of the Ganges and many trees. Really beautiful and the food was good and cheap and above all, the service was also great. For the first time, we had waiters who smiled and were really friendly!! :)

In our usual routine, we ended the day with a chocolate cookie (or three^^). Tomorrow, depending on the weather, we'll go hiking. We have to train now :O ;-)