One month in India

This post is coming a little late because we didn't have opportunity to write but it is a post that has to be written. On September 8th we celebrated our first month travelling and there is a lot to say about it.

Curiously our travel anniversary happened exactly in the same place we started: Delhi. The only "cheap" solution to travel from Varanasi to Manali (himalaya) was a 16h train to Delhi, 12h stop in Delhi and 13h bus to Manali. We were not very excited about being in Delhi again... we remembered the confusion and stress from the first days of our trip and we didn't feel like going through it again. When we arrived at 6am we didn't know where to go.. everything was so confusing in Delhi that it would be impossible... we left the train station that seemed calmer than before and went to the metro station then, we sat a bit on the metro station trying to decide where to go if to a Buddhist garden or to the main bazaar and find a restaurant to relax (we stayed in the main bazaar area the first time). After some thoughts we decided to go to the main bazaar area. As we started to walk to the main bazaar people didn't seem as agressive as they were.. maybe it's because it's only 8am we thought... we found a restaurant, club india, and we stayed there for a few hours.. we ate, charged phones, went to the restroom, observed the streets from the rooftop and talked a bit about our month in India. When a cat decided to show up in the rooftop we had to move.. as everybody know, Kika can't stay in the same space as a cat.. we walked along the streets of the main bazaar and we felt no hassle at all... for lunch we went to a restaurant that we used to go on the first days of our journey and there we realized... Delhi is exactly the same city it was before but we definitely changed... we are much more experienced now and things that used to shock us or make us nervous don't do it anymore... An older guy that was in the table next to us started to talk to us asking where we are from and what were our travel plans.. we started to talk and he told us he is travelling for 8 years, we exchanged some experiences and he gave us very useful tips about places that we plan to visit.. it is always good to talk with more experienced travelers.. we feel that we learn a lot. Around 3pm we started our way to the bus station, at first we planned to walk but we ended up going by rickshaw because it was very far and the backpacks aren't that light under a burning sun. On the way we got the usual Delhi traffic but again... it is not that bad!

Exhausted and without sleep we finally sat on the bus to Manali... we were going to be able to sleep... or... not. At the beginning the bus looked nice, it's a semi sleeper so the back goes down and there is a support for the feet but as the bus started the driver puts on the music (Indian obviously) and of course we had to be under the only speaker of the bus...  after 1h our heads were about to explode.. Pedro finally talked to the driver and we were able to change seats. Then we noticed that the bus stops ALL the time.. that's why it takes 13h to make 550km... we had a very light snack around 10pm and now we were going to sleep... well it happens that Pedro is very tall and Kika is very short... when the driver breaked Pedro knocked with his knees everywhere and Kika was sliding through the leather seat back and forward.. her feet didn't touch the ground so it was very hard for her to find a position. As we reached the mountains we reached also the curves and with curves people usually feel sick, off course people started to throw up to small bags provided by the driver... we were getting really tired... Finally, around 1am, either we found a position or our bodies just gave up and we felt asleep almost until we reached Manali.

On the Bus ride we shared more feelings about the previous month.. some things exceeded expectations, few things (not much) are a bit worst than expected and other things are yet to happen but in general the end result is really really positive. We both feel stronger, we got out of our confort zone and successfully overpassed some of our limits, we are learning new things everyday and, most important of all... we are happy. This trip was definitely the right thing to do... we wonder what we will feel in a month or in ten months... now it is time to enjoy the Himalaya!