Ok, so I will probably keep this post shorter as well since I'm getting pretty hungry after all the hiking we did today. It was a pretty good hike all in all, we got to see another waterfall and then we kept going up this mountain and found the Shiva Cafe about fifteen minutes from the waterfall. The cafe was really nice, it oddly enough had a small pool outside for swimming and a whole bunch of seating in a garden. Unfortunately however as soon as we got up to this cafe, the rain started to come in a pretty nice downpour. So Saul and I were forced to wait out the rain inside the cafe drinking Chai and playing some card games. The cafe itself was really old and made out of stones that they find all around the hillside there, we ended up waiting about two hours or so playing cards untill the rain slowed to a stop so we could walk back to the town.
Well back to when we first arrived in Mcleod Ganj, we got off the bus at about 430 in the morning, as were sitting in the street exhausted and hungry we see Ruby come down the hill to collect us and bring us back to where she stays. I was so thankful that she came down to meet us so early in the morning and let us hang around here guest house untill we finally could go and eat and then check into a guest house of our own. We at on the roof of this really nice bakery and then grabbed a guest house just up the hill from her, a double room with bathroom, shower, and hot water is only 200 rupees a night for the both of us. Plus its probably the best room that we have had so far on this trip, clean and huge!
The first night that I was there we went out to eat and met up with some of the people Ruby knew, I can hardly remember it though because I was so exhausted, I almost feel asleep during dinner. After we ate that night I went to bed and slept for almost 12 hours, and I needed that sleep so badly and I felt so much better the next day. The second day wasn't too eventful either, we mainly wandered around the main town of Mcleod and did a little shopping, we then trekked it up to the neighboring village called Bhagsu where all of the "travellers" stay and we ate a really nice cafe there. After that we pretty much just hung out on our balcony the rest of the evening and then met up with Ruby to cook some dinner and hang out. That night Sam, whom we met through Ruby, didn't feel very well after dinner so he went and laid down and we didn't really think much of it and just left him to sleep it off. Saul and I went back to our guest house and sat with our neighbor Flavio from France. We sat there drinking beers and talking till pretty late, and he had some very good stories and was pretty entertaining, even more so since he has been traveling for around 12 years or something like that but he wasn't super fake and stuck up like some other people that you meet that have been traveling for a really long time. Well we go to bed and wake up the next morn to hear Ruby knocking at our door, Saul went to let her in and it turns out that Sam is not doing so well at all, he ended up going to the bathroom around thirty times the night before he had a fever and pretty bad pains in his stomach. We got him some hydration tablets hoping he could keep those down and maybe fight through it but things got worse in the next three hours. He ended up going to the hospital with ruby at around 1 pm and he is actually still there right now. They think its just a bacterial thing and it should go away fairly soon, we went to visit him yesterday and he wasn't looking awesome, so tonight Saul and I will drink a beer for his health while we watch the soccer Finals.
Well maybe a slight change of tone in this scatterbrained post, the night that before Sam got sick we all went down into town to a cafe kind of restaurant to see an open mic. This was one of the most sickening things that I have ever seen, I'm very glad I went and saw what some of these people are like but it would take a whole lot of money to get me to go back there and live through the torture again. Saul, Ruby, a couple other randoms and I walked in about 15 minutes after it started and the place was just packed to the brim with a bunch of overly stoned hippies, I'll call them hippies but I'm not exactly sure if that is the correct term. Saul and I just refer to them as the Individuals but I'd rather not type that out a whole bunch of times. So packed to the brim with hippies and it took us a very awkward 10 minutes of climbing around very lazy people to find a spot to sit/stand. We settled in for the entertainment really not knowing what to expect, I mean we knew it would be bad but we did not think that it would be unbearable.
I may sound hypercritcal in this post but the atmosphere of this place is very hard to discribe, low lights, everyone is silent looking up at a random traveler that has decided the song that he or she wrote when it was raining yesterday is ready to be shared with the world. At the end of any performance, or at the hint of a joke, or even just the emcee cuing up the next act brought ridiculous amounts of applause or laughter from the crowd. I really do understand the notion of being supportive and what not to these people that are bearing their souls, but I mean there has to be a line that is drawn in my opinion. If these people never are ever criticized will they ever get better or work hard to become better at what they apparently love to do? Maybe they would all just prefer to go on being clueless.
The best, well I guess I mean the one that was the most mind wrenching was a freaking clown/mime. The guy is announced and he walks up through the back of the crowd making sure to stop and put his arm around my shoulder. I didn't see him comming up behind me so I'm looking next to me and I see this clown staring at me, I didn't crack a smile or laugh or anything I was far too uncomfortable with this extremely creepy clown staring back at me. He pretended to be startled and continued on to the center of the room to start his act. The whole time he was attempting to magic tricks and other gags but every single one that he did was poorly performed and not very entertaining. I think what made this act really unbearable was the fact that the crowd that really loves anything that moves or is moderately sparkly couldn't even muster the energy to fake laugh at this joker. Thankfully he stopped his act after 20 minutes of torture and the emcee came up to announce the next performers, two hippies from Canada who were going to sing and play the guitar. This was another awful act with two very annoying people taking center stage and sharing things with these people that should probably stay in one's own mind. This woman rambled on for nearly five minutes about the lovely rainbow vibes in the room, and how everyones aura was making the evening especially pleasant, I nearly yakked. Then she tells us she is going to perform her new song she wrote during the thunderstorm the day before, surprise the song is called thunderstorm. Her boyfriend I'm assuming was awful at the guitar and couldn't keep a rythem to save his life, I'm assuming he just bought the guitar when he got to Mcleod Ganj and thought that he could play because he took those five lessons ten years ago. Guitarist asside the woman really killed me, not only did her song lyrics make no sense at all, but she thought she had the voice of an angel. She would belt out every word as loud as she could without yelling, and then she would warble her voice up and down in some sort of weak attempt at a vabrado I'm thinking. They sang four songs and were planning on doing three more before the emcee thankfully jumped up and told them they were out of time.
There were several other terrible acts at that open mic night, more guitarists, a flamboyantly gay tibetan booty dancer that sexually harrased the men in the front by the stage, and then a spaniard I believe that wrote a three act opera about a celestial yak that turned his penis into a rope to ensnare his true love. However the Yak opera was pretty funny but we were laughing at the fellow instead of with him. Oh yeah and the thing that really topped the cake about the Canadian Thunder Singer was when I was kind of eavesdropping on her conversation. She was talking about her what she does at home when she isn't travelling India and finding herself, drum roll please......................
At home in Toronto I think, she is a vocal therapist. She has patients that come to have her sing to them to heal their ailments! I couldn't believe it, her voice made my head feel like it was going to impload and she is claiming to heal people with it. Ahh what it is to truely find yourself in India.
Well I do apologise for this post, thinking back to writing it I feel like I jumped around a bunch and didn't even get down all of the things that I wanted to. Only if I had more than an hour and a half to post I would write down some of the other adventures we have gone on as well. Alas I will save them for when I see you all in person, or maybe if I have time tomorrow Ill write down one more. I promise one of these posts will be grammatically correct and not be completely mental. Look forward to a composite list at the end of my trip, Top 100 ways to find your inner-self in India.
Peace,
J a k e
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
I think I found inner self...In India...Sitting on the toilet
Ah well another ten hours on steep mountain passes, another shitty bus and a sleepless night. However all terribly uncomfortable things aside, all of the torturous waiting aside was this bus ride ever worth it. I do suppose that this is one of the spectacular parts about my trip so far, how I repeatedly put myself through these mind-bending journeys on less than comfortable means of transportation, and as soon as I step off that bus and see what surrounds me my breath is taken again. This time we went from Minali to the town of Mcleod Ganj, which is just about a much larger city called Dharmsala. The distance we traveled could have been greatly reduced if it weren't for the giant mountain that stood between the two small hill stations, so instead of a direct line our bus goes back and forth around a mountain! However Mcleod Ganj is a much more interesting town than Minali, and I do believe that all of the trees and greenery everywhere greatly help the aesthetic appeal.
A little history that I have gathered before I came here, I do apologise if there are some great inconsistancies as I am still trying to gather more information about it. This town of Mcleod Ganj is a village that is dominated by the tibetan refugees from China, this is also where the Dalai Lama resides. Its a really beautiful city, the landscape and the buildings are in the best conditions that Ive seen so far in India and the people here have the best disposition on life considering the conditions that have been dealing with. Everyone here is extremely friendly and ready to talk to ya, and the beggars and scammers are pretty few and far between here which is very nice as well. However I am speaking of the locals here, some of the "travelers" are driving me fucking crazy with their completely distorted view on life, at least it gives Saul and I some very easy material for making fun of them! Hahaha.
So we have been hanging out with Ruby for the past couple of days and that is a real refresher. Having someone that knows the town and all of the different things to do is really going to save us some time wandering around aimlessly trying to find the different things that we want to see. Plus its just really great to see Ruby after having it been so long not seeing her! Ok well Saul and I are going to try and make it down to see the Dalai Lama's residency before we are due to meet up with his sister, I hear that his grounds are supposed to be just gorgeous so I'm pretty excited.
Ill prolly finish this post later tonight, I have a couple good stories about these so called "individuals," and an open mic night that we should have stayed clear from. I leave this internet cafe with Lady Gaga blaring in my face.....How freaking odd...
Peace,
J a k e
A little history that I have gathered before I came here, I do apologise if there are some great inconsistancies as I am still trying to gather more information about it. This town of Mcleod Ganj is a village that is dominated by the tibetan refugees from China, this is also where the Dalai Lama resides. Its a really beautiful city, the landscape and the buildings are in the best conditions that Ive seen so far in India and the people here have the best disposition on life considering the conditions that have been dealing with. Everyone here is extremely friendly and ready to talk to ya, and the beggars and scammers are pretty few and far between here which is very nice as well. However I am speaking of the locals here, some of the "travelers" are driving me fucking crazy with their completely distorted view on life, at least it gives Saul and I some very easy material for making fun of them! Hahaha.
So we have been hanging out with Ruby for the past couple of days and that is a real refresher. Having someone that knows the town and all of the different things to do is really going to save us some time wandering around aimlessly trying to find the different things that we want to see. Plus its just really great to see Ruby after having it been so long not seeing her! Ok well Saul and I are going to try and make it down to see the Dalai Lama's residency before we are due to meet up with his sister, I hear that his grounds are supposed to be just gorgeous so I'm pretty excited.
Ill prolly finish this post later tonight, I have a couple good stories about these so called "individuals," and an open mic night that we should have stayed clear from. I leave this internet cafe with Lady Gaga blaring in my face.....How freaking odd...
Peace,
J a k e
Friday, May 22, 2009
Minali, You were really great....But its time for me to take my leave
Well I am sitting in the internet cafe for probably the last time while still in Manali. I have to say, I didn't have nearly as much fun anywhere else in India as I have had here. The weather is beautiful every day, gorgeous landscapes and very scrumptious food. However it has been nearly a week in this small town, and we don't have all that much longer to find the rest of India. So tomorrow evening we will be taking another horrendously bumpy bus ride out of this hill station and into another, we are headed to Mcleod Gange and Dharamsala, which are right next to eachother. The Dali Lama's residence is in Dharamsala, and it is about 3 kilometers away from Mcleod Gange I believe. It is unfortunate that he is not currently at home because I have heard that he gives many lectures and speeches when he is, but of course he is out speaking to the rest of the world just like he should be.
So, I realize now looking back at Saul and I's last week here that our plans to fit in all of these crazy extreme sports while were in this city, was perhaps a little ambitious. We did manage to fit in a couple of really fun events, as well as meeting some other cool travelers and we also did a fair amount of shopping. So about two days ago we went white water rafting on the Beas River, which runs right through Central Manali, and that was honestly so much fun, we thought about going again today. We got down to the river early in the morning had to wait around a bunch untill there were enough people to fit into the raft, and then we departed. At first I was a little skeptical about what the rapids were actually going to be like, mainly because the raft that went before us had a whole bunch of small children on it with a couple of adults. I was quite wrong though, it wasn't exactly what I had pictured when I think about the white water rafting you may see in a movie or on tv, but it sure as hell was a bunch of fun. The rapids got to about 5 feet tall at some points of the river, and I almost fell off a couple times, however I was being dumb and not really holding on, there was also a part in the river that we got to jump of the raft and into the river, but damn was that shit really really cold. Either way the whole river rafting trip was about 15 km which took close to two hours and it was well worth the 10 bucks I paid for it.
Yesterday we had some ambitious plans to wake up early, get to the ski hill around 8 or 9 and go zorbing. Then we were planning to come back to town, see a friend off on the bus at 2, and then we were going to try and do some mountain biking in the evening. Too bad that I felt like absolute shit when I woke up yesterday. I tried to eat my egg sandwhich and my bannana lassi, but I just couldn't stomach it, so I forced Saul to skip zorbing that morning hoping I could take a nap and come out of that shit mindset. I woke up again at about 1230, we went into town to meet our friend at a restaurant to eat, and I was still feeling really sick, I could only eat about half of the chicken spring rolls that I ordered, so mountain biking ended up not happening either. So instead yesterday was spent trying to hash out our plans of what to do next and what bus to take, and also what to do with the time that we are most likely going to have left over after we are finished seeing Mcleod Gange. Oh well, today made up for any shittyness that happened yesterday.
We started today off really big indeed, we woke up real early today with plans and the determination to make it to the ski hill to go zorbing. We walked down to the motorcycle rental before we got breakfast, reserved two bikes then went to eat a delicious breakfast at the Freedom Hall Cafe where they blare reggae music all morning then switch to some hard hitting house after about 1 pm. The music choices here are so weird, lots of american music, and mostly really bad. After we ate we went and picked up our motor bikes, I was riding a yellow Hero Honda, and Saul was on a Baja Pulsar. We took off, and sadly we learned to ride as we went down the hill which was probably not the safest thing, either way we figured it out pretty quick and then stopped for gas. The shitty place that we had rented the bikes from didn't provide any gasoline in the tanks of the bikes we just rented. This was just the first of signs that showed we should not have gone where we did to get these bikes. Either way we took off after grabbing some gas, and headed north towards Solang ski resort. The entire way there it is just a bunch of switchbacks up the mountain side, along with a couple off road gravel detours, the roads are shit everywhere in India I swear. We made it to the ski resort without to many problems however it did seem that Saul's bike wasn't operating exactly how it was supposed to. We did the zorbing thing, it was a little pricey at about 6 bucks a person but after we paid the fee and did the damn thing it was definitely worth it, soooooo much fun. I have a video that I'll post to facebook or something when I get the chance to use a computer that can take my camera memory card. After that we hiked around the hill a little and chatted it up with some friendly local juice salesman, than we hit the dusty trail back to manali. This is where even more signs of our shotty bike rental became apparent. On the way back I had to stop several times for saul to catch up, his bike kept stalling out and the gears were sticking. He said that a couple times there were patches on the road that caused his tire to slip and him almost to take a spill on the rented bike. We finally reached Manali, well I did anyway, I looked down the hill and I didn't see Saul anywhere. I went back down the hill two times looking for him, but didn't catch him anywhere. I eventually sat and waited, and then about 10 minutes later I see him walking up the hill. Im thinking oh shit, the bike is down a valley or something. Turns out he was just frustrated with the gears and clutch and left it at the bottom of the street. I deceided I would go down to the bike and check it out and see if I could figure out what was going on, even though I don't know dirt about motorcycles, but at the very least I figured I could drive it up to the guest house.
I got down to the bike, started it no problem and took off, I figured I would take it for a little spin and see how the bike ran. About 15 seconds into the ride, I am going down the hill and start to break for a car that is comming towards me, and then all of the suddent the front tire locks up and I go down with the bike in hand. I slid a little ways, in front of about 6 or 7 cabbies all the while screamming "What The Fuck Was That?" I come to a halt and stand up, I'm cursing up a storm at this point because there was no reason for that to have happened at all, I was going really slow and I barely touched the hand break. All the cabbies come over and begin to calm me down, telling me everything is fine, and making sure that I am all right, i have a small bit of road rash on my arm but ive had worse from my bicycle. After everything checks out on my person, we begin to look at the bike, and it is prettymessed up. I started freaking out again, because I didn't want to pay the exhorbent prices that I knew that this rental shop would charge me. Thank god for the Indian Cabbies, they were so great and offered me great advice and even told me where to go to get it fixed before I brought it back to the shop. Honestly if there isn't any money involved, Indians are the most caring people ever, extremely accomidating and genuinely interested in you and your well being. This is something that has been shown again and again whenever I meet locals that aren't trying to make a buck off of my tourist self.
So back to the motor bike, all of the cabbies were telling me it wasn't going to cost much at all to fix the broken clutch lever and busted light, they told me to roll my bike down the hill to this mechanic that specializes in Royal Enfields and that he may be able to help me out. I found the place no problem, it was about five minutes away from where I tipped and it was a very nice looking shop. I stood in the waiting area for about five minutes, no one showed up, so I started walking around and calling out for someone to help. Pretty much instantly the owner showed up, he was in the back watching some weird ass bollywood movie. I told him what had happened and asked if he could help me fix it, at first he told me that he wouldn't work on it because it wasn't a Royal Enfield (Which are the sweet bikes that all the Kool Kats ride around India, Google it!) I told him then that all that really needed to be fixed was the clutch lever and he said he would take a look at it. He came out and took a look at the bike, and realized that the damage was minimal, he said he would fix it~ Next thing I know, his brother and son are out taking apart the clutch lever and started working on the light too! I sat there for maybe fifteen to twenty minutes and chated it up with the owner, he was a really cool guy and told me I should never have rented bikes from those jokers up the hill because they trap tourists and then send them out on the road on very unsafe crumby bikes. After everything was fixed and I had paid up, (it only cost 150 rupees,) he then pointed out all of the stuff that was terribly wrong with the particular bike that Saul was riding all day. First off he showed me the front tire, it was almost completely bald and it was also next to half flat, no wonder the bike kept slipping while it was being ridding. After that the throttle was in terrible shape and would stick when it was revved too high. On top of that, the gears were sticky and would only shift about 75% of the time! So it all makes sense now why the bike would randomly stall out when ridin' half the time when the gear was supposedly changed it was still in the same gear. We ended up taking the bike back, pointing out what was wrong with it and got most of our money back....well actually we only got 200 back out of the five hundred, but either way we got some back. So it was almost a good thing that I had tipped the bike and had to take it to a mechanic so that we didn't end up going out riding in the mountains again with a terribly shot tire, and then saul would have slipped off a cliff. Horrible though, I know. Well thats basically India for ya.
Well I shall update again once I reach Mcleod Gange!!
Peace,
J a k e
So, I realize now looking back at Saul and I's last week here that our plans to fit in all of these crazy extreme sports while were in this city, was perhaps a little ambitious. We did manage to fit in a couple of really fun events, as well as meeting some other cool travelers and we also did a fair amount of shopping. So about two days ago we went white water rafting on the Beas River, which runs right through Central Manali, and that was honestly so much fun, we thought about going again today. We got down to the river early in the morning had to wait around a bunch untill there were enough people to fit into the raft, and then we departed. At first I was a little skeptical about what the rapids were actually going to be like, mainly because the raft that went before us had a whole bunch of small children on it with a couple of adults. I was quite wrong though, it wasn't exactly what I had pictured when I think about the white water rafting you may see in a movie or on tv, but it sure as hell was a bunch of fun. The rapids got to about 5 feet tall at some points of the river, and I almost fell off a couple times, however I was being dumb and not really holding on, there was also a part in the river that we got to jump of the raft and into the river, but damn was that shit really really cold. Either way the whole river rafting trip was about 15 km which took close to two hours and it was well worth the 10 bucks I paid for it.
Yesterday we had some ambitious plans to wake up early, get to the ski hill around 8 or 9 and go zorbing. Then we were planning to come back to town, see a friend off on the bus at 2, and then we were going to try and do some mountain biking in the evening. Too bad that I felt like absolute shit when I woke up yesterday. I tried to eat my egg sandwhich and my bannana lassi, but I just couldn't stomach it, so I forced Saul to skip zorbing that morning hoping I could take a nap and come out of that shit mindset. I woke up again at about 1230, we went into town to meet our friend at a restaurant to eat, and I was still feeling really sick, I could only eat about half of the chicken spring rolls that I ordered, so mountain biking ended up not happening either. So instead yesterday was spent trying to hash out our plans of what to do next and what bus to take, and also what to do with the time that we are most likely going to have left over after we are finished seeing Mcleod Gange. Oh well, today made up for any shittyness that happened yesterday.
We started today off really big indeed, we woke up real early today with plans and the determination to make it to the ski hill to go zorbing. We walked down to the motorcycle rental before we got breakfast, reserved two bikes then went to eat a delicious breakfast at the Freedom Hall Cafe where they blare reggae music all morning then switch to some hard hitting house after about 1 pm. The music choices here are so weird, lots of american music, and mostly really bad. After we ate we went and picked up our motor bikes, I was riding a yellow Hero Honda, and Saul was on a Baja Pulsar. We took off, and sadly we learned to ride as we went down the hill which was probably not the safest thing, either way we figured it out pretty quick and then stopped for gas. The shitty place that we had rented the bikes from didn't provide any gasoline in the tanks of the bikes we just rented. This was just the first of signs that showed we should not have gone where we did to get these bikes. Either way we took off after grabbing some gas, and headed north towards Solang ski resort. The entire way there it is just a bunch of switchbacks up the mountain side, along with a couple off road gravel detours, the roads are shit everywhere in India I swear. We made it to the ski resort without to many problems however it did seem that Saul's bike wasn't operating exactly how it was supposed to. We did the zorbing thing, it was a little pricey at about 6 bucks a person but after we paid the fee and did the damn thing it was definitely worth it, soooooo much fun. I have a video that I'll post to facebook or something when I get the chance to use a computer that can take my camera memory card. After that we hiked around the hill a little and chatted it up with some friendly local juice salesman, than we hit the dusty trail back to manali. This is where even more signs of our shotty bike rental became apparent. On the way back I had to stop several times for saul to catch up, his bike kept stalling out and the gears were sticking. He said that a couple times there were patches on the road that caused his tire to slip and him almost to take a spill on the rented bike. We finally reached Manali, well I did anyway, I looked down the hill and I didn't see Saul anywhere. I went back down the hill two times looking for him, but didn't catch him anywhere. I eventually sat and waited, and then about 10 minutes later I see him walking up the hill. Im thinking oh shit, the bike is down a valley or something. Turns out he was just frustrated with the gears and clutch and left it at the bottom of the street. I deceided I would go down to the bike and check it out and see if I could figure out what was going on, even though I don't know dirt about motorcycles, but at the very least I figured I could drive it up to the guest house.
I got down to the bike, started it no problem and took off, I figured I would take it for a little spin and see how the bike ran. About 15 seconds into the ride, I am going down the hill and start to break for a car that is comming towards me, and then all of the suddent the front tire locks up and I go down with the bike in hand. I slid a little ways, in front of about 6 or 7 cabbies all the while screamming "What The Fuck Was That?" I come to a halt and stand up, I'm cursing up a storm at this point because there was no reason for that to have happened at all, I was going really slow and I barely touched the hand break. All the cabbies come over and begin to calm me down, telling me everything is fine, and making sure that I am all right, i have a small bit of road rash on my arm but ive had worse from my bicycle. After everything checks out on my person, we begin to look at the bike, and it is prettymessed up. I started freaking out again, because I didn't want to pay the exhorbent prices that I knew that this rental shop would charge me. Thank god for the Indian Cabbies, they were so great and offered me great advice and even told me where to go to get it fixed before I brought it back to the shop. Honestly if there isn't any money involved, Indians are the most caring people ever, extremely accomidating and genuinely interested in you and your well being. This is something that has been shown again and again whenever I meet locals that aren't trying to make a buck off of my tourist self.
So back to the motor bike, all of the cabbies were telling me it wasn't going to cost much at all to fix the broken clutch lever and busted light, they told me to roll my bike down the hill to this mechanic that specializes in Royal Enfields and that he may be able to help me out. I found the place no problem, it was about five minutes away from where I tipped and it was a very nice looking shop. I stood in the waiting area for about five minutes, no one showed up, so I started walking around and calling out for someone to help. Pretty much instantly the owner showed up, he was in the back watching some weird ass bollywood movie. I told him what had happened and asked if he could help me fix it, at first he told me that he wouldn't work on it because it wasn't a Royal Enfield (Which are the sweet bikes that all the Kool Kats ride around India, Google it!) I told him then that all that really needed to be fixed was the clutch lever and he said he would take a look at it. He came out and took a look at the bike, and realized that the damage was minimal, he said he would fix it~ Next thing I know, his brother and son are out taking apart the clutch lever and started working on the light too! I sat there for maybe fifteen to twenty minutes and chated it up with the owner, he was a really cool guy and told me I should never have rented bikes from those jokers up the hill because they trap tourists and then send them out on the road on very unsafe crumby bikes. After everything was fixed and I had paid up, (it only cost 150 rupees,) he then pointed out all of the stuff that was terribly wrong with the particular bike that Saul was riding all day. First off he showed me the front tire, it was almost completely bald and it was also next to half flat, no wonder the bike kept slipping while it was being ridding. After that the throttle was in terrible shape and would stick when it was revved too high. On top of that, the gears were sticky and would only shift about 75% of the time! So it all makes sense now why the bike would randomly stall out when ridin' half the time when the gear was supposedly changed it was still in the same gear. We ended up taking the bike back, pointing out what was wrong with it and got most of our money back....well actually we only got 200 back out of the five hundred, but either way we got some back. So it was almost a good thing that I had tipped the bike and had to take it to a mechanic so that we didn't end up going out riding in the mountains again with a terribly shot tire, and then saul would have slipped off a cliff. Horrible though, I know. Well thats basically India for ya.
Well I shall update again once I reach Mcleod Gange!!
Peace,
J a k e
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
I love the Himalyas
Well I have been here in Minali for a couple of days now and I can definitely understand why so many damn hippies flock to this town to stay for extended periods of time. Everywhere you go there is a breathtaking view of the snow-capped mountains, all it takes is one second to look up and see the postcard panorama. Saul and I have not yet begun to do all of the crazy extreme sports that they offer here, we have been just bull shitting around and checking out the different areas of the town. Tomorrow however we begin doing all of the different activities there are to offer, for example we go white water rafting at 10 in the morning and that should be pretty rad. After that we are gonna hike to the top of this mountain, where there is a giant waterfall, you can go behind the waterfall and if it is a sunny day you can see rainbows everywhere. Thats what we have been told anyway. Day after that its mountain biking and zorbing, (rolling down a hill in a big giant clear ball!) Then I think we are going to finish the week off by going up in a hot air balloon!
Yesterday I also took part in my first session of Yoga, they have a beginners class just down the road from our guest house. The session runs for an hour from 10-11, and it costs 100 rupees which translates to about two bucks. I really had no idea what to expect with this beginners class of yoga, and I really didn't think that it would be all that hard, as it turns out I was so very wrong. The class was so much more intense than I had expected, I sweated my balls off doing all the different streaches and whatnot, but I did feel really good after that. However today I woke up with aching muscles all over my body, I never realized how great of a workout yoga can be. The best part of the whole class was this older woman that was right next to me. The entire class she was moaning and groaning everytime we would begin the streatch, and the way that she was moaning was very explicit. I had such a hard time keeping my composure and not busting out laughing. Even the yogi thought the noises this woman was making were a bit ridiculous and over the top, he kept walking over to her, correcting her posture and she would let out this guttural cries that began to make me very uncomfortable. He kept asking this woman, "you cannot streatch without making the classical music?" This was such a trip, Saul and I joke about it for the rest of the days and we had to tell the tale to every other traveller that we met up with.
After Yoga yesterday we went and took a short little rest and then started talking to the cool dude that runs our guest house. We asked him about short treks near the town we were staying in, and he told us of this waterfall that we should go check out, "The Rainbow Waterfall." He gave us some very vague directions about a pine forest, traveling 30 degrees away from the marked trail, and then something or other about a big U-turn when you come to a cliff. We set out with the intentions of finding the top of this waterfall, but as we were traveling "30 degrees" away from the path, we ended up just at the bottom of the water fall we were aiming for. At the bottom though there were about three or four big rocks that created a nice little pool of water, and the roaring waterfall was the background music to this certain site. We chose to just hang around there for an hour, where we met some crazy tibetan kids that were vacationing here too. These kids have such skewed ideas of what the United States is its really funny when they ask you about all of the women that we supposedly get, they asked us "just like James Bond? Right? Right?" We ended up just joking around with them for a while, and they were making some really raunchy jokes, it was a pretty good time all in all. We got to jump into the cold river and swim around a little bit as well which was very nice to do indeed. After we set back out, we asked a couple of the other people around about getting to the top of the waterfall, and they showed us where we strayed. Apparently the 30 degree angle that we thought we were taking was not quite enough because you need to get all the way up this foothill/mountain to reach the trail that winds around these big rock faces. With not very much daylight left we headed back to town, but now we are very determined to make it to the top, so we will head out tomorrow after we get back from rafting.
Well untill later, everyone have a nice week? I forget what day it is....
Peace,
J a k e
Yesterday I also took part in my first session of Yoga, they have a beginners class just down the road from our guest house. The session runs for an hour from 10-11, and it costs 100 rupees which translates to about two bucks. I really had no idea what to expect with this beginners class of yoga, and I really didn't think that it would be all that hard, as it turns out I was so very wrong. The class was so much more intense than I had expected, I sweated my balls off doing all the different streaches and whatnot, but I did feel really good after that. However today I woke up with aching muscles all over my body, I never realized how great of a workout yoga can be. The best part of the whole class was this older woman that was right next to me. The entire class she was moaning and groaning everytime we would begin the streatch, and the way that she was moaning was very explicit. I had such a hard time keeping my composure and not busting out laughing. Even the yogi thought the noises this woman was making were a bit ridiculous and over the top, he kept walking over to her, correcting her posture and she would let out this guttural cries that began to make me very uncomfortable. He kept asking this woman, "you cannot streatch without making the classical music?" This was such a trip, Saul and I joke about it for the rest of the days and we had to tell the tale to every other traveller that we met up with.
After Yoga yesterday we went and took a short little rest and then started talking to the cool dude that runs our guest house. We asked him about short treks near the town we were staying in, and he told us of this waterfall that we should go check out, "The Rainbow Waterfall." He gave us some very vague directions about a pine forest, traveling 30 degrees away from the marked trail, and then something or other about a big U-turn when you come to a cliff. We set out with the intentions of finding the top of this waterfall, but as we were traveling "30 degrees" away from the path, we ended up just at the bottom of the water fall we were aiming for. At the bottom though there were about three or four big rocks that created a nice little pool of water, and the roaring waterfall was the background music to this certain site. We chose to just hang around there for an hour, where we met some crazy tibetan kids that were vacationing here too. These kids have such skewed ideas of what the United States is its really funny when they ask you about all of the women that we supposedly get, they asked us "just like James Bond? Right? Right?" We ended up just joking around with them for a while, and they were making some really raunchy jokes, it was a pretty good time all in all. We got to jump into the cold river and swim around a little bit as well which was very nice to do indeed. After we set back out, we asked a couple of the other people around about getting to the top of the waterfall, and they showed us where we strayed. Apparently the 30 degree angle that we thought we were taking was not quite enough because you need to get all the way up this foothill/mountain to reach the trail that winds around these big rock faces. With not very much daylight left we headed back to town, but now we are very determined to make it to the top, so we will head out tomorrow after we get back from rafting.
Well untill later, everyone have a nice week? I forget what day it is....
Peace,
J a k e
Sunday, May 17, 2009
The Last Hippie Standing
Well shit, it has hardly been a day since I last wrote in the blog but I felt that the last 24 hours were very deserving of a new post! Its about 815 in the evening here, and I just finished eating some very delicious dinner at the roof-top restaurant across from my guest house. I had me some grand ol' vegetable biryani (sp?) Some rice, sauce and veggies I think, whatever it is it was amazing. Anyway I just arrived in Minali this morning at about 630 am and it was one very shitty, but very interesting bus ride.
We departed from Chandigahr last night at about 8 pm because our 7 o'clock bus was running late of course. The bus we were told would be Deluxe with Air conditioning was neither of the two, the seats reclined a little and there were fans on the ceiling however I think that the fans were honestly for decoration purposes only because not a single one worked. We got stuck in the very front seats behind the driver cab and being in those seats means that my knees are constantly hitting against the hard metal of the cab, for ten hours. It was pretty much hell on wheels, I didn't think that a bus ride could be worse than the last one, but this one was far worse.
The way that these drivers operate their machines is one of the most freightening things that I have ever seen. Since we were headed to Minali the entire trip was switchbacks up and down mountains. A normal person would obey these speed limits and probably not pass many cars, complete opposite in India, just like everything else! Our driver was barrling as fast as he could around these hairpin turns, on bumpy unkempt roads, and if there was another bus, truck, car or motorcycle in front of us he would turn on the brights and hold the horn while passing the poor person in front. Regardless if there were cars comming at us or not the driver would swerve to the other lane and continue his attempts to pass these cars. This was basically a ten hour roller coaster with no lapbelts, and I hope I never have to do that again. Even though I will have to when I return to Delhi to fly out, dammit.
Sadly, the way that this drive drove his car was not the most interesting part of the journey at all. Other than meeting a bunch of crazy Indian kids our age who were stoned out of their minds, other than the extreme lack of sleep and food, but our driver was slowly getting trash-hammered wasted while he took us up and down these mountains. Saul was the first to spot it, but behind his seat in a nifty little pouch were two good sized bottles of "bagpipe whisky." Yet again, this also isn't the most ridiculous part, as everyone else is dozing off after about 5-6 hours of the drive, my insomnia kept me up of course. I sat there listening to my ipod and watched the traffic as he swerved effortlessly through it without a second thought, never breaking a sweat or his temper. Than another bus is barrling towards us, and they have their high beams on for several moments, apparently this was the breaking point for our driver. He starts freaking out and flailing his arms, as the bus approaches I see him grab for what I thought was a bottle of water, and he chucks it at the window of the other bus as it passes. I start freaking out, laughing and wondering what the hell just happened.
We continue to drive along for about 30 minutes, and then all of the sudden there is a road block in front of our bus of about four big ass trucks. We try to move around it and all of the trucks move closer and begin to blare their horns at us. I thought we had just hit one but that was not the case at all. The bus pulls over and all of the sudden there are about four angry Indian truckers yelling at our driver. After this there is about a fourty minute arguement in hindi that neither I nor Saul can understand, we are just waiting for this to escalate to blows. After the fourty minutes passes, our driver hands one of the truckers a big wad of rupees, and we continue on. So apparently when the bus driver threw what turned out to be his whisky bottle at the bus, one of the windows shattered and the arguement was over the two thousand rupees that the bus driver owed for the broken window. So I guess after the incident the other bus driver radioed in the name of our bus and they created a road block so we could go no further. These crafty ass Indians.
Anyway, we made it to Minali in one piece, and I watched the sunrise over the himalayn mountains. It was quite the beautiful site. We checked into a guest house called the sonam gues house in vashist which is a couple kilometers away from minali. The owner is this burnt out indian guy that keeps talking to us about all these wacked out documentaries. I think we are going to go to the "theatre" and watch one of them a little later. The room feels like its a damn tree house, the ceilings are super low, everything is hardwood and the bed isn't that comfortable. I really like it though, it has such character and the people that are staying in it are pretty rad, especially the owner. Plus I'm only paying about 2 bucks a night to stay here, and we have a Bakery next door and a really good restuarant across the street that has some spectacular views of the mountains. I can't wait to show these pictures off! Tomorrow we are going to go hiking and then we are going white water rafting the next day, and maybe mountain biking. I will keep you all informed!
Peace,
J a k e
We departed from Chandigahr last night at about 8 pm because our 7 o'clock bus was running late of course. The bus we were told would be Deluxe with Air conditioning was neither of the two, the seats reclined a little and there were fans on the ceiling however I think that the fans were honestly for decoration purposes only because not a single one worked. We got stuck in the very front seats behind the driver cab and being in those seats means that my knees are constantly hitting against the hard metal of the cab, for ten hours. It was pretty much hell on wheels, I didn't think that a bus ride could be worse than the last one, but this one was far worse.
The way that these drivers operate their machines is one of the most freightening things that I have ever seen. Since we were headed to Minali the entire trip was switchbacks up and down mountains. A normal person would obey these speed limits and probably not pass many cars, complete opposite in India, just like everything else! Our driver was barrling as fast as he could around these hairpin turns, on bumpy unkempt roads, and if there was another bus, truck, car or motorcycle in front of us he would turn on the brights and hold the horn while passing the poor person in front. Regardless if there were cars comming at us or not the driver would swerve to the other lane and continue his attempts to pass these cars. This was basically a ten hour roller coaster with no lapbelts, and I hope I never have to do that again. Even though I will have to when I return to Delhi to fly out, dammit.
Sadly, the way that this drive drove his car was not the most interesting part of the journey at all. Other than meeting a bunch of crazy Indian kids our age who were stoned out of their minds, other than the extreme lack of sleep and food, but our driver was slowly getting trash-hammered wasted while he took us up and down these mountains. Saul was the first to spot it, but behind his seat in a nifty little pouch were two good sized bottles of "bagpipe whisky." Yet again, this also isn't the most ridiculous part, as everyone else is dozing off after about 5-6 hours of the drive, my insomnia kept me up of course. I sat there listening to my ipod and watched the traffic as he swerved effortlessly through it without a second thought, never breaking a sweat or his temper. Than another bus is barrling towards us, and they have their high beams on for several moments, apparently this was the breaking point for our driver. He starts freaking out and flailing his arms, as the bus approaches I see him grab for what I thought was a bottle of water, and he chucks it at the window of the other bus as it passes. I start freaking out, laughing and wondering what the hell just happened.
We continue to drive along for about 30 minutes, and then all of the sudden there is a road block in front of our bus of about four big ass trucks. We try to move around it and all of the trucks move closer and begin to blare their horns at us. I thought we had just hit one but that was not the case at all. The bus pulls over and all of the sudden there are about four angry Indian truckers yelling at our driver. After this there is about a fourty minute arguement in hindi that neither I nor Saul can understand, we are just waiting for this to escalate to blows. After the fourty minutes passes, our driver hands one of the truckers a big wad of rupees, and we continue on. So apparently when the bus driver threw what turned out to be his whisky bottle at the bus, one of the windows shattered and the arguement was over the two thousand rupees that the bus driver owed for the broken window. So I guess after the incident the other bus driver radioed in the name of our bus and they created a road block so we could go no further. These crafty ass Indians.
Anyway, we made it to Minali in one piece, and I watched the sunrise over the himalayn mountains. It was quite the beautiful site. We checked into a guest house called the sonam gues house in vashist which is a couple kilometers away from minali. The owner is this burnt out indian guy that keeps talking to us about all these wacked out documentaries. I think we are going to go to the "theatre" and watch one of them a little later. The room feels like its a damn tree house, the ceilings are super low, everything is hardwood and the bed isn't that comfortable. I really like it though, it has such character and the people that are staying in it are pretty rad, especially the owner. Plus I'm only paying about 2 bucks a night to stay here, and we have a Bakery next door and a really good restuarant across the street that has some spectacular views of the mountains. I can't wait to show these pictures off! Tomorrow we are going to go hiking and then we are going white water rafting the next day, and maybe mountain biking. I will keep you all informed!
Peace,
J a k e
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Only the hippest and trendiest Indians live here...
Ok....Im trying to figure out where to start...hmmm....allright, I got it.
We left Haridwar two and a half days ago, it was kind of a spur of the moment deceision to hop a bus at 10 am to go to Chandigar. So we did it, we went down to the bus station and started asking all the drivers which bus lead us to chandigar. Eventually we found the right one, and it left two minutes later so we jumped on the bus and it immediatly began to move out of the station. That shit was so cheap though, 120 rupees to get all the way to chandigar! So in american dollars, thats....$2.50 I think, the bus ride was supposed to be four and a half hours yet however since we are in India that is never the case. Ever. We were riding a State transport bus so that means that we were packed into a bus with no space available unless you were to crowd surf the people stading in the isle. It was such a great experience though, we were the only whiteys on the bus and we traveled through rural ass India stopping outside of farms and through small vilages letting people on and off again. EVERY single person on that bus would stare at us in astonishment for awkward lengths of time, since its a bunch of westerners on a local bus. A very great experience all in all, even with the blown tire, two bus switches and the sticky hot pleather we had to sit on for six and a half hours. Just Grand.
So we finally pull into this city called Chandigar with a population of about 1 million people. This city is nothing like the chaos that is every other indian city, everything is laid out on a grid and there are shopping centers every where, pretty much every store is air conditioned and hardly anyone speaks any english. I don't think many travelers come here. Its a nice town though, it is a little calmer which is a nice break from the mind bending activity of every other town so far. We finally book our hotel at the Satya Deep hotel, where all of the staff are very welcoming and friendly and so helpful, its great. Later on two nights ago we met this 75 year old sikh fella that insisted he show us around town. As it is often to get these offers we tried to ditch him becuase we thought he wanted our money. In the end, we let him take us to a restaurant a couple blocks down, and he was the nicest man I have me in such a long time. He got us free food and discounts at the restaurant and even agreed to meet us the next day at the rock garden and take us in as a "guest of honor."
The next day we woke up around 10 and met Nerider Singh at the rock garden at 11 am. He was there waiting for us, just like he said, with a huge smile on his face. This man has the heart of a freaking lion, he stayed with us all day, giving us tons of history on Chandigar and the many sights to see here, he took us to a lake and then to a bar with very cheap beer after it was all done. So yet again, we planned to meet up with him this morning and go to the rose garden with him. He met us at the hotel again at 10 am, and we set out to get a cup of chai. He brought us too a big hotel where he knew a bunch of the locals that worked in the cantine of the hotel and he got us free chai tea in an air conditioned back room of this hotel. Here he started showing us all the literature that has been written about him, and his work as a civil servant. There was even an article from the New York times about how he has been helping tourists navigate this city and find the best deals for the past twenty years, it said you were lucky if he found you, and to trust him completely. So we did.
We proceded to the rose garden which was quite nice, and we sat in the shade and chatted it up with him, eventually I offerend to write a letter for him to the head of tourism and we all signed it, we are eatting dinner with Narinder in an hour, right before we leave. Best people experience in India so far!!
The Rock Garden was the most wonderful thing I have seen in my life, right behind the Taj Mahal! It used to be an old demolished building that people would dump garbage at. Then one day a Pakistani refuge came and started to sift through the rubbish and build a labrinth of sculptures, pathways, waterfalls, and other crazy shit. Walking into this crazy place you walk through twisting rock paths with walls thrity feet high, and you will turn a courner and a waterfall will be falling 20 feet away. The sculptures and walls of some areas are made from all of the discarded china plates this man found, as well as sculptures built out of broken bangles. Stuff is wild. So eventually the Indian gov't found this hidden jewel and they were going to dismantle it, because he did not own the property. However a minister or something came to his rescue and managed to have it preserved, so it is still expanding and will be here for a long time to come.
I leave on a bus to Manali tonight at seven, another 10 hour bus ride. Damn this shit gets exhausting, however Manali is going to be so worth it. Manali is up in the himalaya's and it is a travelers paradise apparently. The tempeture is going to be 70-80 instead of the 95-105 I have been dealing with for the past week, and I am so ready for a more comfortable temperature, I am so sick of the constant sweat dripping from my face. We leave at seven and will probably get there at 5 am if its on time, but of course it will not be on time. hahaha. Saul and I are planning on doing some pretty darn good stuff in Manali, there is zorbing, mountain biking, and white water rafting for damn cheap. Plus that have tons of beautiful hiking paths that go through the mountains and valleys. This should be a great town Im jazzed. We are also thinking about renting some motor bikes to get to dharmsala since its really close to manali, and what could be better than riding a bike through beautiful landscape. Well we will have to see the price of it all, and also we will have to see what the conditions of the roads are. Ill let you all know when I get to Manali.
Well Im gonna go clean my messy ass hotel room, and pack up my backpack. Everyone wish me luck on my awful bus ride!!
Peace,
J a k e
We left Haridwar two and a half days ago, it was kind of a spur of the moment deceision to hop a bus at 10 am to go to Chandigar. So we did it, we went down to the bus station and started asking all the drivers which bus lead us to chandigar. Eventually we found the right one, and it left two minutes later so we jumped on the bus and it immediatly began to move out of the station. That shit was so cheap though, 120 rupees to get all the way to chandigar! So in american dollars, thats....$2.50 I think, the bus ride was supposed to be four and a half hours yet however since we are in India that is never the case. Ever. We were riding a State transport bus so that means that we were packed into a bus with no space available unless you were to crowd surf the people stading in the isle. It was such a great experience though, we were the only whiteys on the bus and we traveled through rural ass India stopping outside of farms and through small vilages letting people on and off again. EVERY single person on that bus would stare at us in astonishment for awkward lengths of time, since its a bunch of westerners on a local bus. A very great experience all in all, even with the blown tire, two bus switches and the sticky hot pleather we had to sit on for six and a half hours. Just Grand.
So we finally pull into this city called Chandigar with a population of about 1 million people. This city is nothing like the chaos that is every other indian city, everything is laid out on a grid and there are shopping centers every where, pretty much every store is air conditioned and hardly anyone speaks any english. I don't think many travelers come here. Its a nice town though, it is a little calmer which is a nice break from the mind bending activity of every other town so far. We finally book our hotel at the Satya Deep hotel, where all of the staff are very welcoming and friendly and so helpful, its great. Later on two nights ago we met this 75 year old sikh fella that insisted he show us around town. As it is often to get these offers we tried to ditch him becuase we thought he wanted our money. In the end, we let him take us to a restaurant a couple blocks down, and he was the nicest man I have me in such a long time. He got us free food and discounts at the restaurant and even agreed to meet us the next day at the rock garden and take us in as a "guest of honor."
The next day we woke up around 10 and met Nerider Singh at the rock garden at 11 am. He was there waiting for us, just like he said, with a huge smile on his face. This man has the heart of a freaking lion, he stayed with us all day, giving us tons of history on Chandigar and the many sights to see here, he took us to a lake and then to a bar with very cheap beer after it was all done. So yet again, we planned to meet up with him this morning and go to the rose garden with him. He met us at the hotel again at 10 am, and we set out to get a cup of chai. He brought us too a big hotel where he knew a bunch of the locals that worked in the cantine of the hotel and he got us free chai tea in an air conditioned back room of this hotel. Here he started showing us all the literature that has been written about him, and his work as a civil servant. There was even an article from the New York times about how he has been helping tourists navigate this city and find the best deals for the past twenty years, it said you were lucky if he found you, and to trust him completely. So we did.
We proceded to the rose garden which was quite nice, and we sat in the shade and chatted it up with him, eventually I offerend to write a letter for him to the head of tourism and we all signed it, we are eatting dinner with Narinder in an hour, right before we leave. Best people experience in India so far!!
The Rock Garden was the most wonderful thing I have seen in my life, right behind the Taj Mahal! It used to be an old demolished building that people would dump garbage at. Then one day a Pakistani refuge came and started to sift through the rubbish and build a labrinth of sculptures, pathways, waterfalls, and other crazy shit. Walking into this crazy place you walk through twisting rock paths with walls thrity feet high, and you will turn a courner and a waterfall will be falling 20 feet away. The sculptures and walls of some areas are made from all of the discarded china plates this man found, as well as sculptures built out of broken bangles. Stuff is wild. So eventually the Indian gov't found this hidden jewel and they were going to dismantle it, because he did not own the property. However a minister or something came to his rescue and managed to have it preserved, so it is still expanding and will be here for a long time to come.
I leave on a bus to Manali tonight at seven, another 10 hour bus ride. Damn this shit gets exhausting, however Manali is going to be so worth it. Manali is up in the himalaya's and it is a travelers paradise apparently. The tempeture is going to be 70-80 instead of the 95-105 I have been dealing with for the past week, and I am so ready for a more comfortable temperature, I am so sick of the constant sweat dripping from my face. We leave at seven and will probably get there at 5 am if its on time, but of course it will not be on time. hahaha. Saul and I are planning on doing some pretty darn good stuff in Manali, there is zorbing, mountain biking, and white water rafting for damn cheap. Plus that have tons of beautiful hiking paths that go through the mountains and valleys. This should be a great town Im jazzed. We are also thinking about renting some motor bikes to get to dharmsala since its really close to manali, and what could be better than riding a bike through beautiful landscape. Well we will have to see the price of it all, and also we will have to see what the conditions of the roads are. Ill let you all know when I get to Manali.
Well Im gonna go clean my messy ass hotel room, and pack up my backpack. Everyone wish me luck on my awful bus ride!!
Peace,
J a k e
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
blessed in the ganges river
holly cow, i cannot believe i made it here to haridwar. i got off of the bus here at six in the morning and we found a hotel right away. im really exhausted since these last two days have been ridiculous, im so sleep deprived i can hardly think straight anymore, i just wander around running through the motions of trying to not get scammed out of my rupees. in agra we woke up at sunrise to watch it hit the taj mahal, and it was one of the most mindblowing things i have seen in a very long time. we hung around the taj for about three hours taking pictures and wandering the gardens. the pictures will hardly be able to do it justice, especially since it was probably 90 degress and sunny, with a fountain to dip your fit in, i didn't even want to leave. later on in that day after eating at this one roof top restaurant called the taj cafe, where we ended up eatting three times that day because it was so delicious and cheap, we decided to go see the agra red fort. not as amazing as the taj but amazing non the less. this for spanned miles and had marble mosques, galleries, and auditoriums. it also had fourty foot walls behind a mot to keep enemies out when the moghuls were occupying this fort. a lot of really great historic sites are in agra, yet we had not enough time to see them all.
later that eve, we got a sleeper bus to haridwar, which is where i am now. haridwar is a city at the base of the himalya's where the ganges river emerges. it has beautiful scenery and lots of the people are very nice. we will probably leave here tomorrow because we have done all the necesary sight seeing that we want to do. we walked up a mountain path to a hidi temple and participated in the ceremonies a little bit, the views from this temple were quit amazing and spanned so very far. then after around seven we went to a famous ghat on the ganges river. there were thousands of hindi pilgrims here that came just to bathe and cleanse in the river. its quite a sight to see i must say, you buy a little boat made of flowers go down some steps into the river, light it on fire and the send it on its way. you also are also supposed to say prayers and what not, but for me not knowing any hindi that becomes a little difficult. we did get scammed by a guy saying he was taking the donations for the event, when in actuality the place where you do give donations was about fifty meters away. aw shucks, fifty rupees...so about one dollar. while walking to the internet cafe where i sit now, we met some kids are age from delhi and one worked for the police station. super nice kids, of course wanted to take pictures of us, being the weird westerners in an all indian country. they also gave us their phone number for when we get back to delhi before we fly out, they said we could stay at their families home if we like, and they would show us around the town. the sincerity in this gesture blew me away and i can still not get it out of my head as i sit here typing. i might have to take them up on that offer, because that would be a once in a lifetime experience.
well tomorrow we head out to a town by shimla and we may try to grab the toy train up in the mountains. relive some of the darjeeling limited in a fashion. its so weird, the way that i speak to people has changed drastically over the last week. when you have to purposefully speak very backwards and broken english so these indians will understand it, you have a hard time stopping. i have caught myself saying some very backwards ass shit lately, hopefully ill write something down one time so i can recall it. it will probably be a couple days before i can get to a computer, but i hope everyone is doing very well back in mpls.
peace
j a k e
p.s. sorry for the lack of capital letters, the shift key is broken.
later that eve, we got a sleeper bus to haridwar, which is where i am now. haridwar is a city at the base of the himalya's where the ganges river emerges. it has beautiful scenery and lots of the people are very nice. we will probably leave here tomorrow because we have done all the necesary sight seeing that we want to do. we walked up a mountain path to a hidi temple and participated in the ceremonies a little bit, the views from this temple were quit amazing and spanned so very far. then after around seven we went to a famous ghat on the ganges river. there were thousands of hindi pilgrims here that came just to bathe and cleanse in the river. its quite a sight to see i must say, you buy a little boat made of flowers go down some steps into the river, light it on fire and the send it on its way. you also are also supposed to say prayers and what not, but for me not knowing any hindi that becomes a little difficult. we did get scammed by a guy saying he was taking the donations for the event, when in actuality the place where you do give donations was about fifty meters away. aw shucks, fifty rupees...so about one dollar. while walking to the internet cafe where i sit now, we met some kids are age from delhi and one worked for the police station. super nice kids, of course wanted to take pictures of us, being the weird westerners in an all indian country. they also gave us their phone number for when we get back to delhi before we fly out, they said we could stay at their families home if we like, and they would show us around the town. the sincerity in this gesture blew me away and i can still not get it out of my head as i sit here typing. i might have to take them up on that offer, because that would be a once in a lifetime experience.
well tomorrow we head out to a town by shimla and we may try to grab the toy train up in the mountains. relive some of the darjeeling limited in a fashion. its so weird, the way that i speak to people has changed drastically over the last week. when you have to purposefully speak very backwards and broken english so these indians will understand it, you have a hard time stopping. i have caught myself saying some very backwards ass shit lately, hopefully ill write something down one time so i can recall it. it will probably be a couple days before i can get to a computer, but i hope everyone is doing very well back in mpls.
peace
j a k e
p.s. sorry for the lack of capital letters, the shift key is broken.
Monday, May 11, 2009
the smell of the raw sewage is awful
So I made it out of Delhi alive, that city is just a bunch of shit. Completely a shit city. Its nice to be gone and not have to deal with all of the touts and beggars, not that there aren't a bunch here in Agra, they just seem less hostile. The sewage drain outside of this internet cafe is just filled to the brim and really stinky, so this is gonna have to be quick.
We took a train out of Delhi, second class sleeper, it was only two and a half hours to get to Agra from Delhi (The Taj Mahal is in Agra). The train was better than I expected, very hot and steamy at about 97 degrees but not too crowded. Once we got to Agra we checked in to our guest house and went up to the roof top to grab something to eat. The view is amazing, all you can see is the Taj, and holy shit is it huge. We are gonna go watch the sunset tonight and then go into the Taj tomorrow at sunrise. It should be amazing. After we see the Taj we are going to leave Agra and head north to escape this oppresing heat. Next up is Haridwar which is at the base of the Himalya's right where the Ganges river emerges. They have a bunch of cool religous ceremonies every night and it should be a much more mild temperature as well.
Ive met a lot of really cool people so far, I can understand why someone would be able to come here and travel alone. Right now we are traveling with a girl from Denmark, however she kind of sucks, and basically just latched on to us because she is freaked out. Ill write again when I get to Haridwar.
Peace,
Jake
We took a train out of Delhi, second class sleeper, it was only two and a half hours to get to Agra from Delhi (The Taj Mahal is in Agra). The train was better than I expected, very hot and steamy at about 97 degrees but not too crowded. Once we got to Agra we checked in to our guest house and went up to the roof top to grab something to eat. The view is amazing, all you can see is the Taj, and holy shit is it huge. We are gonna go watch the sunset tonight and then go into the Taj tomorrow at sunrise. It should be amazing. After we see the Taj we are going to leave Agra and head north to escape this oppresing heat. Next up is Haridwar which is at the base of the Himalya's right where the Ganges river emerges. They have a bunch of cool religous ceremonies every night and it should be a much more mild temperature as well.
Ive met a lot of really cool people so far, I can understand why someone would be able to come here and travel alone. Right now we are traveling with a girl from Denmark, however she kind of sucks, and basically just latched on to us because she is freaked out. Ill write again when I get to Haridwar.
Peace,
Jake
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Fourteen Hours is too long...
Ok, So I made it to India in one piece. The plane ride was freaking awful however, I just can't believe how I made it through that long ass flight with nothing to do but sleep and watch shitty movies. Movies like Paul Blart; Mall Cop , or Bride wars my god never again will I watch that mall cop movie, my iq has definitely dropped because of it. I get to the airport my cabbie is waiting for me with a sign with my name spelled incorrectly. A realy nice dude from nepal, all we talked about was his family and how much he loves living in delhi, all this while flying down what seems to be an interstate at 60 miles an hour. Traffic laws don't mean a damn thing here, three lane highway with five lanes of cars all flashing their brights and tapping out drum beats on their horns. It was all a little mindblowing at first, I was having a hard time even responding to this guys questions about my life. However we made it into the insanity which is delhi and i got to my hotel where Saul was awaiting for me. Rooms were pretty nice, and we have a flat screen with some awesome indian channels, as well as HBO. Saul and I chatted it up for a while then proceded to get drunk, it was midnight in Delhi but it felt like 10 in the morning to me so I self medicated till I was able to sleep.
Today was my first day out in the oven its pretty mild temp right now at about 101 degrees, but the heat is fairly dry so it really doesn't feel all that bad. We were gonna go see the red fort and a couple of the parliament buildings but we got very sidetracked by all of the shops and all of the people. It really is something, the way everyone does business around here, they will reel ya in to their store with a "hello sir," then proceed to push various items such as Louis Vaton wallets and ugly ass t-shirts at you all the while quoting their ridiculous price. I think I'm doing fairly well w hen it comes to brushing off all of the touts and scammers and people trying to sell ya drugs but they are some persistant bastards. Even so all i ended up buying was a knock of armani watch and it is straight ballin let me tell ya.
Honestly I haven't been here long but I can already tell how much fun I am going to have, we are off to Agra to see the Taj Mahal first thing tomorrow morning. Its only a two and a half hour t rain ride so we opted for the lowest class, only two bucks a ticket, this shit is so cheap. Well I will try to write again soon, I hope everyone is well!
P.S. Sorry about the grammer and punctuation this keyboard is total shit, and I'm still recovering from my bad ass Jet Lag.
PEACE,
J a k e
Today was my first day out in the oven its pretty mild temp right now at about 101 degrees, but the heat is fairly dry so it really doesn't feel all that bad. We were gonna go see the red fort and a couple of the parliament buildings but we got very sidetracked by all of the shops and all of the people. It really is something, the way everyone does business around here, they will reel ya in to their store with a "hello sir," then proceed to push various items such as Louis Vaton wallets and ugly ass t-shirts at you all the while quoting their ridiculous price. I think I'm doing fairly well w hen it comes to brushing off all of the touts and scammers and people trying to sell ya drugs but they are some persistant bastards. Even so all i ended up buying was a knock of armani watch and it is straight ballin let me tell ya.
Honestly I haven't been here long but I can already tell how much fun I am going to have, we are off to Agra to see the Taj Mahal first thing tomorrow morning. Its only a two and a half hour t rain ride so we opted for the lowest class, only two bucks a ticket, this shit is so cheap. Well I will try to write again soon, I hope everyone is well!
P.S. Sorry about the grammer and punctuation this keyboard is total shit, and I'm still recovering from my bad ass Jet Lag.
PEACE,
J a k e
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)