2014 was an amazing year for us.
We started it off with some much overdue family time in Australia, and it was amazing to be able to celebrate Gypsy's first birthday with so many of our friends and family.
And then 3 days after her birthday our Indian subcontinent adventure began!

I can't even put into words how much we loved our 2.5 months exploring every nook and cranny of Sri Lanka. It's just such an amazing and diverse country. And having a tuktuk gave us so much freedom to go wherever we wanted, and to really meet the locals and see the true local way of life. It was an adventure that will stay with us forever.

Our month in Nepal was an unexpected reminder of what backpacking in Asia is like. We spent most of our time visiting off-the-beaten path areas where sometimes we truly struggled to find a guesthouse or somewhere to eat, and, although frustrating at the time, it was thoroughly refreshing as well!! Add some amazing friends who came to visit us, and some other amazing friends we made on the road, and Nepal was a wonderfully fulfilling month.

And then there is India.
I speak on behalf of all of us when I say we truly hate India. But we also truly love it even more than we hate it. It's such a crazy place. Just when you think you've got it, when you think the constant touting and being lied to isn't bothering you anymore, something tiny will happen and you will snap and the whole love/hate relationship starts again. 
That being said, India is such a beautiful country and we feel blessed to be able to share it with Gypsy. She's learnt so much here. Not too many other toddlers can say that their favourite animals are elephants, camels and goats! Nor can they tell you about the time they patted or rode one of them. She really has grown so much here and we just love the person she is becoming.

Our 4 months at the Ashram was an experience I don't think words can do justice. We both grew so much there as people. Physically, spiritually, emotionally and as a family, we are all so much stronger because of our time there. It will always be another "home" to us.

All in all, 2014 has been a pretty amazing year. But then again, I can't think of a year so far that hasn't been amazing for one reason or another. I truly believe life is what you make of it. If you think it's been a bad time, it has been. But if you focus on the good, the bad will soon fade into the background. And for that reason, I can't wait to see what challenges, adventures and experiences 2015 has for us! Who knows where we will be this time next year! 

Happy new year all of you! Keep smiling. xxx

On the road sometimes you find you continually cross paths with the same people.

As such you find that a lot of the other foreign tourists you see look familiar. Maybe you've just passed them on the street before. Maybe you saw them in a different town. Maybe you were on a bus together but never actually spoke. Maybe you sat near each other at a restaurant sometime.

It usually doesn't matter whether you have previously spoken or not. When you see someone in a different place to the first time you saw them, you suddenly share a strange bond only other travellers will understand.

"Hey, didn't I see you in... Xyz"?

We had one of those moments this morning.

Walking down the street we saw a couple carrying their packs who had clearly just arrived to udaipur as well. We said hi and thought about telling them about our guesthouse until I realised I couldn't remember it's name.. So we walked passed each other with only a hi.

Then wouldn't you know it, an hour later we went back to the guesthouse and found out they were our new next door neighbours!

Then the girl comes running out of their room with her phone and tells us she saw us in Darjeeling and took our photo there!

And sure enough.

There is a photo of us, taken by a complete stranger 2 months ago on the otherside of the country.

And now she is our neighbour.

It's such a small world when you are travelling!!

We were expecting more from Aurangabad the town. For somewhere that is the main stepping stone to some of the most famous and popular caves in India, we were expecting the town to be a little more, well, welcoming I guess.

All of the accommodation is near the train station, which is convenient if you arrive by train, but that’s really it. There are maybe 4 restaurants with attached rent-by the hour or the night “hotels” (although some of them did actually look quite clean and nice), a few pubs (women not welcome), and honestly, that’s it. I’m sure there is a town centre somewhere, but when we asked to be taken to it we were met with blank looks and pointed to the same strip of restaurants and shops we had just come from. The only part of the town we saw atleast was dusty, dirty, and noisy.

But we didn’t come to Aurangabad for the town. We came for the caves!

Ellora and Ajanta caves… Ajanta is more famous for it’s well preserved frescoes inside its 30 or so caves, that are hand carved side by side into a valley overlooking a beautiful river. It was built as a Buddhist monastery before being abandoned and reclaimed by nature. (And then a couple of hundred years ago, re-discovered by humans.)

Ellora is more famous for it’s statues. The Ellora caves are also hand carved, some side by side along a river, and others scattered n the surrounding area.

About 50% of the people we met preferred Ellora, the other 50% preferred Ajanta. We were keen to explore both.

With Ajanta being so much more than we had hoped for, our expectations for Ellora were also increased. Which is never a good thing. Expectations only lead to disappointment.

On the way to Ellora we made a stop at the ……… Fort. Im not a big fort person so I wasn't going to go inside but wow! It was huge! And pretty well preserved! Roh climbed all the way to the top with our friends, whilst G and I waited about half way up. The views were amazing. But beyond that it was so mindblowing to think of what and how it was used. The fort was protected by a series of booby-trapped tunnels to lure attackers into, before rendering them lost or dead..  The tunnels are not inhabited by bats and mice and the air is so stagnant and toxic.. It’s foul.

Interesting place though that’s for sure!!

India has an interesting relationship with the holy cow.

Cows are worshipped.. Literally as gods. They are decorated, they are blessed, they are patted, they are fed, they are allowed to roam the streets and go wherever they like. It is ILLEGAL to kill a cow. They are considered the highest life form – even higher than humans, and are to be revered.

But, at the same time, they are, for want of a better word, considered to be a pest…

They will quite happily stand or mingle or sleep in the middle of a road, or highway. They will block narrow paths. They will steal food from market stalls.

And, well the locals don’t like that very much. Whilst being worshipped and loved, they are also beeped at by cars, beaten with sticks, kicked, punched, chased, and quite honestly, abused… It’s a strange sight to see. Something I can’t quite get my head around.

They are such peaceful animals, so different to the cattle cows back home. To see them just chilling out, happy to be patted, sometimes asking to be patted, is a beautiful thing. Seeing them being abused by the same people who worship them is hard to watch. But its even harder to watch them eating plastic off the ground. India isn’t the cleanest country. Even areas where the roads and paths are swept clean of rubbish, its usually just piled up in one area rather than actually being taken away. And that is where you will find a lot of cows, eating old food scraps along with the plastic bag it was disposed of. So many of the cows are so sickly thin, probably with plastic entangled in their intestines. And yet nobody cares. People will feed the holy cow food still in it’s plastic bag. Knowing, or maybe not caring that they are in fact killing the animal that they are worshipping.

It’s so contradictory and so common, and something that we truly struggle to understand.  

India has the worlds most extensive rail network system in the world. There are trains going to and from everywhere, 24hours a day. It’s crazy.

Sometimes they run on time.. Most of the time they don’t. If even one train is slightly delayed for whatever reason, it has a domino effect on the entire country.

We’ve taken quite a few trains and, so far, have been pretty lucky! They’ve all either been on time or only half an hour or so delayed.

Knock on wood.

We really should have knocked on more wood….

We booked our train from Varanasi to NJP (the closest station to Darjeeling) and specifically chose the 9pm departure, 1:30pm arrival. We figured that Gypsy would already be asleep when we left, we would have breakfast on the train, and arrive just after she awoke from her nap. Perfect! A nice, easy 14 hour trip.

So we took our tuktuk to the station and checked the board. Delayed by 1.5 hours. Oh well, it’s coming all the way from Delhi on the other side of the country, that’s to be expected I guess. At least it’s not delayed 17 hours or 11 hours like the 2 trains above ours on the board!

We really should have knocked on wood..

So we casually make or way to the platform and started our wait. Inconveniently the board giving train times and expected arrival times for our platform wasn’t working so I found a page on the internet that I could track it on. Wait.. it’s now 2hours delayed.. Oh well.

2.5 hours.

3 hours.. 

4 hours..

Let’s go and ask the station master. Maybe this webpage is wrong.

“Go away. I don’t know. Leave now.”

Well that was helpful..

5 hours.. It’s 2am. Guess Gypsy and I are going to sleep here on the platform for a bit!

Okay this is getting ridiculous..

Oh yay! It should be here in 15 minutes time finally!!

Did we miss it? It’s been half an hour? Did they change the platform? Let’s go ask the train guy again.

“It’s late. Same platform. Go away!”

Oh hang on, the webpage just refreshed.. 7 hours now..

8 hours..

It’s nearly 5am.. They sun will be up soon..

Hang on, was that our train just announced? Yes! It’s arriving now to a different platform on the other side of the station and only stopping for 3 minutes!?! OMG! Quick! RUN!!

What carriage are we? It doesn’t matter! Just get on before it leaves without us. That would be the ultimate irony.

Okay, here we are. Here are our beds. Now lets get some sleep.

Seriously? I know it’s 5 am, and the sun is coming up, and some people are early risers but Mr room mate. Please turn off your music and stop talking so loudly to your girlfriend..

No? You are awake? Oh look! So is gypsy now… Thanks buddy… Just awesome..

Oh well, it’s only a 14 hour journey. We will sleep when we get there..

22 hours later…

Yes.. It was 8 hours late, and took a further 22 hours to reach our destination..

2 nights for the price of one!!

It was 3 am the following morning when we finally arrived.

Just in time to jump in a jeep for a 4 hour journey to Darjeeling.

OMG, is that the Himalayas? Is that Mt Everest?? Wow..

Okay, I guess it was worth it but still…

We really need to knock on wood more often....

During one of the courses at the ashram we met a lady who worked at  the original vipassana meditation center, Dhammagiri in Igatpuri. After casually saying that I was keen to do a course she promptly informed me that she could get me in (it is normally a 6 month wait to get in). Sure I’ll do it. How hard could it be…??

For those who don't know what vipassana meditation is, it's a 10 day course where you cant talk to any one, or even make eye contact with anyone else. Writing material, phones, religious material, computers and anything else that has a hint of fun in it is banned. You meditate from 4:30 am till 9:30 pm with only a few hours break during the day. For me the silence was some thing I was looking forward to, the sitting cross-legged for umpteen hours a day was not… But nonetheless I decided to give it a go. Leaving Robyn and Gypsy behind I jumped on a local bus and headed out to Dhammagiri. The center is stunning to say the least, with an epic mountain as the back drop. I couldn't think of a better, or more peaceful place to be quiet for 10 days.  Without going into too much detail, just let me say that the course is like a roller coaster of emotions. One day you love it the next you hate it and want to leave, you are happy and content followed by angry and emotional with a dose of breaking down for good measure then back to being ecstatically happy. And all this you deal with in silence, some times sitting in a hall with 300 other people and sometimes you are in small dark little cells. I know, I’m not exactly painting a good picture of it, but at the end of the 10 days I had learnt more about myself than in 34 years of life. I came out of it with a new outlook on the world and on my own self as well. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

And the cost of this course you may ask… well that's the crazy thing… it’s free… Yep free! You don't pay a cent, actually they won’t let you pay if it’s your first time. They feed and house over 600 students per course and they rely on donations from older students to cover the costs. Sounds crazy and like something that would never work? … Well you’re wrong. They have over 50 centers all over the world. Their only goal is to spread the concept of taking away the misery of your mind and to help everyone to find their inner happiness.

Would I do it again?

Maybe in a few more years I’ll do it again. I feel like I need time to work on the new tools I’ve been given first.

Would I recommend other people to do it?

If you want to learn about yourself and are interested in looking within yourself instead of externally and materially, then absolutely!

It truly is a tough, but amazing experience and I would recommend it to every one!

Help us to design a logo for our page header that says who we are and what we do (better than the current image of Varanasi does) and we will send you a special something from either Nepal or India as a prize!!

It can be anything, a cartoon, a drawing, a picture... Take a look around our page, get to know us a bit and start designing!! We also need a small webpage browser icon.

Happy designing and we look forward to your entries!

Competition closed Sunday October 19.

Please email all entries to: thetraveljunkies@hotmail.com

Winners will also be announced on our Facebook page thetraveljunkiesdotcom so be sure to like it for updates!

Our friend Evan suggested we meet him at a waterfall that he'd heard was in a national park south of Varanasi but didn't know the name of, or have any other details of. He thought it was at the end of the road going into the park, and when our guesthouse owner confirmed there was a waterfall about 50 Km south from Varanasi and gave us the name on a piece of paper, the decision was made! Evan would ride his motorbike there and we (along with our friend Leo) would take the bus. What could go wrong?

Well, lots it seems!

Strike 3 – When we were told to get off the bus, it was at a chai stall by a dusty main road.. No National Park and no Evan in sight.. The chai lady directed us to a small path that lead to the waterfall and it was okay. Certainly nothing to travel 3 hours each way to see though!!

After another chai, and another failed attempt to get internet reception to contact Evan, we found out that the bigger waterfall was a 5km walk away down a dirt track to the other side of the chai stall. Of course it was! I mean, who needs signs anyway? It makes perfect sense that the chai lady had presumed we wanted to see the small, barely flowing waterfall, and not the big, apparently impressive one! Feeling hot, hungry and exhausted we decided to not walk the 10km return, and instead sat by the road waiting for the next bus back.

We were making good time on the new bus when, all of a sudden, we stopped… Along with about 50 trucks, 7 other buses, cars and tuktuks… This didn’t seem like a quick pitstop. Roh went investigating and found a truck completely blocking the road, with about 80 Indian men standing around staring at it’s axel…

And there they stood.. staring at the axel and waiting for it to magically fix itself for about 1 and a half hours.. In 37 C heat..

At one point our bus tried to turn around. Atleast that's what we think it was trying to do. It failed either way and also ended up across the road blocking other traffic. The bus driver didn’t appear concerned.  

Suddenly, a tow truck appeared and with it, everyone ran back to their trucks and buses, started their engines and started jostling for poll position, to be the first vehicle to pass the truck and get going again.. Which meant that on both sides of the trucks, vehicles were trying to overtake the other vehicles on the wrong side of the road. So even after the truck was moved, nothing could get through at all! It was like a Mexican standoff of the automobile kind. 

Oh, and you can do super touristy things like sit on a yak aswell!! Or try to take a super touristy photo of your screaming toddler sitting on a yak!! :)

After 4 months at the ashram, and many tears of goodbye this morning, followed by a nice lunch and play date with Ishi, we are on a train! And will be for the next 22 hours... Next stop, varanasi!