Jayda and Chris's Around the World Trip: January 2010

Ashish and Swati our Indian couchsurfers

Meeting Kris Webber in Bangkok

Kris Webber leaving

Train ride to Cambodia

Getting gas in the cab in Cambodia (very strange the hose running out of the trunk is where they filled it up)

Frog on restaurant wall

Martin and Kristen our new friends from from Canada we met crossing the border from Thailand to Cambodia

Gas station (the bottles are filled with gas)

Fish massage

Nibbling away our dead skin

Tuk Tuk ride on way to temples

Statue in Angkor Wat temple

Outside Angkor Wat

Back of temple

Example of just about every wall in temple, very elaborate

Bridge to Angkor Wat with temple in background

All the steps in all the temples were very small, look at Jayda's feet

Our Tuk Tuk driver (the best one in Cambodia, he was the Rock n Roll Tuk Tuk)

Tree taking over a temple

Gate to a temple

Huge tree taking over temple

These giant faces were everywhere

Elephants at Angkor Thom, last picture before a second battery went dead

My new hat (paid $1)

This is a pretty poor sampling of pictures from Cambodia. The temples were amazing and we have some great pictures but the computer here would not upload a lot of them. However, these give you some idea of the beauty and size of the temples here. Cambodia is an amazing place and we have really enjoyed our time here.

Jayda:

India has been such a great experience! Long story short.. we did not make it out of Mumbai. We thought that the trains would be like in Europe that you could just go get a ticket and hop on. Unfortunately, the trains are booked in advance and fill up fast so we did not get to go north. We will save that for another trip. Mumbai has been very fun and exciting. Something about India captivates me. It is so different from any other culture I have ever visited. We stayed at a hotel our first few nights and made many friends who we toured the sites with around Mumbai. One day we went to Elephantas Island, which is about an hour boat ride away in the ocean. Their are ancient temples carved into these rocks and caves. It is amazing to see that somehow it was all done by hand! We ate at Leopold's, which was one of the places that was attacked in the 2008 terrorist attacks. There are still bullet holes in the walls. Fortunately, many places such as this now have security guards and metal detectors. For the last part of our stay we have been staying with a wonderful couple who are both from India. They have been married for three years and live and work here in Mumbai. It is so much fun exchanging wedding stories and whatnot with Swati(the girl). Even though the whole idea of an arranged marriage sounds horrible and so different, its really similar to how we do it. She got to meet many men and then when she chose Ashish(her husband) they were engaged for a while before marriage. They seem really happy together. So this process appears to have worked well for them. We have been to extremely wealthy areas of the city and to the slums. I feel as if we have seen it all in that perspective. Chris was in total shock the day we walked through the slums. Over half the population of Mumbai live in slums! Today we walked around the neighborhoods here and talked to some locals. I gave some toys to the little children. It was quite fun! We also found a Mexican type restaurant for lunch which was yummy! I had my first enchilada in months. It wasn't as good as at home but still delicious. Tomorrow is a holiday here. It is Republic Day. They will have a big parade in Delhi. We will watch it on television. Then we fly out tomorrow night and head to Thailand to see the beautiful beaches. I cant wait!

Chris:

India has been an experience unlike any other.This is the first place I have experienced culture shock. I have never seen such outright poverty. I especially feel for the children. The Indians outside of tourist areas are very friendly and love meeting Westerners. We have been in Mumbai our whole time here and to give an idea of the poverty and amount of people here are some statistics about the city.
-40,000 cabs
-29,000 people per square kilometer
-average daily income 134 rupees ($2.90) and this is 3 times the national average
-2.5 million pass through a single train stop
-55% of people live in the slums
-60% of land is reclaimed
These figures are incredible and they show. Don't get me wrong it has been an incredible experience. The couchsurfers we are staying with have been absolutely fantastic hosts and we met some great new friends in the hotel we stayed in the first few days. Time here has really made me appreciate what we have in the US.
We traveled to an amazing place called Elephantas island. It was an ancient Hindu temple that had been carved straight into rock to form caves. It was marvelously constructed and there were a lot of monkeys roaming freely. We also went to Leopolds a restaurant near the Taj hotel that was attacked in 2008. There are still bullet holes in the wall from the attack. We have truly experienced the city and some day I hope to return and explore the north of India.