We had two great days in Agra. Driving from Delhi on Oct 23rd, we stopped in Mathura, the birthplace of Lord Krishna on our way to Agra. The Krishna Janmabhumi temple had the highest security we’ve ever seen at a religious place, even topping The Vatican which we’d visited recently.

Not surprising, the Taj Mahal was the first monument we saw in Agra. Ruchi saw it for the first time and I was seeing it after 20 yrs, so we took our time to explore its magnificence.

The next day we went about visiting the Agra fort, by far the most important fort in India from a historical standpoint. Many Mughal emperors had ruled India for centuries with Agra as their capital and the fort as its centre.

We also saw the mausoleum of Itmad-Ud-Daulah, a much less known monument than the Taj, but truly worth visiting for its intricate marble inlay work.

We head to Rajasthan tomorrow and will visit the ruins of Fatehpur Sikri on our way to Bharatpur bird sanctuary.

The internet connection is really slow, since we’re using our mobile phone to connect our laptop online. We’ll upload more pics from Agra and previous trips as soon as we get a faster connection somewhere.

The trip got extended by 6 days due to a snow storm that we were stuck in. Mom and Dad both have a bad case of frost bite and are recovering. They won’t be able to continue the trip with us till they heal, but Ruchi and I move on and leave for Uttranchal today.

The story of our getting stuck in snow goes like this- On the 19th of Sept, on our way back to Manali,  around 120 km short at a 15,000 feet high pass called Baralacha, it started to snow like crazy. Trucks ahead of our vehicle stopped on the single lane road, and soon there were enough vehicles behind us that we had no way to go but wait for the traffic to clear-up.

Within a few hours, we were in the midst of a full blown snow storm, with strong winds and a heavy doze of snowfall. We spent that night sitting in our SUV, freezing and hoping things will clear up soon.

The second day, on the 20th morning, we woke up to see 3-4 feet of snow around and on top of our vehicle and it became evident that we were going to be stuck here till we got rescued by the Indian Army or the local government.

The weather detoriated further, another snow-storm, coupled with 2 avalanches a few hundred feet on either side of our vehicle completely locked us in this mess. There was no outside communication, as cell phones don’t work at 15,000 feet and we had no idea if there was any help on the way.

There were a total of about 25 vehicles stranded at the pass, comprising mostly of trucks and a few tourist vehicles, including locals and foreigners.

The second night was the worst- our vehicle’s front two doors got jammed due to the cold and won’t shut. We tied the two together with a rope to stop the wind from coming in and chilling our bones, but it didn’t quite work. It was -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) and barely enough to keep us warm.

None of us slept that night, just praying for the day to appear and the sun to shine finally. Our prayers worked! The third day was bright and sunny and in a few hours we had Army choppers dropping food supplies and blankets. Above all, by about 4:00 pm that evening, the rescue team that was sent looking for us two days ago, was finally able to reach us. 50 hours later, we were on our way down an avalanche to the nearest Army vehicle that had come up from a transit camp 30 kms away to get us.

We stayed at the Transit camp at Sarchu for 4 nights till the dozers were able to clear the road on the 25th. With a lot of trouble, we managed to get our vehicle to start. The fuel had frozen due to the low temperature. We drove accross the pass and managed to reach Manali despite the really bad road condition.

The next day we drove straight to Chandigarh and were go glad to be back home safely.

Unfortunately, four men died trying to cross the avalanche about 100 meters behind our vehicle and a total of 15 casualties were reported in the area due to the snow storm.

We hope all of you are doing well. We’ve got 16 more weeks of travel left in India and will keep updating the blog as and when possible.

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The vehicle we’ve bought for the trip is an SUV, a 2007 Mahindra Scorpio. For us, we’ve bought oxygen cylidnders for any high altitude issues, if any were to arise and plenty of spares recommended by travelers who’ve done this journey by road before.

Ladakh happens to be one of my favorite places in India, so I am certainly quite excited. Having been there once before by air, driving all the way up from Chandigarh is going to be quite a thrill.

The Europe trip was amazing! We traveled 11 countries in total, in peak tourist season, but totally enjoyed each moment. We haven’t uploaded pics after Rome, so lots coming tomorrow after we get around to clean up my artistic mess.

And yes, we’ve been pigging out on home made Indian food at Ruchi’s parents house. Goodbye Pasta, Pizza and cheese sandwiches for a while

We’re finally getting around to post the final batch of our Italy pics. We stayed in Rome for 3 days and visited the usual highlights, including Vatican City. St. Peter’s Basilica was definitely the highlight for us- truly amazing!

The Roman Forum and other ancient Rome structures are spread within the city like a parallel world that still exists, but just happens to be over 2000 yrs old.

Our hunt for the best coffee in Italy finally ended in Rome as well- Sant’ Eustachio! The best espresso you’ll ever have. They’ve been at it for over 100 yrs, and the process is a well kept family secret.

Food in Rome was a let down, but our B&B was great and made up for the deficit.

We’ll post pics from Venice, Slovenia and Budapest soon.

We left Budapest, Hungary today after staying there for two days. Budapest was good fun, walked around the two cities “Buda” and “Pest” with a local Hungarian guide, who really wanted us all to know each detail about the Hungarian history and the post-communist situation in the country.

We arrived in Vienna at noon today and so far it seems to be a really nice city. They have a festival in July-Aug, so we got to catch some of that today. We’ll be here for two more nights before going to Salzburg.

Using the wireless access in our hostel in Slovenia, here are some pics from our last week’s visit to Pisa, Florence and Tuscany.

Finally got a stable internet connection, so we’re uploading a couple of sets of pictures. In French Riviera we stayed in Nice and travelled to Monaco, Antibes and a few neighbouring towns in the area.

French Riviera pics are here

Cinque Terre villages were awesome. We spent 2 nights and 3 days there.

Cinque Terre pics are here. More pictures from Italy soon.

Venice seems a lot easier to navigate and we’re trying to stay away from the hundreds of tourists flocking each corner. It hard though. It’s almost like the entire city was designed for tourists and tourists only.

We haven’t uploaded pictures in a week now and plan on going so in a day or two.

Just read that Abhinav Bindra from Chandigarh the first individual Gold Medal for India at the Olympics. Awesome!! History made and hopefully a generation given hope and inspiration. Noting beats listening to the national anthem on the world’s biggest stage.

We don’t think we’re going to Greece next, it’s just too hard to get there by ferry (20 hrs each way), plus the costs seem crazy given the peak season. We’ll think about how to best make use of the 5 extra days that freed up. Suggestions welcome. Cheers.

Lots of pictures need to be uploaded, but we haven’t been able to connect our laptop to the net in the last few days. Hope to do that in a day or two in Rome.

Rome is hot, full of tourists this time of the year, but we’re looking forward to the tours of the Vatican and the ancient Roman sites. More soon.