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.

19/04/2010

Jack still had difficulty fitting into the semi-deluxe bus and he had a restless night, meanwhile I took half of a sleeping pill and slept very well. We arrived at the hill station Shimla in the early hours of the morning and went to find some accommodation for the day. As soon as we got off the bus, like always we were confronted by tuk-tuk drivers and touts trying to sell us very expensive accommodation, the easiest thing to do is push them aside and find your own, cheap accommodation. After a while one tout was persistent enough and offered a cheap but filthy room for rs220 that we took only for the day as we were leaving in the evening back down to Rishakesh. It was good to catch up on some sleep and have a place to keep our gear while we ventured around town.

To be honest, this place was extremely touristy with fancy and expensive shops especially at the main bazaar at the higher point in town.

We bummed around town doing practically nothing exciting aside from my purchase of a new phone as mine was stolen in Thailand. One thing that was entertaining on two occasions was monkeys trying to attack Jack although I was the one to provoke them. Hehe.

We boarded another bus to get to Haridwar, unfortunately for Jack it was a local bus and had even less leg room.

Shilma, the only pic of Shilma i have that i even haven't bothered correcting it

18/04/2010

Todays weather was terrible, windy and raining!

Jack and I got bus times to get away from the bad weather in Manali and booked a bus heading South towards the warmer climate. We booked it for the evening to Shimla about 10 hours from Manali.

The shoes that I had bought in China were ruined by now and were soaking up the rain water into my socks so I went off to buy a new pair, I paid rs800 ($20) not so bad, but they are cheap Indian but hopefully they will last.

We wasted the miserable day away by chilling, watching a film and sleeping until our bus departed at 9.40pm.

We opted for the semi-deluxe bus because Jack being 6”4’ he has trouble fitting into all public transport vehicles. I was quite happy paying the little bit extra because of the reclining seats.

17/04/2010

Got up this morning at a reasonable hour to eat breakfast and get ready for more boarding as I was feeling so much better than yesterday, we all made our way to the beginner slope where I built another kicker, slightly larger than the previous one where everyone tried it, but failed miserably. It was very funny to watch.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to pull off my backflip as the jump wasn’t great for it, nor was I even able to pull off a 360 L

We headed back to camp in the early afternoon as we had to pack our stuff and get ready to head back down the mountain, unfortunately for us it started raining and the winds picked up. The entire way down Jack and I took the piss out of Cindy who was our guide and teacher for those who were beginners, we needed something to entertain us on the walk down (because the view wasn’t enough) and taking the piss out of her was just too easy.

We got down the mountain and hopped in the jeep waiting for us; all of us were nackard and wanted to rest on the journey back to Manali. Obviously this wasn’t easy as we had an overly loud Indian character in the back seat practically yelling unnecessarily at Cindy when he talked. I was very close to pulling off my boot and shoving it into his mouth, I suppose it was a good thing I didn’t because apparently this would upset some people especially him.

That’s the one thing I hate about India, it’s the unnecessary noise, any road vehicle will honk their horn whenever they get a chance, ticket inspecters on local transportation will blow their whistle right next to your ear just to tell the driver 3 feet away to stop for some passengers to get off, people loading the buses from the roof will not respect the people sleeping inside by placing their goods quietly on the rooftop, instead they slam and smash everything everywhere waking everyone. Damn, its annoying! My ears are going to be shot by the time I leave India in 2 weeks tomorrow (not that I’m counting the days) and I go to heaviest of Metal festivals.

We made it back to Vashisht with blood coming out of our ears where I picked up my gear and headed over to Old Manali where Jack and I shared a room in a hotel where the others from the camp were staying.

I went off to use the interweb where surprisingly I bumped into Thomas, a French Canadian guy whom I met in Beijing; Thomas, myself and his friend also named Thomas went together to see the Great Wall of China.

Later in the afternoon I bumped into another guy I had met before although at first didn’t recognize him. Omar, this Israeli guy I had met in Thailand in Krabi, thankfully I wrote about him in this journal and after searching his name it then clicked for me who he was… God, im terrible at remembering peoples faces and names.

Jack and I met with Thomas and his family who he was traveling with in a nice restaurant where we caught up and had a good but expensive meal before having an early one.

Jeep ride down the mountain

16/04/2010

Last night I did not sleep well at all, I think it could have been an altitude thing as I had difficulty breathing had a blistering headache and was having difficulty keeping a consistent temperature in the freezing high altitude air, I took some painkillers but unfortunately did not work. I was unable to ride today and spent the entire day in bed catching up on sleep after taking a high altitude sickness pill.

In the late afternoon I was feeling much better and stayed awake chatting with the crew until they were all tired and went to bed meanwhile I watched anchorman on my ipod.

15/04/2010

I had to take a sleeping pill last night because I was very excited to snowboard again but regardless I still got up much earlier than I needed to to pack my things and get to where I was getting picked up. All the sizing of our gear was done yesterday so we could get an early start and get to the base camp situated 3500m about 40km from Manali.

In our group of all guys we had 3 Isrealies, 2 French Canadians, 2 Germans, a Japanese guy, Jack and myself. Our crew was great and we set off in 2 jeeps stopping for breakfast on the drive.

We had to hike 2km from where we were dropped off to get to camp thankfully having the porters carry out heavy belongings, these guys carrying our stuff were machines, having to carry at least 50kg of weight 2km up a 25-30 degree slope.

It was a bit of a tedious walk up obviously good for our fitness and when we reached camp the camp cook made us up lunch that was delicious before we put on our boarding gear and set off for more of a hike to reach more snow.

To be honest I was a little disappointed with the amount of snow (that was incredible slushy) that was even questionable to ride on as there were rocks poking up all over the place.

The experienced of us did this hike whilst the beginners hit a simpler slope closer to camp. We hiked for about an hour and a half up the mountain to 3700m were we only had a few minutes of riding downhill having to stop now and then to find another patch of rid able snow. It was very disappointing although the views from the top were breathtaking.

We headed over to the beginners slope where I built a small kicker that I only hit a few times before being completely exhausted from the days activities then headed back to camp and munched on dinner, sat by the fire and went to bed in the tent (I was sharing with Jake.)

The Himalayas Panoramic

By the Camp Fire

Boarding in 80's Ski Gear

Yay, high Altitude High

Pretty Flower

Pano of Hike up mountain

14/04/2010

I slept a great deal last night, not getting out of bed till midday.

I set off to go see Manali and Old Manali, I spent most of the early afternoon looking for a second hand mobile phone unfortunately not finding any, I walked up to the Old town hoping to run into Shaun and the other guys but could not find them, the old town didn’t have much to offer, certainly a lot quieter than Vashisht and also not such a nice view.

I did meet a cool English guy who signed up for the 3 day snowboarding trip organized for 2000 rupees a day… I know it is quite out of my budget but he convinced me to join him… tomorrow Ill set off with 10 other people to shred the spring snow in the foot hills of the Himalayas for 3 days.

This is one thing that I really wanted to do in India, so hopefully the weather and the snow will be good enough for me to attempt a backflip or something. Cant wait!

13/04/2010

Arrived in Manali where it was freezing, I joined a Russian couple who I’d met on the bus to Vashisht, a small town just outside Manali where the backpacking area was where I found a room for rs100 a night, as it turns out this recently opened guesthouse was run by an Indian, Austrian couple who I’d met in Orchha a month ago.

I was pretty nackard from the journey so for most of the afternoon I slept.

I wondered around town hopefully bumping into the guys I met in Rishakesh but had no luck, this place is very small and I should bump into them at some point unless they are staying in Old Manali a good few kilometers away.

I hopped on the internet for a half hour getting some good news, someone on another crew from tree planting dropped out, so I now have his position. Yay! I’m so glad as I wasn’t looking forward to looking for job for a month when I arrived in Canada.

I met a bunch Swedes and Israelis outside the internet café and I sat chatting to them for a while and later joined the Israelis couple to a small outside café that had reasonable prices, the food was excellent although took a very long time to come out.

I went back to the hotel where I sat chatting to the Indians and a German guy who was also staying there. Earlier in the day I looked into snowboarding here, it costs 1300-1800 rupees for a day which is all I need just to say I went boarding in India, Phillip this German guy may join me as well as the Austrian girl who runs the guesthouse.

12/04/2010

Hoped on the internet this morning and got some serious bad news about work in Canada… because Katie, our foreman has left the company there were only a few spots left on other crews, unfortunately because I am in India and the time difference between here and there are the exact opposite so I wasn’t able to contact Darren the manager soon enough to get one of positions, first come first served… he offered me a spot on his crew but not until early June, Im not sure of my options now but I suppose I will still have to go to Canada and look for work somewhere to fill in a month… perhaps fruit picking or just work in the hostel in Kelowna… who knows? This is a bit of a low blow at least I will be getting the money from the government for about $2k.

Anyway, Rosie, Barbara and I left to get back down to Dehra doon to catch buses to various destinations, I hopped on the 15 hour bus to Manali in the North. On the way down to the city the roads were very windy to a point where Barbara actually threw in a plastic bag around the people in the overfilled bus for the hour long journey that I spent standing upright.

The journey to Manali was awful; it still surprises me how many Indians they can fit on a bus, I was glad to have a seat but having an isle seat only put people’s asses in my face.

There was also a woman behind me who kept on trying to rip my hair out gripping the backseat of my chair and my hair at the same time so every time there was a bump in the road id move forward but back get yanked back, I told her to stop it but she didn’t want to listen.

The second half of the journey wasn’t so bad, I had the 3 seats to myself so I was able to get some sleep.

Me and the crew

11/04/2010

Actually did nothing today! But heres a pic of a beautiful sunset!

10/04/2010

Got up early this morning to try and get in contact with Darran the manager of Nechako for my treeplanting job hopefully starting in a month but could not get through to him.

Anyways just wondered around town today, not much to mention other than the view being quite nice.

Bumped into Yan, the German guy from Jaisalmer and we bought some groceries for me to cook for the next few days whilst we are here.

In the evening I cooked up a bit of a feast unfortunately without any meat but it was delicious; mash potato with cheesy cream sauce cauliflower, caramelized carrots and beans.

Later we walked around the top bit of the village where we are staying getting a wicked night view of Dehra Dun the city at the bottom of the hill.

Ankle Bitter

Kiddo

09/04/2010

I got an email today saying that Katie, my foreman for treeplanting in Canada was having family problems and would not be able to work meaning we would have to break up our crew and spread ourselves amongst the other crews. This is very annoying as our crew was awesome and the chances are we may not be able to work with each other.

Anyways, I was going to join Shaun and a few others to rainbow festival where a bunch of hippies hang out in a forest and dance around the campfire, apparently the rangers for the area have tried breaking up the gathering but the hippies refuse to move.

Instead to going to this hippyfest fully knowing I certainly would not enjoy it I joined Barbara, Marcus and Rosie to Mussoorie a hill station just under 300km north of Delhi.

Im going to spend a few days here before heading up to Manali 14 hours north of here.

We left Rishakesh around midday when it was unbearably hot and had to hike across the busy bridge and up several flights of stairs to the rickshaw stand to get to the bus terminal. It took 2 tuk-tuks and 2 buses’ to get to Mussoorie where the weather was chilled being at an altitude of 2000m.

We checked into a place that seemed very nice with even a kitchen so I can cook but after paying the first night up front we later found out there was no hot water.

Tomorrow on top of making a few phone calls to Canada we are going to move to another place.

I did tonight however have thali, but this time with chicken! It was delicious, I certainly needed my meat fix and im feeling 100 times better because of it.

08/04/2010

After getting back so late from the beach last night then getting up early to meet rosie and some of her friends to get to the waterfall 7km out of town, I began the day pretty nackard.

We were supposed to head off at 8.30 but because everyone was again faffing about we didn’t begin to leave town till 10.30. During this time I could have slept more but I did say my last farewells to Emer, we had been traveling for a good month together and she honestly had been a wicked travel companion, im going to miss her.

We had a good crew for the day, all solo travelers ranging from Russia (Barbara and stunning) to Georgia (Cant remember her name but equally as stunning), Rosie an English girl who I met yesterday, Marcus from Brazil, Lena and myself.

We hiked to quite a few waterfalls where we just lazed about eating and swimming, all in all a good fun day and apart for the hike nothing to strenuous.

We got back to town late afternoon where Lena and I inhaled a thali and I slept for a good few hours then headed to Freedom café and chilled… god, this is a tough life, although I’m looking forward to working again.

HDR of Waterfall

Me doing a frontflip

The Girls

07/04/2010

We woke this morning relatively early to make our way to Haridwar to see what this festival only held every 12 years was about. Lena, Emer and I arrived there not really having a clue what to expect. I can say it was certainly interesting, a huge festival ground including campsites extending at least 25 km along side the river Gangas.

We went on a bad day, there really wasn’t much to do apart from washing in the river and chilling out, the big day was dated for the 14^th where all the locals run into the river and bathe, cleansing themselves physically and spiritually.

We wondered around looking for something to do only finding a westerner who took us to a tent where a bunch of people were waiting for ‘Pilot Baba’, there was no set date or time to when this guy was arriving so people just waited and waited hoping he would arrive whilst they were there. I asked what was so special about this ‘Pilot Baba’ and

all I got in response was that he was a pilot in the army and enlightened. Now I don’t understand why people would worship a guy like this, I did get a little bit of info from people about what it means to be enlightened and the hippies say they can feel their auras saying that it is refreshing or something similar. Horse-shit! Enlightened = Attention seeking, that’s the way I see it. And here’s a perfect example; one of the girls in Pilot Baba’s tent who had been around Kumba Mela for a month showed us a picture of one Baba (all of these holy men are referred to as ‘Baba’) who has had his right arm raised above his head for the past 26 years, his arm was looking very malnourished and this guy is somehow enlightened and has a bunch of followers just because he cant put his arm down and this is what people worship… some people are strange!

After a few hours of wondering the dusty festival streets I got bored and left Emer and Lena to make my way back to Rishakesh, it took a good few hours to get back cause the roads where busy with floats for some sort of parade blocking up the roads.

Whilst having a thali with Fredo (a Spanish guy who is wicked on guitar) an Israeli girl (Maria) recognized me from Thailand, we hadn’t met but she had saw me in Koh Pan Ngan when I was there with my brother, I thought she was a little bit strange eyeing me weirdly from a distance but she turned out to be a cool girl inviting me to the beach to join in on a little feast and music session. Fortunately for me when her and her friends found out I was a chef I was persuaded to cook something with the vegetables they had already bought which I personally had no problem doing and have been wanting to do for a long time now. I gathered up my knives and spices and after some faffing about getting everyone together and all the equipment for cooking we headed down to the beach where we joined a party already down there and I slaved away cooking for a dozen people.

The food turned out ok, not my best dishes but bearing in mind I was cooking using an inconsistent heat and with limited ingredients and spices I did well, everyone still enjoyed the food.

Getting late into the night some police officers arrived checking if we were doing anything illegal, searching our bags and stuff and seeing my chef knife I travel with. They were not impressed by the size of the knife saying it was too dangerous weirdly and lightly prodding me in the stomach with it (its rounded on the end), I explained that I work as a chef, my knife is my tool of the trade, did not know it was illegal and its only dangerous if used in a situation if brought out in a fight.

After some time I managed to get my knife back telling them that they will never see it again and I put it away with my other large knife I hid in the sand after they took the first one.

When searching the bags they found Emer’s ½ bottle of vodka that she had from Jaisalmer and again saying it was illegal to possess any type of alcoholic drink in this city especially drinking on the river bank of the Gangas not that she was drinking anyways. After a bit of a verbal back lashing the cop smashed the bottle on the rocks by the river… this seemed to all of us at the party as a little contradictory, scattering shards of glass in the holiest river in India. WTF.

As a bit of a contrast to the way the policemen were acting, my punishment for carrying a chef knife was to dance to Emer’s singing which was her punishment… it was a little random so the group played some music and I danced with Shaun getting the officer involved. It was funny but annoying that they were there ruining the mood of the party as it was now past midnight and also the Israeli girl Maria’s birthday.

Some of us headed off shortly after the police left where we had to sneak back into the guesthouse climbing in through the toilets because of the cerfew

The policeman dancing on the beach

Indian taking a dump at Kumbh Mela

06/04/2010

A very uneventful day just chilled on the beach and caught too much sun making me feel a little ill so I sat in the hotel room for the evening. Emer is having a little difficulty getting to Kolkata for her flight to Bangkok in 10 days… all the trains were booked up so she may have to local bus it from here to there making a very tedious trip.

05/04/2010

I joined Emer and Lena to a chanting session this morning; curiosity and amusement were the reasons why I went… not a great way to look at what some people use as a meditative way to enrich their lives or reach that point of greater power in their search for whatever it is they are looking for. Personally I’m quite happy being spiritually unfulfilled, taking each day as it comes without the need to focus my aura or become a follower of some hippy cult.

When we entered the ashram it was a little different from what I expected, thinking people would be chanting in a tribal way seen on National Geographic. Instead everyone in the room sat on floor cushions around a throne cross legged which is something ive always had difficulty doing for as long I can remember. There were quite a lot of people doing this, all westerners but mostly some variation of hippy.

Then Babu or whatever his name was came out and sat on his throne, this guy was a Brazilian who founded the ashram; this guy, apparently on a higher plain than the rest of us was being worshipped by his followers to a point where people even kissed his feet. He talked (translated) about peace, love and about how you should not over indulge in food and what-not and people listened, took notes, and recorded his speech in audio and video as if everything he said had a more intricate meaning. I didn’t quite understand the whole situation perhaps because I was a little distracted playing a game on my camera thinking it was more interesting but a lot of this spiritual mumbo-jumbo for example reading your horoscope in the local newspaper is always very general and open ended but not at all specific to you, you can however, and people do, especially these people, manipulate the words to associate it with yourself and your life only resulting in false hope.

I know im sounding very cynical, but now some kind words, I thought the music performed was great and I got cake.

Later we went to a beach north of town with a German man named Deter where he insisted for us to try his filtered water from the Gangas using his Swiss-made portable filtration device… yes, he was a little strange.

Anyways, after baking in the midday sun and drinking the not-so-tasty water We headed back into town where I napped for the afternoon and into the evening where I did nothing other than watch the Aussie film Rabbit Proof Fence that was an hour and a half of pure dribble, it actually was more entertaining watching it at x1.33 where everyone had squeaky voices not that there was much dialog and the film didn’t go on for so long.

04/04/2010

Got up out of bed early this afternoon whilst Emer and Lena went to go see the Dali Lamas for his speech, fortunately for me his words were as Emer put “Humble” and apparently not very exciting.

I sewed together some garments of mine that were falling apart and headed to the beach on the Gangas with the two girls where we spent all afternoon relaxing and doing nothing.

The evening was the same as yesterday just sitting in freedom bar meeting randoms and chatting away, our hotel has a curfew at 11.00 which is kind of irritating but justifiable otherwise everyone would pretty much sleep at Freedom and spend all their time in Rishakesh there.

03/04/2010

When I woke this morning after sleeping on the floor of the prison cell of a room I had no idea that today I would see the Dalai Lama today, he was on a tour with other religious leaders rockin it in the center of Rishakesh for two days only, unfortunately his performance this afternoon was not delivered only appearing on stage still making the crowd go wild lighting everything they could on fire, well, not everything just the lanterns that were passed around where everyone wanted a whiff of the smoke to, oh, I dunno, “cleanse their spirit”. This was quite an ordeal because these lanterns were cumbersome and firing flames in all directions almost incinerating the people around, including myself.

I took some pictures of the big DL busting his grooves, well, sitting there expressionless but this experience still is pretty cool as I have now seen both of the 2 major influential religious leaders in the world, the first obviously being the Pope.

Getting back to earlier in the day we bumped into Lena in Freedom Café, the Swedish girl Emer and I met in Udaipur, we spent most of the morning just chillin in the café before the three of us decided to go do something and see one of the waterfalls nearby, it was a 3km walk there and was undoubtedly refreshing, very cold water pummeling down in one main thick stream. We headed back to the backpacker area where we heard about the possibility of big DL coming to town and ventured to go see him, despite being some doubt that he would be there at all… thankfully as you have just read he was.

Tomorrow he gives his speech early in the morning and ill see whether I’m up in time to go see him as it is now close to 1 am having spent most of the evening back in Freedom Café chilling, meeting people, chatting and listening to some people gifted with the ability to perform in front of others. Some of these guys are truly amazing.

One other thing I have to mention; sweet Samosa’s, more specifically apple and chocolate filled samosa’s are delicious, an Indian version of apple pie.

Mr Dalai Lama in Action...

HDR waterfall near rishakesh

Where I saw the Dalai Lama

02/04/2010

I took 3 of the sleeping pills over the course of the night and had perhaps the best sleep I have ever had on any mode of transport ever, the train journey was suppose to be 14 hours, instead taking 17 to get to Haridwar where Emer and I tried to find a place to leave our stuff and see kumbhamela for the day.

Because we could not find a place to store our stuff at both the train station and public bus stand we decided to make our way to Rishikesh to find a hotel and postpone our time at the festivities for another date. We took a bus to Rishikesh and a vikram (a larger rickshaw) to Lakshman Jhula where we had to walk a considerable distance across town then across a footbridge to the location of the backpacking scene. We found a place offering only a single costing rs200 where I had to use my floor mat as an extra bed.

The scene here is much like Pushkar in the sense that it is filled with meditating, yoga-ing, instrument playing hippies, which I don’t really mind although I am missing the metal scene of Europe. I am certainly not going to find any bars playing In Flames or Wintersun here as this is the yoga capital of the world and also dry of alcohol, they don’t even sell meat here. L

Anyway, my preferences aside, it’s a lot greener here than in Rajasthan as we are closer to the mountains and right on the river Ganges separating the town into two parts with a convenient but busy foot bridge.

We wondered around town and met some English girls who we hung around with for the afternoon, chilling in a restaurant on the river before seeing a hippy song and dance shindig in a small bar where almost everyone got involved playing with various instruments, beating, plucking and drumming away; and Ill be honest, it was really good.

01/04/2010

Travel day, we woke this morning at 5am to get the bus towards Haridwar, the first part of the journey was from Jaisalmer to Bikaner on a local bus that was semi-deluxe with comfy seats but still chockablock full of Indians making it roasting inside and the outside breeze didn’t really help because we were in semi-desert and the air was extremely dry.

After the 5 hour journey to Bikaner we go off the bus again being surrounded with rickshaw drivers offering hotels and competing ride prices, its going to a point where its so unbearable that I tell them all to shut-it and shush them quite.

When figuring out how far the ride was to the train station the rickshaw drivers offered their prices, we got it from 80 to 10 rupees in a matter of seconds, selecting the guy with the cheapest offer.

We then dropped our stuff off the cloak room at the train station and wondered around town for a couple of hours getting some lunch and using the internet before boarding the train to Haridwar.

The train journey was great, watching ’Slum dog Millionaire’ a great film and well suited for the occasion being in India where it was filmed. Getting to sleep amongst the yelling of Indian passengers was a breeze with the help of some sleeping pills I bought in Jaisalmer. Although they should be prescription medication I bought 10 of these pills for rs23 over the counter, no questions asked.

31/03/2010

We were woken up by Sarjent with a chai tea at 7.30 surrounded by the track marks of many dung beetles that curiously wondered around and over us during our sleep.

We grabbed the simple breakfast made for us, eggs, jam and toast and set off back on our camels to the meeting point with the jeep to get back to Jaisalmer. Along the way there was a bit of an argument with the locals about our guide taking camel food in the evening without paying, but as I understand there was nobody to give the money to, the others were furious even when given the money, they even attempted to take Julian’s camel whilst he was still on it, but that’s hardly a fair price to pay for just food… anyway our guide stayed behind to sort out the situation and we were taken an hour on the camels to the jeep and the end of the safari.

We headed back to Jaisalmer and searched for a mode of transport to the north towards Haridwar for a festival held only every 12 years but we couldn’t find anything for the evening, instead we get on a bus to Bikaner leaving tomorrow morning at 6am.

I slept for the afternoon and nothing exciting happened… we were going to go see some temples, but ive seen enough of them and doing SFA is more to my liking.

The journey back to Civilisation

30/03/2010

The room was extremely hot last night and the room was like an oven, neither of us slept well. Got up to meet a guy at our hotel who took us to another guesthouse to grab breakfast (not included with the Camel Safari) and wait to be taken to just outside the fort where we met a young couple Rebecca and Julian who were recently married.

We were then taken an hour by jeep with 2 Kolkatians also on the Safari to where the beginning of the Safari. As we mounted our camels, mine appropriately named Emer I was expecting desolate desert with no vegetation, instead there was modern infrastructure like power lines and a countless amount of wind turbines ruining the sense of being lost in the middle of nowhere. We did get to see some desert villages housing only a few families and you could see them struggling in this time of draught, this area had very little rain in the past 5 years drying up the crop and killing the livestock.

Under a tree we were cooked a simple lunch surrounded with goats eating our scraps and leftovers and after we had a little siesta under the shade whilst the midday sun was high and too hot for us to continue on.

The scenery didn’t change much and our camels were killing our thighs by the end of the day however when we reached where we were going to camp for the night we were in the middle of a some sand dunes to view the sunset and the full moon.

As the sun was setting over the sand dunes we were greeted by another set of travels on another camel safari where we munched down dinner and shared stories around a fire, our guide ‘Sarjent’ told us a few of his experiences with various people during his 15 years of guiding that were very funny then breaking into song with another local. The traditional songs sung and a beat played from an empty water container were very good, even their rendition of ‘Barbie Girl’ into ‘Camel man’ was hilarious.

Unfortunately the stars this evening were not great due to the full moon although we did entertain ourselves with some long exposure photography under the moonlight dunes, drawing camels and doing fancy lighting tricks with flashlights. I taught Rebecca some tricks with her Canon 5D, a very expensive camera that she had no idea how to use aside from the automatic feature.

Later we were given blankets and we slept under the night sky being checked out by dung beetles that thankfully don’t bite or sting.

Lighting Effects with Long Exposure with sand dunes

Lighting Effects with Long Exposure with sand dunes 2

My camel... tried to draw using a LED

Dunes near Jaisalmer

Our Camel Safari in Sand Dunes

Tired Camel

Face to Face

Lunch!

Boy baffled by pop rocks (Candy that pops in your mouth)

Small Village outside Jaisalmer

29/03/2010

We arrived at 4.00am in Jaisalmer still in a bit of a dais from the sleeping pills I took during the journey, we were rushed off the bus saying it was needing to leave then being surrounded by annoying rickshaw drivers and for some reason the trunk of the bus was filled with building supplies making it very difficult to get to our bags, luckily I had my knife on me and I cut the rope holding together some heavy tiles making our bags accessible... the bus driver wasn’t too happy that I did this but he did tell us that the bus was needing to leave, so whatever.

Before boarding the bus in Jodhpur we were suggested a guesthouse by a local guy who seemed genuinely friendly but his friend owned it and he was just getting tourists to go for the cheap rooms which was great but the rates for the camel safaris were extortionary.

It was a very nice room for rs150 with western toilets which are always a plus and the rooftop restaurant had a very good view of the fort.

After catching up on some sleep we wondered around the fort looking for a cheap camel safari tour, we found this guy who just seemed like a great person, he offered the safari for only rs850 whilst others offered for rs1000+. There were already some foreigners who had signed up and as it was a cheaper price we signed up ourselves for tomorrow morning.

Inside the fort which was surprisingly quite and peaceful we met a German guy (Yan) who joined us for lunch then went back to our hotels where we chilled for the afternoon and evening. We had an early one because our trip tomorrow started at 7.30.

Jaisalmer Fort, India 2010

28/03/2010

It’s been one month since arriving in India!!

We had to leave the hotel at 8.30 to catch the local bus down the mountain to Abu road for a connecting bus to Jodhpur; we devoured breakfast quickly on the walk to the bus stand only just making the 9.00 bus.

The connecting local bus to Jodhpur was terrible, hot, cramped, over crowded, with no leg room and lasting 6 hours over shitty roads… I didn’t sleep well last night and needed to catch up on it too but these circumstances didn’t make it easy.

Arriving in Jodhpur at around 5pm we needed to hang around for 5 hours for another connecting local bus to Jaisalmer, we went to go grab something to eat finding a nice, but more importantly comfortable restaurant offering 50 rupee thalis where we sat for a good few hours killing time. The owners of the restaurant were getting aggravated that we were there for such a long time and stopped us from playing card games and were constantly looking over at us making it difficult for us to fall asleep at the table. Fortunately their English was not great and when one did try to speak to us and tell us to leave I manipulated the conversation befriending the guy and persuading him to let us stay a little while longer. Generally restaurants in India welcome the fact that foreigners are sitting in their premises as it not only brings in other foreigners into the place but also the locals too because it gives them something to stare at while they eat which is unfortunate and damn annoying for us.

After overstaying our stay in the restaurant we headed back to the bus station to catch our bus, I went to go check out which stand our bus will be arriving at as we could be the first to board only to be told that the #299 bus at 10.30pm will not be running. I asked why this was the case only to be yelled at by the Indian behind the counter shouting “NO BUS”, I continued to ask “why” only to get the same reply progressively shouting louder and louder. I found this confusing as the bus was listed on the timetable but I also found it entertaining and kept on asking “why” only to piss off the official and to see how loud he could scream “NO BUS!!!” Anyways I didn’t get an answer to “why?” but thankfully we called one of the private bus companies and organized a ride to Jaisalmer on a deluxe bus. We paid rs40 to get to the private bus stand where we finally boarded the bus and slept for the 5 hour journey maybe from being exhausted from traveling all day or from the sleeping pill I took, perhaps both.

27/03/2010

Today we tried organizing our trip off Mount Abu, there really was not a lot to do here and wasn’t what I was expecting, it’s just a bit too tacky for a honeymoon destination, not that I was here for that. It was funny seeing all the ice-cream shops with gun sellers next to them, perhaps the newlyweds that are married due to them being arranged, not liking the other half, buying them an ice cream and shooting them in the face with a gun and saying it was a “kitchen accident”… this is not so untrue as I’ve heard stories similar to this.

The trains were booked up and our option to get to Jaisalmer via Jodhpur was limited to a local bus not being able to buy tickets in advance.

We were going to do a trek for the afternoon but when we met with our guide who was recommended in the book of lies (Lonely Planet) we decided against it.

We then walked to Delwara temple 3 km away from town, to be honest it was amazing, several temples sculpted from marble with so much detail it was almost a good thing that our cameras were taken away on entry. Sometimes when seeing a place through the lens of a camera it can ruin the experience, although it would have been nice to show who ever reads this the amount of detail that went into making this 600 year old temple. Apparently the sculptors were paid on the amount of dust made from their carvings that is why their work on this temple is so intricate.

We walked back to the guesthouse before heading off to sunset point where all the honeymooners go to take in the romance of the sunset at 1200m. Ill tell you now; there was nothing romantic about it at all… hundreds of tourists honeymooning or not crowding amongst each other to get a glimpse of the no-so-spectacular sunset whilst getting hassled by photographers and popcorn/fairy floss selling children. I did manage to get a few cool pictures of the monkeys that mugged people of their various foods.

Funky Monkey with fairyfloss/candyfloss, Sunset Mount Abu, India

Curious Monkey

26/03/2010

Emer, Megan and I just wondered around the town in the morning getting breakfast at a local place that only serve eggs, fried or hard boiled for breakfast. We checked out the lake at midday where the three of us hired a paddle boat to go around for half an hour where we saved an Indian couple from being stuck on a rock in the middle of the lake, they didn’t want our help to begin with but we returned to save the day.

We hiked to the top of a nearby hill (Toad rock) getting a panoramic view of the lake and surrounding village, we chilled up here for a while deciding to leave only after getting sunburnt.

I slept for a while into the late afternoon when we got dinner at a place suggested in my 5 year old guide book, it recommended the Thali for rs45 but my guide book being half a decade old things had changed and it was twice the price. Although still a good recommendation as the food was plentiful and lovely.

Toad Rock, Mount Abu Minature World

Toad Rock, Mount Abu, India

25/03/2010

We chilled at the hotel which I forgot to mention is perhaps one of the best places we have stayed at in India, the beds were clean and comfortable, showers were great, the view from the rooftop terrace was amazing and all for only rs100. I would highly recommend Lal Ghat to anyone heading to Udaipur

We sat out in the sun till we had to leave at 2 where both Emer and I got a little burnt.

The bus journey to Mount Abu was decent enough paying that little bit extra for the deluxe coach, although we did get a rock thrown at one of the windows smashing it luckily not injuring anyone. Apparently this happens all the time where kids throw the rocks at passing vehicles.

We arrived in Mount Abu at 7pm, its suppose to be the honeymoon destination for all the Indian newlyweds, the place seemed very modern and clean too, a nice little surprise seeing as India in most places are pretty filthy.

We checked into a guesthouse that was in the Loney planet offering dorm beds for 50 rupees and a place to be able to cook your own food, unfortunately both these things were incorrect and the dorm bed was rs100 without any cooking facilities. It’s really such a shame because I was looking forward to be able to cook.

Instead we had a quick dinner and played Uno with 3 English people we met at the restaurant inside the hotel.

Road up to Mount Abu

24/03/2010

I went to bed hungry last night and did could not sleep till 6 am, I would have gone out looking for food here but India is a difficult place to find a late night feed.

When I finally got to sleep I dreamt of the cause of this problem, protein! I hadn’t had the succulent, tender delicious taste of meat since Jaipur. Vegetables haven’t been doing it for me, they just run through my system not satisfying me nor have they been filling me up.

I woke at 10am incredibly fatigued and starving, so I went to go get some (5) samosas from the local place around the corner and stuffed them in my mouth before popping a sleeping pill and passing out for a good few hours whilst Emer did a cooking course.

She returned with some left over food from the course that she was happy enough to share with me. I used the internet for a while and we met with Lena where we headed off to see the James Bond film ‘Octopussy’, I hadn’t seen it before and watching it where it was shot seemed like a suitable idea besides every single hotel in the area were advertising it to get customers into their restaurant.

We saw it on the rooftop of the highest building in the area where we ordered food, I had ½ of a chicken tandoori style that was great and I made it my mission to consume every last edible piece of meat and cartilage from the bone, it really was exactly what I needed.

The film was a little trashy but considering it is a cult film and very old, I enjoyed it.

Due to faulty wiring the film kept on cutting out every so often, at one point I went to go fix it as there were no staff about, I temporarily solved the problem but when one of the staff saw me do this they assumed I was tampering with the DVD player. Despite the fact I had it all working this guy just attempted to fix it himself breaking what I just fixed. If it’s not broken, don’t try and fix it!

Anyway Emer and I booked the bus journey to Mount Abu for tomorrow at 3pm and we shared emails and photos with Lena then went to bed.

City Palace from Lal Ghat Guesthouse

23/03/2010

Slept in till 11.30 where I ran to the shop to get some bread for the omelet that I had ordered back in the hotel, Emer and I met with Lena and went to go see the City Palace, it costs 50 rupees to get in and a painful 200 for a camera, we went 3 ways in on the price of the camera charge using Emer’s Canon G10. Inside the museum there was only one point where they checked the camera pass we ended using all of our cameras, saving ourselves rs400.

We spent 3 hours wondering the halls and courtyards of the museum seeing pretty much everything from ancient weapons and horses with elephant trunks to painting with such fine detail you may want to use a magnifying glass to see the fine brush strokes.

The building and the pieces on display were very good and did kill 3 hours before hitting we hit up a local food place to fill up on samosas.

In the late afternoon we went to go see a puppet show, we took a tuk-tuk to get there and to be brutally honest the show was shit compared to what we saw last night, it was neither entertaining or funny and it just seemed half-assed. One crazy thing; during the last puppet performance everyone in the theater stood up and left the premises, it seemed both odd and rude, perhaps everyone was disappointed, but everyone to leave at the same time, beats me?

We walked back to the hotel picking up some street food along the way where I sat and worked on my some photoshop work and chatted for a while.

Town view from city Palace, Udiapur

Indians looking through stainglass windows

Badi Chhatjachli Courtyard, City Palace, Udiapur, India 360

Badi Chhatjachli Courtyard, City Palace, Udiapur, India miniture world