2/5/2010

Got up early this morning to meet with a French guy I met at the GH to share a cab to the airport, I knew I was going to arrive 5 hours before my flight, but at least I get to avoid the morning heat of Delhi, chill in the air conditioning and catch up on this journal.

I met a Canadian Guy at the checkin desk who was kind enough to give me 100 rupees and then 6 quid. He was flying to Nepal and didn’t need the money. Go me! I cant tell you how many times people have just given me money when I shave a story with them.

Boarding the airplane was almost like entering another world. The words clean and organized come to mind and although Jet Airways is an Indian airline, it certainly doesn’t have the feel of India, another bonus is that there will not be any touts when I get off this plane in Heathrow. During the flight I was able to sleep fairly well thanks to the sleeping pills I purchased in Delhi and I must send kudos to the crew as I was able to eat 6 dishes of food for the flight where most people only ate 2… im just trying to get my moneys worth.

I arrived at the airport and had the choice to use my Britch passport or my Australian one, I opted for my Aussie passport because I remember reading somewhere on the fine print of my travel insurance that if I entered back into the UK my insurance would become void. So if I ever had to claim something and the insurance company saw that I came back I wouldn’t be reimbursed, thankfully it was ok to wait in the very long line to go through customs because my luggage took such a long time to reach the baggage claim. Well this wasn’t the case because even though I told the woman at the Delhi airport checkin that I would be needing my bag she still sent it on my flight to Vancouver.

I waited for a seriously long time to find this out so by the time I finally left the airport it was getting quite late.

I headed on the tube to Notting Hill Gate to meet with the Cook family and where I had a roast dinner waiting for me, I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t roast beef but it still was so good.

I drank quite a bit of wine and was a little tipsy by the time I went to bed and because of the jet lag I was exhausted but only slept for a few hours. It was good to catch up with the Cooks and Alex who came around later in the evening.

1/5/2010

After traveling with Susan (a Dutch girl I met at the Bombay guesthouse) to Delhi on an overnight, mosquito infested and incredibly bumpy bus where I tried to sleep on the floor of the isle. We arrived in Delhi’s ISBT station where we had to avoid the touts who were asking far too much (as always) to get to the main train station where most of the cheap guesthouses were. We shared a tuk-tuk with an English guy (Tom) who was also on the bus.

It was 5am we searched the main bazaar for anything cheap, Bright GH that was recommended by Ian from Rishakesh thinking we would only have to pay for the night of the 1^st, they (again. Like always) tried to charge us for the morning we arrived. We refused to pay as it was getting light and we could a better place, but after we threatened to leave he dropped price to one night only.

For most of the day we caught up on the lack of sleep on the bus journey and I cashed in the 200 Danish crowns I had been carrying for the past 7 months (rs1500) and went shopping as I had only 1 day left, I got another tailor made shirt, some work trousers, sleeping pills (50 for $2) and a pair of sunnies for next to nothing. A few of us in the GH got some beers in the evening where we chilled while it pissed down outside.

24/04/2010 – 30/04/2010

This is a recap of the uneventful events over the past week.

Because right now I am reaching in to mum and dads pockets, I spent the past week not spending much money by chilling on the beach sleeping or reading.

I would eat talis most days where I would stuff my stomach with free chapattis that came with it.

To save a little bit of money I pitched my tent on the roof of Bombay GH where I often woke to unusual situations, well not unusual for India, for example the other morning whilst I was sleeping outside my tent I awoke to two monkeys, curious to what I was, pulling the sheet that I was sleeping under before snarling at me and running away. It was quite the ordeal so the following day as I slept outside my tent I kept my knife beside me.

Yesterday morning I woke to an unusual humming noise that was coming from just outside my tent, afraid as it could have been a bunch of monkeys ready to rape me I peeked through the fly net on the roof of my tent to find a Japanese couple humming to their yoga putting them into positions ive only seen on the exorcist. The rooftop is huge, why they chose a spot right next to me baffles me.

I met some Danish earlier in the week where I was invited to join them to the second waterfall on the east side of the river, it was a decent walk away and the waterfall was nice but the highlight was when we found a small village close to the top of the mountain where Karin (wicked chick and stunningly hot but the girlfriend of Yan) gave out ice creams to all the village people, the kids of the village were more than happy and we got free chai from it too.

The waterfall on the west side of the river costing rs30 I went to on 2 more occasions with people who I met at the guesthouse, 2 norwegian guys (Borgar and Aspen) nice guys I hung out with for the last few days in Rishakesh.

Whilst on one of the walks up to the waterfall I bumped into an older English couple I met in Qui Nhon in Vietnam about 5 months ago, I filled them in on the rest of the cycle trip through the country and shared stories of our experiences, its great to bump into old friends and catch up.

Rishakesh is quite a hippy place, with most westerner participating with ashrams and taking part in Yoga and meditating courses, walking the streets you often run into hippys that are extreme that have spent too much time in India. For example, this American guy who uses tea strainers connected for use as sun glasses, I spoke to him for a while and like most of the hippies you meet in India started talking energies and auras, making me lose interest. The make-shift glasses made passing by people interested, if not laugh but you know what ever tickles your fancy.

23/04/2010

As I am staying in one place here in Rishakesh only to venture away from the hotel where I have my tent set up on the roof of the building, to chill on the beach and eat, the next week events I cant imagine much happening, and my acts of boredom wont be much of an exciting read.

Today I said goodbye to the girls, ate some food and slept all day – told you so, riveting!

22/04/2010

Whilst Jack was joining the two German girls for yoga I slept and sorted out my things, I went to go meet them at freedom café where Jack left and I persuaded the girls to join me at the beach where we chilled for the afternoon.

We were going to head over to the Beatles Ashram where the Beatles stayed whilst writing one of their albums but we (including two English guys, Rich and Dave) got a little distracted and we all headed over the bridge in search of some beer that somebody mentioned.

It took a little while to find the place as it was on the other side of town, but eventually we all had a beer in hand chilling in a cool laid back guesthouse. Although the beers were expensive it certainly was nice to drink one, it has been a while. I think I’ve had 2 beers the entire time I’ve been in India.

We stayed at this place playing pool till 1am where by the time I got back to my guesthouse I had to sneak in through the toilets again.

21/04/2010

Jack and I headed over to Freedom café to meet the two German girls (Jess and Tanya) for breakfast before heading over to the waterfall on the other side of the river.

The girls are attractive but don’t have much banter in them, which is such a shame.

Anyways, we chilled at the waterfall for most of the day and meet a Scottish couple that we were going to meet for dinner.

Also lost my sunglasses but found another cheap pair on the way home.

The Scots were staying in High bank, so Jack and I headed over there to get some chicken in us. We couldn’t find the couple but we did get our chicken and again I sucked the bones dry, this is perhaps the last time ill be having meat before leaving India (Cant wait).

Jack leaves tomorrow and I have another week here in Rishkesh on a tight budget, eating cheap and chilling on the beach before heading back to Canada via London for work.

Me at another waterfall in Rishakesh

20/04/2010

I wasn’t able to sleep for the entire 10 hour journey and by the time we arrived in Haridwar I was all over the place. Completely Nackard we were able to make our way to another bus stand to get the bus over to Rishakesh, the bus there was an extremely boring Korean girl who didn’t have one bit of good conversation in her. The three of us shared a Vickshaw to the Lakseman Jula (backpacker part of town) where I managed to get rid of the girl pointing her in the direction of the bridge whilst Jack and I got some food.

Again we checked into Bombay GH where I slept for a good few hours before hitting up the beach for the afternoon.

Unfortuntely the Korean girl found the same GH we were in but we don’t have to socialize with her.

We headed over to Freedom café in evening where we met some German girls who I taught how to play shithead.

Also bumped into Fredo again from last time I was in Rishakesh.