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.