Danielle and Jessi's Travel Blog: Danielle's Birthday

Believe it or not, this girl is 27

Danielle turned 27 on March 27th, and luck was on her side. First she dodged a second round of food poisoning, which struck me down on the 26th, even though we had eaten the same meals off of the same plates, and Danielle had even eaten the communal breath-freshening seeds the restaurants presented with our bills. The germs must have known it was her birthday and taken pity on her. She also managed to get extra bread from the cook at our hostel (see Danielle's post for more info on how bizarre this gift was). Then, she avoided TWO bird poop bombings. One was so close that we felt the air from it as it rushed past us and splattered on the sidewalk.

That white spot almost landed on her head instead of the sidewalk

We also managed to contact an ideal place to volunteer, ending our week of purgatory in Mumbai. And when we went to the train station to buy tickets to Dehradun, the man behind the ticket counter waved us past the huge line of locals and helped us purchase 500 rupee 2nd class non-AC tickets (bargain! At least we thought. We didn't understand that 3rd class AC tickets were a class higher than 2nd class non-AC).

After buying our tickets, we took a leisurely stroll around town and saw kids riding ponies!!! The boys leading the horses around a ring noticed us staring enviously at the kids, and I yelled that it was Danielle's birthday and asked if they'd give her a free ride. They seemed very eager to oblige and started walking quickly towards us, but Danielle dragged me away before I could embarrass her more.

Lusting after a pony ride

Pony-ride guy's failed attempt at wooing Danielle

We tried to see a Bollywood film, but the theater was on strike so we walked until we found a Western looking coffee shop with insanely intense chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, hot chocolate fudge, and a chocolate bar thrown on top. We got two pieces and two chocolate milk shakes and ate ourselves sick. It was wonderful.

It was a lovely cake

Before the first bite

Heaven

Heaven caused a sugar coma

Chocolate shake time

We also stopped at an Indian sweets shop and Danielle got a few dozen creations to take with us on the train. Unfortunately, during the entire 48 hour ride we remained too sick off the chocolate cake to sample the sweets. But it was good to know they were there in case we wanted them.

Sweets shop

Choices, choices.

We also took a stroll near the water across the street from the Taj Mahal Hotel.

Elaborate carriage we saw on the street

Victory Arch

Next we packed up and took some sentimental pictures of our cozy Salvation Army room. Despite the quirkiness of some of our hosts and neighbors, we'd grown quite attached to our little haven.

Our cute window

Our cute bed

Our cute door

Then we were off to the station for a semi-hellish journey through a local train system we didn't understand, a compartment full of staring men who seemed to find us and our over-sized bags incredibly amusing, and (apparently) the slum where "Slumdog Millionaire" was filmed, which we had to walk through at night. Then when we finally got to the major station where we could catch our 11 P.M. train to Dehradun we had to deal with more creepy stares and attempted thefts. But we were miraculously taken in by a small group of protective Indians, who helped us find our seats, warded off intruders, and literally force-fed us cake and Pepsi when they found out it was Danielle's birthday. After a brief but incredibly cheerful party in our compartment, we sugar-crashed onto our sleeper bunks and morphed into what we call "zombie mode", which is what allows us to endure 48 hour train rides with minimal food, water, and bathroom usage.