Week 11 ~ Thailand & India

Week 11 ~ Thailand (4 days) -> India (3 days).

The remainder of our time in Thailand was spent relaxing at beach resorts and Nick catching some surf. I even found myself on a longboard in Thailand with the motivation of “now you can say you’ve surfed in Thailand.” Thankfully, the waves were small, and the Thai surfers were really friendly.

Prior to leaving Thailand, spotted an Eagles fan. #GoBirds

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/24cfbc_5a770d8e988142b598f1f10767add820/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

A fun little animal sighting at our resort in Thailand!

Thailand didn’t feel warm enough for us, so we decided to trade the Panang curry for some Chicken Tikka Masala and booked a flight from Phuket to Delhi.

We’ve only spent 3 days in India so far, but we’ve been busy, despite the national warning of staying inside during the 7-day heat wave in India.

We did a food tour along the famous Chandi Chowk during our first evening in Old Delhi. We waited until 5pm to start our tour in order to escape the peak heat. Luckily, it had cooled down to 105F by then, much better than the 110 midday.

Tons of shops and food destinations hidden within the side streets.

Our food tour was incredible, we tried 10 different foods and 3 different drinks out of clay pots. International chef will be giving his India food review during next week’s blog post, after he has had more time to sample the local cuisine. Don’t think Mr. Big Lung forgot about Thailand’s food. We’ll be returning to Thailand in June when my friends visit, and our international chef plans to give a thorough review after that visit to Thailand.

We learned a lot more about India during our food tour than just about the food. For example, during our tour, we visited a Sikh temple and observed from the inside. At this temple, they have volunteers cooking meals for anyone who wants to come and eat. It doesn’t matter your religion, you just have to sit on the floor and eat a family style meal. The specific temple we visited serves over 30,000 meals a day. So amazing.

We also needed our sinuses cleared out, which is why we visited the massive spice market in Delhi. The honking of tuk-tuks and cars became muffled as the sounds of coughs became increasingly louder, especially from Mr. Big Lung. The spice market reminded us of the leather dying center in Fez, except Delhi’s spice market smelled much better and brought us to tears.

2nd floor where large packaging of spices were taking place. We visited during dinner time where workers were sharing a meal together. Some merchants live in this second floor area as well.

Large bags of spices lining the second floor.

We ended our evening, clocking 103* at 9:30pm, taking a metro and tuk tuk to get back to our lovely bed&breakfast in New Delhi.

Praneev, our amazing food tour guide.

Day 2 in India was another hot one. A new employee of QSBS Rollover, Aman, is from Jaipur, India, and happened to be in India for us to coordinate a time to visit with him. Nick had planned to meet him in person for the first time. Always a fun game of “how tall are you in real life” when having only met over Zoom.

We met over coffee and continued to keep our activities indoors and centered around food. It was great. Aman was lovely, and it was fun to hear about the country from a local. He also surprised us with a local painting from his hometown. Such a thoughtful gift, and the artwork is incredible. We’ll be excited to find a home for the artwork when we eventually have a home!

Totally forgot to snag a photo of Nick & Aman, but this is the beautiful artwork he shared with us.

A downside to vagabonding is not always being able to plan ahead. We learned that planning a tiger safari usually requires a 3 month notice to get permits, which did not work out for us this time around. It is hard to visit places that require such planning during this type of travel, since our plan has changed at least 14 times since we’ve been traveling. BUT now we know for the future and plan to return to India for a much longer trip when we have more time to dedicate to just India. We haven’t even been here a week yet, and we are already excited to return.

In Delhi, we also visited Humayun’s Tomb. The earliest example of Persian influence with it’s architecture, consisting of 100 graves in this building.

It was during this moment that I had my first encounter with someone asking to take a photo with me. We’d been warned the day earlier by our guide that some people may ask to take selfies with us since it is rare to see foreigners. Nick and I had come to a mutual agreement that we’d decline if people asked us. That went out the window the first time when a mother and teenage daughter eagerly asked to take a photo with me. I stuttered. Definitely short-circuited and then eventually agreed. Nick laughed and shook his head from afar as he watched my people-pleasing personality struggle to say no to this random family. We laughed about it over dinner with Aman. While a different experience for me, it was actually a sweet moment.

India Day 3 : Taj Mahal

Something that we initially said we might skip and see another time when we visit India… I’m so glad we prioritized seeing this iconic building during this trip to India.

Our guide was quite the photographer. He posed us in almost every way possible. We don't know how to take pictures on a good day, so we blindly followed us his lead!

It was another scortcha. Record-breaking for the hottest temperatures we’ve ever been in. Minimal foreign tourists were brave enough to explore the Taj with a high of 114*F on this day. (Not brave or smart, up to you to decide… to each their own).

A funny conversation we had with both of our guides was about men wearing pants in India no matter how hot it is. To which Praneev responded with "what else would you wear?"

Regardless of the temperatures outside, with frequent water and shade stops, we explored the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, and Itimad-ud-Daulah’s Tomb, known as the ‘mini Taj’.

Great conversations with our tour guide, Azam. We learned so much from him and really enjoyed our time together. He also said he learned how to take photos from his gf.

After touring around Agra, we had a few hours to spare before we took our train. Our tour guide had listed some options: visiting the artisans or speaking with an astrologist. While western astrology is considered very new, the Indian (vedic) astrology, also known as Jyotish, has been around since 1500BC. What an interesting opportunity, so we decided to go speak with an astrologist.

Full honest disclaimer, I imagined we were going to be walking down a back alleyway, sit on the floor in some remote, low-lit room, and be surrounded by jewels. (I know- I’m just being honest about my hidden expectation of the experience). The only thing that stood true is that we were surrounded by jewels, in a jewelry store. Although our astrologist corrected me when I referred to them as jewelry, since they are considered healing stones. He gathered a bunch of information from me like my date of birth, childhood address, and social. This is when things started to get interesting. He shared that I was empathetic and emotional. The donkey of my family, but bringing good karma by doing my family duties. Coral is not a good stone (or color) on me. Traveling was good for me, and I should do it as much as possible, but will only travel much until 2036. He then addressed that I was suffering from some anxiety, and would be healed with the star of ruby. Nick then blurted out, “We’ll take the largest one you have”. It appears that Nick may have some more adventurous activities and remote accommodations in store for me.

For Nick, a much shorter read, the astrologist emphasized a strong love life and a draw to travel. Perhaps a harder read? Unusual. Overall, the astrologist experience was very unique, something I knew very little about prior to visiting (hence my expectation of the experience). We learned a lot, and it definitely added a unique memory to the end of our Taj Mahal tour.

What an exhilarating way to end our week 11 - fighting the mental and physical battle of a heat wave in India, exploring one of the seven wonders of the world, and having an intimate experience with an astrologist.

And with that, I’ll leave you with our High, Low, Unexpected & Learned from WK 11:

Nick King, AKA, Mr. Big Lung, International Chef & Guest Writer:

High: Seeing one of the 7 wonders of the world - the Taj Mahal.

Low: Wearing pants.

Unexpected: Scoring decent waves in Thailand with Thai locals.

Learned: Cows are viewed as a sacred animal in India.

MK: AKA, The Donkey.

High: Taj Mahal Tour- everything, but specifically when we had our first view of the Taj.

Low: Walking barefoot on Chandi Chowk (We had to remove shoes and briefly walk on the sidewalk to get into the temple. Feet were rinsed in water afterwards, but it still was not my favorite as far as cleanliness goes. Those of you who have visited this street might understand why.

Unexpected: Surfing in Thailand- wait, no.. speaking with an astrologist in India.

Learned: Namaste is hello in Hindi, but they don’t really use Hindi words for please or thank you. Most people just speak the English words for those phrases. Nick was enthused to learn this after I had done our airport routine, forcing him to watch YouTube videos of greetings in the local language of which country we are traveling to.

And that, my friends, is a wrap! As always, thank you for reading!

Catch up on why Nick is now referred to as Mr. Big Lung or any other vagabonding posts by clicking here.

Cheers!

Love,

MK & Nick