Quick update - India/Singapore/ all in one

Mt. Abu was awesome....Lauren was super popular there...everyone wanted her photo. We had a cool trek near Lake Nakki and saw the amazing Dilwara Temple.

Mumbai was so freakin humid....so horrible after Mt Abu....but the food was so delicious..so happy to have meat again....Chicken Lazeez is amazing. We rode the local trains which was exciting...got to ride the sweet ladies car. I think we might have eaten brain (ahhh!!!?!)

Goa was unbelievable. Never been a beach person but Goa completely changed me. I think Lauren and I are officially hippies now. We forded an ocean, carrying our things above our heads while trekking to another beach. Also there was an insane storm one night. I have so many stories for Goa.

I was sick for Singapore (it was something I ate in India sometime) so I did alot of sleeping in our first air-conditioned room...which was so awesome. Singapore really comes alive at night though, so I didn't miss much during the day. We saw a really cool helix bridge, a fun street performer (who solved a rubix cube in 18 seconds) and Lauren had her ice cream.

India (super short) Summary Part 1

Because my internet use is limited here, I'm going to be super duper brief...I'll go into more details with crazy stories once I'm back.

So we reached New Delhi without any problems and my relatives (my only relatives in India) were able to find us easily at the airport. We spent 3 days in Delhi and they showed us around every where and they fed us sooooooooooooooooooooooooo much food. The 2nd day they hooked us up with a tour bus that took us to all the main sites. I really liked the Lotus temple, Qutub Minar and Humayan's tomb. I'm so grateful to my family for taking care of us both.

The last night in Delhi, we met up with Lauren's friend to watch the Pakistan-India cricket game. We ended up having to watch it in a fancy mall because everyplace was super packed. But it was still a great atmosphere. I ended up go back home because I was a little tired but Lauren went off with her friend. Unfortunately Lauren's friend got me a lemonade at the mall (which I forgot would have tap water) so I ended up becoming very sick...I'm still still trying to recover now.

We headed to Agra in the morning and saw the Taj Mahal (I was still pretty sick). I went to the Taj when I was very little but it was just a structure to me then...this time I was able to fully appreciate it....definitely recommend the Taj Mahal....I have more stories about my day in Agra :)

So next was Jaipur...I'm currently on the 3rd day in Jaipur. Jaipur is such a great city. It puts Delhi to shame. So far we walked through the crazy markets (where people love to stare at Lauren), saw Hawal Mahal, went on a sketchy adventure, saw Jaipur Fort/Palace (amazing...also made an amazing friend there who hooked us up with her driver), and saw Amer Palace. Last night was the final world cup cricket mach which we got to see in an country club. It was so packed with people and everyone was so excited that even I was getting really into the game. You may have hear, India won...which means dancing on the streets, fireworks and just insanity (awesome insanity). Still sick, but totally loving Jaipur.

Hopefully I'll be able to fill you guys in again soon!

Hong Kong in Summary

So I finished with Hong Kong and am now in India. I don't like spending alot of time on the computer when I'm abroad so my updates aren't very frequent...but I'll give you a few highlights from Hong Kong in this post and I'll get more detailed once I'm back in the states.

Hong Kong was amazing. I think I wasn't expecting much as it is a very developed place but I can so see myself actually living there. It's basically like New York but cleaner, a ton more blocks of things to do, extremely friendly people, and amazing food. The transportation system there is even amazing.Everything is so efficient and easy. Hong Kong is definitely an easy place to travel even if you can only speak English.

We stayed in the Chung King Mansions, which is an insane 16 story building that's just filled with hostels. We ended up with a really nice (and cheap) place at the Kyoto Guesthouse...there is much more to the hostel story that I'll get into later....but I highly recommend Kyoto Guesthouse.

The second day we got wander around the markets and eventually we met up with Edwin (a guy who was in our engineering program at Stanford). He took us to a great place for dinner...there were no English words at all inside haha. He then took us to the Ladies market where we were able to get amazing discounts thanks to his mad HK local skills. I got 50% off a bag!

The third day we went to the peak in central which was pretty good. We then walked down through a small botanical garden and ended up in the at a place that offered free tea lessons. I absolutely loved the tea lessons, it was one of my favorite experiences there. For dinner we went to a place recommended by Lonely Planet but it was kind of crappy...but then again I'm very picky with food.

The fourth day was my favorite day. We met with Mahalia friend's friend who gave us the best food tour ever. I can still taste the sushi now...it was that good. She's so amazing. I can't wait to go into more details about this day later.

The fifth day was a relaxing day and we ended up going to some sweet temples and ended the day with the sound and light show, which was pretty good.

The sixth day was Lantau island where we got to see Big Buddha and a fishing village. We had a small picnic at the top of Big Buddha...no big deal haha.

And the seventh day was heading off to the airport to go to Delhi....going to miss you Hong Kong!