Footsteps

The Very Last Leg!

clarinette — Mon, 5 Feb 2007 20:55:00 GMT

Last night we took out last train in India, to our last stop before heading home to Australia!

We left beautiful, sunny Palolem in South Goa to head to Mumbai for 12 days. The train ride was interesting as it always is! We were sharing our compartment at the beginning with a young Indian family who had a 2 and half year child who really provided us with excellent entertainment for quite a while! He kept on smiling cheekily at us and running up to us laughing and singing nursery rhymes... A western family with a son of the same age then came to sit with us a little later - The two little boys refused to share their toys with eachother which resulted in a loud barney! The parents were so embarassed but we reminded them that all children that age have their moments and we ended up having a good laugh about it!

When it was time to sleep, we realized that about 6 of the 8 people sharing our compartment were terrible snorers which made for a pretty restless night. By the time I finally got to sleep, we arrived in Mumbai!

Hmmmmm... Back to trying to find a decent taxi driver! Not an easy task let me tell you! The first one who we approached aksed for at least double the price, telling us that we had to pay extra for all our luggage! I told him that I had never ever heard that rule anywhere else in the whole world! on to the next one! We finally found one who was happy to take us for a resonable price however he obviously didnt understand where we wanted to go because we drove all around and then he dropped us off on the street as he couldnt find our hostel. So we set off looking for it with all of bags. Let me remind you all that it was 7am at this stage and we had had no sleep!

So we asked around and nobody seemed to be able to speak english but sent us off in various direction, all wrong of course! After an hour of being sent all over the suburb, we decided to take seat at a hospital, frustrated but amused! One of the staff members saw us there and asked where we wanted to go - he then sent 3 male escorts to take us there and alas! We finally made it, exhausted but still laughing as always :)

So we are now just taking it easy for the rest of today and I suppose that we will start exploring tomorrow!

On the upside of my trip almost being over - I only have to pack once more!!! Yipeee!!!

A Strange But Touching Experience

clarinette — Mon, 5 Feb 2007 20:43:00 GMT

Gwen and I spent the last week in Goa. The first 4 days in the party capital, Calangute, then the second half in the South in Palolem...

We took the public bus to get from Calangute to Palolem. On the first leg of the trip, a young mother got on with her gorgeous 3 month old daughter and her elderly mother. I smiled at baby and Mum, who then asked me if I wanted to hold her daughter Angelique. I accepted happily.

Angelique did not make a single peep for the whole trip, just looking around her for inquisitive, curious and innocent baby eyes, then fell asleep in my arms.

Her Mum and Grandma, were obviously exhausted and fell asleep before Angelique did. They had their arms wrapped tightly around eachother. It was really a very touching and rare experience. It does not seem to be often here that a mother/daughter bond is so beautifully demonstrated in public.

All three awoke as we approached the bus terminal. The mother took back Angelique, thanked me for the time which I allowed her to sleep, and they all went on their way, as did we!

Sorry!

clarinette — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 20:37:00 GMT

I think that I owe India an apology...

Without really intending it, I arrived in India and soon adopted the attitude (Due to a few nasty hiccups!) that I hated it here, and secondly, that India needed to change, not me.

India has many problems. It has fairly serious environmental issues, a huge amount of poverty, opressive conditions for women and ethnic conflict. All of this is clearly on display in India.

The first time you step outside here you see smog from the congested traffic and litter everywhere (Plus the people who put it there as if it was the most natural thing in the world).

Poverty is shoved in your face. You have women holding malnourished babbies, tugging at your arm for a few rupees, or even a glass of milk for their young ones...

As a 'liberated' western woman, I am surprised to find such a small amount of other Indian women on the street. It appears such a male dominated society where women do not always have equal opportunity.

As for ethic issues... Just go and talk to a Kashmiri person about what they have had to go through over the last decade...

It is too easy to come here with a "white so gotta be right" kind of attitude without enough compassion and understanding. The realization that I made fairly recently is that westerners are in fact the ones who are living their lives in the most unsustainable way with their driving consumerism and desire to have everything bigger and better. Everything created in the western world these days seems to be created to be replaced, not to last. Why? For money of course...

Just because we cannot see the porblems in our countries as clearly as we can here, it does not mean that they are not there. There is no need for superiority!

I guess I just really wanted to thank India for putting up with the rude and grumpy me... My non-judgemental eyes are now able to see the beauty that this country has to offer me and for that I am joyful...

Gallery: Auroville

clarinette — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 20:33:00 GMT

Gallery: Varanasi

clarinette — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 19:34:00 GMT

Gallery: Agra

clarinette — Mon, 1 Jan 2007 19:33:00 GMT

Hmmm... That Explains It!

clarinette — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 18:13:00 GMT

We decided to move to a cheaper and more central hotel to spend the rest of our week in Darjeeling… We spent the whole morning looking around as most of the rooms were booked out. We finally find a well placed and decent room for an amazingly good price (Sure we have to order hot water in buckets to wash and the bathroom stinks but nothing too terrible) …

Not being able to believe our luck, we settle in under our warm blankets for a good night sleep….

At 5am we become aware of why the room was so cheap!!! The mosque next to the hotel starts blaring out morning prayers!

Oh well! What can you expect for a couple of dollars! At least I have got good earplugs :)

Varanasi - The Holy City.

clarinette — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 17:15:00 GMT

We spent three days in Varanasi... Our experience was an interesting one... Our hotel was unfortunately outside of the main part of the city which made the experience slightly less enjoyable...

We arrived on train to Varanasi from Agra at 5am in the morning... A little sleepy, a man greeted us on our platform but as he had no identification but seemed to know our names and which hotel we were headed to, we decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. We started getting really worried though, when a huge bunch of guys surrounded our car and started asking us where we were going and so we sort of started freaking out... We were informed that the main bridge into Varanasi city was broken, so we had to get out and walk the 2.5km accross with all of our stuff. Walking across the brigde in the dead of early morning gave me the distinct feeling of coming to a holy city - I could already hear the faint chanting coming from various temples dotting the landscape which felt almost like a spiritual experience in itself. On the other side of the bridge we were met by a driver who took us to our hotel. Feeeewww!

After sleeping a little bit we headed out to Sarnath where we were able to visit a few temples and a museum which housed some nice stone carved artifacts... We decided that after being denied entry to some of the temples on grounds that we are not Hindu, to not try and visit anymore... I don't like the idea of treating someone's religion as a turistic experience anyways.

The next day we went on a boat ride on the Ganges to see the sunrise which was quite an incredible experience... There were many people bathing in the Ganges to 'cleanse' their souls and bodies (I have to say that I was horrified at the thought of bathing in this water though due to the fact that all of the sewage gets pumped into the river plus dead bodies and whole lot of other unsanitary items...). There were also people meditating on the Ghats and the river was illuminated by the many little floating candles and the golden orange sun, rising out of the morning mists.

On our last full day, we decided to catch a rickshaw to the Ghats to 'soak it all up' again... We had to argue with about 10 drivers before having to settle on paying at least double for our trip (better than the original 4 times we were originally quoted!). Firstly, we went to see the burning of the bodies on the Ghats. A man explained the the process to us while we were watching in exchange of us coming to see his silk shop (a small price to pay for the priceless information he shared with us...). He told us about how they wash the bodies with water and oils before wrapping them in cloth and bringing them to the river side. They burn the body on a wood pile in the open and then the ashes are placed in the river... Aparently there are five different bodies which cannot be burned though of which include pregnant women and small children - These are tied to a heavy boulder and dropped into the river so that they can be reincarnated. I found it interesting that many Indians seem much more accepting and aware of death than we seem to be...

After buming around for the day we try to get a rickshaw back home. The driver does not speak English so a man aids us, telling the driver where we want to go and setting the R30 price for us in Hindi. We jump on, happy that for once we are not getting ripped off, and the driver seems happy and laughing at us as we joyfully bump up and down over the many potholes in the road. Just as we say to each other that perhaps we are starting to enjoy the whole chaotic Indian experience, the rickshaw stops in the middle of nowhere and we are signaled to get down and pay the driver. I say to him that this is not our hotel and demand that he takes us there but he shakes his head. At this point a big group of men has surrounding us and we are feeling distinctly uncomfortable as they are starting to get agitated (As am I). One of the men begins translating for the driver and tells us that we have to pay the driver.I say no way and tell him that we agreed on a price to be taken to our hotel. The man says that we have to pay about 4 times the price we were told to get there and I get really angry and tell him that we will not. Eventually I tell them all to bugger off, we give them R20 so that we don't get beaten up and then we go and find another rickshaw which takes us safely to our hotel. A crappy ending to a perfect day sadly...

The next day (Christmas eve) we were leaving to get to Darjeeling. In the morning we set of on a mission to stock up on some goodies (none of which we actually found!). We were followed around by a kid for the whole hour down the street wanting money which was pretty annoying too... It makes me feel horrible but at the same time I have made the concious decision that my money goes much further when donated to a worthy organization which helps people like them - This has become one of our research points in India, so that we can find that best way to leave a possitive mark here.

For the Xmas eve train ride (and plenty of entertainment) don't forget to read "All I Want for Christmas is My Ass Groped" :)

All I Want for Christmas...Is My Ass Groped (And Other Such Fun Things...)

clarinette — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 18:49:00 GMT

Gwen and I prepared heartily and enthusiastically for spending our Christmas stuck in the overnight train from Varanasi to Darjeeling. We bought yummy food, decorations, and headed down to the train station humming Christmas carrols to each other... It went down hill from here!

Firstly, our train was delayed by 3 and a half hours. Of course we found this hard to get drift of as the people at the "May I Help You?" information desk could not help us as they spoke no English - Luckily a nice guy explained the situation to us and informed us when the train arrived... (The downhill slant is starting to gain momentum now!)

So the train is on the platform, Gwen and I are charged with our big and heavy gear, and we can't find our carriages as they are not marked in any way. We are freaking out about it leaving without us at this point, frantically searching for someone who speaks English, when we spot a big group of army officials... We ask and one tells us which carriage to get on (The wrong one of course). But once we are in, there is a huge traffic jam and we can't move, especially not with our big packs. We finally make it to bunks 31 and 32 only to find a huge Indian family camped out in our places who inform us that we are in the wrong carriage - AHHHHH!!! We push and shove our way back to the door and hop out, discovering that our carriage is locked... Then the train starts moving - without us on it! A guy is telling us that we "first must catch the train, then we can find our seats later" but there is no way I am jumping on a train with 20kg on my back, not knowing how far the next stop is... Luckily the train comes to a holt once more and we get back into another carriage with the hope of finding our seats at the next stop...

The train stops, we shove our way through what seems like 1000's of oggling Indian male eyes, only to fall upon another 1000 army officials between us and our bunks, laughing their heads off at the meer sight of us... So we start crossing the sea of men who are putting their hands where they shouldn't be. I'm nearly out of the thick of it when some asshole gropes my ass John Copawate style (It was amusing that just that morning I was thinking to myself that I still hadn't been groped yet and maybe the other female travelers I had spoken to had been exagerating about the groping in India!) - I shriek and laughter errupts out amongst the men. I am a little annoyed but happy that we had finally made it to our seats... We draw back the curtains to find another large Indian family srawled across our seats. We consider leaving them one of our places in our quickly waning christmas spirit, but am quickly loosing my temper as they appear not to even think of offering us at least one of our places... Finally through a lot of exagerated hand gestures, we manage to get them off our top bunk where we put all of our stuff, leaving pretty much no room for us... So we got a fantastically good night sleep, only to awaken to nature's call - Problem! About 300 people camped in front of the toilet door, impossible to get through! We wait another 4 hours and then decide that we can't hold on any longer and try to brave it... The corridoors seem to have a cleared a little and so I get through after soon extenisve pushing and shoving. On the way out, feeling 1000 times better, I get groped again... Great!

At this stage our favorite family on our bunk has fully awoken, and they start giving us greasy looks and saying things to us in Hindi... Then the mother reaches up and hangs a pair of heavily soiled baby pants (we could tell from the odour!) on our rail! Grrrrrr!

So anyways... We finally make it to NJP station around lunch time and brave the last 3 hour jeep ride to Darjeeling... We made it!!! I think that although it was the worst Chritmas of my life that it will be the one which I remember for the longest!

Claire Bear and PenGwen's Guide to Traveling in India

clarinette — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 22:40:00 GMT

Claire Bear and PenGwen's Guide to Traveling in India:

How to Keep Going When Your Cash has Stopped Flowing!

This guide was born after finding ourselves in a foreign (and craaaazy!) country without a cent... Although this is purely comical and was written to help keep spirits up in a difficult time, all the pointers included in the guide arose from our actual experiences!

Warning: Not to be read by any persons lacking a sense of humour!

Ok... Lonely Planet - Give us a break! This is a guide for those of you poor sods with nothing but an overdrawn credit card in your wallets!

The following points can only apply if you have spent all your money on your first day in India at a dodgy Delhi travel agent. If this hasn’t happened you won't be in the right frame of mind let alone desperate enough to go to these measures. On our arrival in Delhi, after jumping in a 'tuk-tuk' to get to the government tourism office, we somehow ended up in a travel agency where we were sweet talked into booking a tour. Only after parting with our money did we realize that we were almost broke with no money for the little things along the way... Like eating...

Tip # 1. Get people to invite you for dinner or make friends with the owner of your hotel so that they invite you to eat with them (that way you save on the $2-3 it costs you to have a meal in India. One night during our stay in Dharamsala, we were passing by the kitchen on our way out to get our fix of diarrheoa inducing street vendor food (couldn't afford anything else!), when the hotel owners felt sorry for us and invited us to share their delicious Kashmiri meal. This opened whole new doors for us in being able to fill our stomachs on an empty wallet!

Tip # 2. If you start to feel guilty about all this ‘scamming’ – ie taking advatage of dinner invitations etc – offer to make a scrumpcious dessert for your host such as chocolate pudding. It will only cost you the amount of money it would take for one meal but as your host has been feeding you for days it's ok. Another bonus is that you get double the food as you’re having dessert, plus you get that warm gooey feeling for being a nice and generous person. And to top it off, keep the ingredients for the next host – that way you’ll make 10 desserts for the price for the price of one! Because our Dharamsala friends kept feeding us, we promised to make them a nice chocolate pudding as it seems that sweets are not a common thing in their culture (plus we were missing home a bit and needed the sugar fix!)... To be honest, we only ended up buying the cocoa powder and cream, and used their flour, eggs, butter and sugar and contrary to our own advice, we forgot the cocoa on their kitchen shelf...

Tip # 3. If you get free breakfast at the hotel make sure you order enough for two people and keep some for lunch. This works well if you order something nice like pancakes to eat straight away then keep the toast or fruit for later.

Tip # 4. Buy local snacks (or ‘snakes’ as some some mis-spelt menus suggest), instead of eating global brands such as Cadbury chocolate or lays chips. That way you’ll not only support the local community but also save a few dollars.

Tip # 5. Don’t take taxis. For one, you cant afford it and two, a friendly person might see you walking down the street and invite you to come in for a ‘cup of tea’ (famous expression and pastime in India). In this way you’ll not only meet interesting people, have good conversations but also save $1-2 it would’ve cost for the taxi. In addition you’ll get good exercise so you’ll also save on gym fees when you get home, leaving you free to pay back your travel debt! When we were in Dharamsala and wanted to walk the 3kms downhill to the library, we ummed and ahhed for a long time on whether or not to take a taxi back up (lazy us!). After a long debate, we decided that we couldn't afford it so we started the long haul up the hill. We had barely began when a voice calls out, "Cup of chai?". So off we went to have a cup of tea with a sweet Tibetan refugee called Sobu who told his life story including how he walked 21 days from Tibet to get to India, fleeing the Chinese regime. Exercising can be interesting after all!

Tip # 6. In countries like India where people don’t use toilet paper – scam some off classy hotels (you know the ones your dodgy Delhi travel agent sent you to without telling you and that’s why you’ve blown your budget). Not only will you save $1 but you will also get your money’s worth in toilet paper. If the hotel staff get suspicious as to why you are using 10 rolls a day – tell them you’ve got explosive diarrhoea! Well what can you expect when you have been eating street food because the travel agent took all your money and you cant afford Cadbury or Lays!

Note: In this case you can also scam bottled water from your hotel or houseboat if you’re in Kashmir. After all your dodgy Delhi travel agent sent you to his other dodgy business partner so that they can scam you too! (and harass you)

Tip # 7. Get free accommodation by making friends (Not "special friends"!) with hotel owners as he will invite you to stay for free, assuming that he can get lots of money out of your friends and family when they come to India based on your wonderful recommendations. In Dharamsala, our friends at the hotel told us that the hotel was now "our home" in India and we were welcome back anytime, free of charge. We actually haven't been able to make use of this offer yet as we haven't been able to rearrange our overbooked tour. We are however still researching this tip as especially when Indian males are involved, it is very important to sus out their intentions! My friend Ibe (still working on his english skills!) told me when he offered us the invitation " and you know, no need to worry about money. You stay here free of charge. I know that I will be able to get money from your family and friends later anyways". (Maybe he needs to work a little bit on the tact/phrasing there?). Another example occured in Kashmir. The owner of our houseboat not only lied to us about a trek we were supposed to be undertaking, but at the end of our stay, took me aside and told me that if I wanted to stay longer, "it would be no problem" because he had "special feelings" for me and he was looking forwards to having "some fun" (give me a bucket!) together. Don't worry. We are not that desperate for free accomodation.

Tip # 8. About laundry. Ask to borrow your hosts clothes with the excuse of wanting to wear the local dress. That way you’ll get their clothes dirty and not your own, meaning you spend less on laundry costs. In addition you can steal hotel soap and shampoo so that you don’t smell as dirty as you might look! In Kashmir, we spent a couple of nights in a small village called Gagangir where we were unable to wash for a few days. We were also sick of getting funny looks from the locals who are not used to seeing westerners in the area. Borrowing ponchos from the guys was the perfect way to blend in with the locals, keep warm in the sub-zero conditions and avoid washing our clothes for a few extra days!

Tip # 9. Tell everyone about your experience with your ‘dodgy Delhi travel agent’, especially hotel owners (without telling them the name). That way they’ll feel sorry for you and feel a responsibility to make your stay a more pleasant one. They may offer to help you for free if you manage to cancel your tour.

Tip # 10.With international phone calls. If you’re with a travel partner and you call home, not only get your parents to call you back at your hotel but tell them to call your friend’s parents so that they can call your friend at the hotel too. Gwen was trying to call her mum and as a joke I said 'can you get her to call mine too and tell them to call us back'. Out of a simple joke, blossomed a brilliant money saving idea. PS - Don't tell our parents ;)

Gallery: Rajasthan

clarinette — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 00:06:00 GMT

Classic Quotes

clarinette — Sat, 9 Dec 2006 23:35:00 GMT

I am collecting quotes in India - Haven't got much of a collection yet but I will be adding more as I go along!

1) "My parents have expired" (Naz) I can't get over this one! It cracks me up every time!

2) "Oh no Calire (me!)! You're not super fat! Just fat and strong like the buldozer!" (Salim) Charming Salim!

3) And in 3rd place we have Salim yet again. So we are driving along in the car and there is a super bad smell (wasn't me - this time!) and Salim turns around and says "you have white radish in the salad at the restaurant?" to which Gwen replies yes... He then says "Gwen, I think you have the serious gas leak!" hehehe - Got a few chuckles out of that one!

4) "Same same but different." We have heard this one from about every Indian we come across!

5) "Gwen, you are very skinny, like me, and have a beautiful nose and smile, Claire, you are strong like a weight lifter and have nice eyes..." Thanks Sergei, I get the point! I have big bones hehehe... I think I am starting to see a trend here!

Rajasthan So Far...

clarinette — Sat, 9 Dec 2006 23:07:00 GMT

We have been in Rajasthan since the 4th of December... We arrived in Jaipur, Rajashtan's capital by train and so far have been there as well as Pushkar...

Jaipur did not impress us particularly as we did the tourist circuit of all the monuments... The things I did enjoy and which chamed me was the extensive use of camels and elephants to pull carts on the roads - It was sooo strange! Also, I love the women's bright dress here...

We went on elephant to the Amber Fort - A rather humilating experience which was enhanced by having the elephant spit all over us (If I had to carry me I would complain about it too!)... Once we got inside the fort, these two creepy guys starting taking photos of us and following us everywhere... We ended up having to run away from them!

On the way back to the car we were hassled by a bunch of souvenir street hawkers trying to sell us little bits of crap... I became inventive to find ways of getting rid of them which had Gwen hiding in embarassment! I found that 2 things worked quite well... The first was to say outright that in fact I thought what they were trying to sell me was horribly ugly and I did not like it nor want to purchase it. The second was pretending to misunderstand the price really enthusiastically which seemed to send them running in shock - For example: "5 paintings for 5 rupees!!!! WOW!!!! What a great price, I'll buy 20!!!! FANTASTIC!!! (Maybe you had to be there but it was pretty funny to see their reaction!)

The next day we headed for the Bhraman town of Pushkar... We chilled on arrival but in the morning we decided to go and explore the city a little... Before sending us out into the scary city, our driver gave us a 'safety' talk, letting us know that we shouldn't acept flowers from guys on the street as it is a scam to make a lot of money out of tourists...

So anyways, we get out of the car and walk 10 metres (record!) before being approached by a guy offering us both a flower... I say to him "No Thanks" and we keep on walking. He then runs after us and says, "No, you have to take it or otherwise you are not allowed to walk here"... I laugh at him at this point as we are just in the market place, not in a temple or anything, and tell him that we can walk here if we want and so we keep walking... Then he gets this other guy with him and points to his Bharman wrist band and says that we have to have one of those too or we can't walk there... By this stage the guy was getting really agresive and starting to make a scene, as was I... He started snarling things like "You culturally disrespectful tourists, just go back to your hotel, you are not welcome in Pushkar, get the hell out of our city" etc... I was really mad at this stage and I considered just continuing down the street to make a point, but he just kept on following us and abusing us on his motorbike... In the end, fed up with his shit, I turned around and yelled at him "Whatever you big jerk, if this is how you insist on trated visitors then I am more than happy to leave this city" and we turned around to walk back to the hotel - He followed us for about 500m down the road yelling abuse so we decided to stop for some chai to piss him off... In the end he sped off... On the way back to the hotel, we bumped into Saleem (our driver) who told us that the wanker on the bike had found him and started abusing him too about warning us not to take his flowers and stopping his 'scamming the tourist' business...

Anyways this soured the day and we were happy to leave for Bikaner this morning... Hopefully our experiences will be better there!

Gwen's Birthday Festivities

clarinette — Sat, 9 Dec 2006 22:28:00 GMT

Gwen celebrated her 22nd birthday on the 4th of December... Considering we are broke, it ended up being quite an eventful and memorable celebration...

Firstly, the scary Dharamsala guys (they told Gwen that they "have special feelings" for her - even though they were married with 3 kids! eeeeeeek!) had given me cards to pass on to her for her birthday. I guess this wasn't all that amusing except for them spelling her name "Quince"...

Secondly, in the afternoon, our driver Saleem bought a cake for Gwenny... Again not all that funny until he stuffed a huge chunk of it in her face. I laughed my head off which was a bad idea as I was then forced into joining the festivities by having cake shoved in my face also!

The next night in Pushkar, we decided to have a proper party because some of out (up until then - but read on!) platonic friends, from Dharamsala were also coming to Pushkar and had organized for them to meet us in our hotel to celebrate.

They arrived around 8pm and so we went downstairs tp their room ready to party... A few minutes later Javid (one of the guys...), walks into the room a little agitated and says that our driver was absuing him for following us to pushkar (that had been in Jaipur with us the night before also but were doing the same route as us around Rajasthan)... Firstly, Gwen and I felt like we were being babysat by our driver which was irritating and we were also perplexed as to how he knew that these guys were our friends... All of a sudden, this huge fight errupted outside with all of the hotel dtaff against our friends and because they were all arguing in Hindi we presumed that they were fighting over us... Our driver had said in English that because they were Kashmiri that they were possibly terrorists wanting to blow us up... After heaps or arguing our friends stomp back into the room and start packing up their stuff while muttering abuse under their breathe... They then apologized and said that they could not stay any longer in this rotten hotel... By this stage Gwen and I were really upset - Happy Birthday Gwen!!! So we went to sook in our room for a while trying to calm down before going to complain about the disgusting way in which our friends had been treated... We wander downstairs ready for a fight, when our driver comes out of our friend's room, arm in arm, laughing with Javid... We are obviously confused so Saleem takes us aside and explains what had happened - In fact all he asked them was to see the ID cards to make sure that they were from the Indian Kashmir and not the Pakistani side and because they refused at first it got nasty...

So after this, funnily enough, our friends became best buddies with our driver and all the other hotel staff (Man! Men really are from Mars!) and we all went to have dinner together... At this stage it was late which made it hard to find an open restaurant in the area. We drove around for agesand ended up having to settle for a little roadside dhaba as it was the only thing open. After about a half hour ofsitting there, the guys were all drunk and chatting in Hindi so Gwen and I were pretty bored and a little tipsy...

After a while we decided we needed to go and answer nature's call and without thinking, we jumpet up laughing and ran down the road into the dark to look for a bush. When we got back, our driver told us he was so worried about us because there are heaps of cobras in the area... We had a little giggle at the thought of having a cobra bite us on the bum while pissing!

Now, I have left the best thing for last of course! One of the Kashmiri blokes Munna, had bought Gwen a present. He told her not to open it until later but when the fight errupted and we thought they had left, we decided to take a look - It was this revolting plastic statue (see photo above!) of this couple kissing on a bench and above it was written "My Future Lies With You." Not knowing what to think, we pretended not to have seen it... Later on when Munna was drunk and we had decided to waddle off to bad (me leading the way and Gwen laggin behind...) I get ready for bed and can hear some loud talking in the corridor... Anyways Gwen comes in 10 minutes later laughing her head off... In fact Munna had told her that he likes her a lot (Now the present makes sense!) and that she can stay in India and marry him - When Gwen pointed out that she actually has a boyfriend he just laughed and said in his hilarious stong accented broken english "Quince, just forget Australia, forget your boyfriend... He doesn't matter anymore... And money, you know, this is no problem - Just forget ok?."

Well... We can't all say that we have had a marriage proposal for our birthdays can we!

Happy Birthday Gwen!

Kashmir...

clarinette — Sun, 3 Dec 2006 18:37:00 GMT

After spedning a couple of fairly stressful days trying to work New Delhi out, we decided to go to plan B which basically involved getting the hell out of there ASAP in any way possible...

We talked to a dodgy travel agent (Who was perhaps a little too charming to be 100% trustworthy now that I think about it!) who suggested that we head to Kashmir straight away before winter hit - The suggestion was quickly warmed to (On my behalf anyways...) as it was always near the top of my list of places to visit in India and I was under the impression that it wasnt really possible to go there at this time of year. We left out dodgy hotel (Dodgy as in megaly overcharged us for our roach infested room plus the hotel travel agent was trying to kidnap us and send us to Rajasthan!) and we decided to take up on an invitation from our travel agent to stay at his house - he was very hospitable, fed us well and got his dorky cousin to drive us to the airport in the morning (Apart from the fact that he kept on showing Gwen and I photos of himself all night, he made no attempt to hide the fact that he was freely staring at my breasts and kept on loudly whispering to Gwen that he liked me and wanted me to be his girlfriend...)

Our flight was pretty spectacular with beautiful views over the Himalayas. As we approached the airport of Srinagar, we noticed the huge amount of militants in the area which gave us second thoughts about our security in the area but out we got! The manager of the hotel was waiting for us there and drove us across town to the houseboat we were staying on...

On arrival a sweet guy called Rami brought us some chai and biscuits which we were thorougly enjoying until Bashir (the creepy manager, more about him later in the story!) walzes in and tells us "now we talk business" - Uh Oh... In tyhis little meeting he informs us that we actually can't go around by ourselves because it is too dangerous (probably not completely fictious...) and offers us a whole lot of other activites at a fairly high price to fill up our days instead... A little irritated but eager to make the best of our stay in Kashmir, we reluctantly decided to book a 3 day hike and a few other things...

Our first full day, we went in the morning on a boat trip around the lake we were staying on... The lake is really big and has many inhabited little islands in the middle which makes boat travel one of the only ways to get around here... It was really sweet to see that there were floating boat shops which sell all different products... It was also interesting to see the different kinds of reactions we seemed to be getting from the locals there - some seemed genuinly happy to see us there and others just scowled at us but I guess that is because they don't see all that many tourists in the area... After an hour or so we docked the boat and took a walk around a market place and got to go into a mosque - we had to be thoroughly patted down and had all our bags searched for cigarettes as women are not allowed to smoke in the Muslim culture. We got back to the houseboat in the afternoon and then our driver took us to the Moghul gardens... One of the gardeners working there cut Gwen and I a flower to gave it to us as a 'present' then ran after us asking for a tip for the flower which was pretty funny! I have to say that so far in India I have felt on quite a few occassions like nothing more that a western variety of money tree... After that we went to a Kashmiri carpet factory. On the way there the driver was speeding down a narrow pot holed road at over 100km an hour and kept on braking really suddenly, sending our head flying into the front seat as we were not issued with seat belts... I was scared for my life and when we arrived was almost ready to kiss the ground!!!

The manager of the factory explained the whole carpet making process nad got the workers to demonstrate for us. After that he showed us all the different qualitis of carpets, the best having 1600 hand-tied knots per square inch and taking a whole Kashmiri family between 2 and four years to make! Having the expensive taste that I have, I immediately fell in love with the highest quality ones which I knew there was no way I could afford at $5000 a piece!

The next day we left to go on our 'hike' (what a load of shit!). It turned out that it was much to snowy and cold to go on a proper treck at this time of year so we slept in a gypsy village called Gagangir and went on a few fairly crappy day walks... At this stage I was feeling really ripped off, lied to and freeeeezing cold - I guide was also being a jerk to me so I was basically just angry. The second night of the trip we were invited to a village wedding - This chaged my whole perception of the trip as it was such an amazing and priceless experience and something that I will never forget... We got to see them slaughtering the cows in the afternoon (which was pretty hard to bear but good for a person likes me who is used to just buying meat wrapped up in plastic on a supermarket shelf)... Later on at night after hanging out in our room with some of the fuuny local guys and playing cards we went off to the groom's house to join in the festivities as usually the party goes on all night. Before arriving we thought that we would be intruding and felt a little bit awkward but this feeling immediatly dissolved as the minute we walked into the house we were warmly welcomed with big smiles from everyone... The house was jam packed with almost everyone from the village and so we were put in a little room full up with mothers and children waiting their turn to pay their respects to the soon to be married couple... We waited there patiently for a few minutes before being invited to go into the womens room... This was just filled with all the female women and children from the village and the bride, the young girls were gayfully singing Kashmiri tunes and we were almost immediatly asked to get up and dance in fron of everyone which gave them all a good laugh! All the children were saying all the English that they knew to us and were giggling happily and asking us to take photos of them and everyone seemed to be absolutely facinated with us which was quite funny... We were made to feel like guests of honour! A lot of village men had meanwhile gathered at the windows to what the dorky tourists trying to dance! After this we went into the men's room where there was all the men, boys and groom... There was a little village band playing and singing and the groom gave up his seat for us and offered us some really nice Kasmiri tea... After this we went back to the other room where there was a cake feeding ceremony going on - The bride and groom had to feed a piece of cake to each of their family and friends and then the friend or family memeber had to feed them a peice of cake. After this the bride's best friend came to do the henna painting on the palms of her hands which was interesting to see. At 4.30am we decided to get some sleep in so we said out goodbyes and left with that warm and fuzzy satisfied feeling, all bitterness gone... We were able to see something which we will not forget for a very long time!

The next day we passed on a walk as we got up too late (they were going to the same place we went on the first day anyway) and we went to see a bit more of the wedding (it actually goes on for 5 days and this was the last day...). We were invited to eat a plate of food by the groom's brother and we went to see what was going on... All the friend's were preparing the marital bedroom by decorating it was tinsel and then we watched as the bride and groom took a ceremonial walk around the village, followed by all the young village girls singing... This is all we got to see sadly as we had to return back to Srinagar.

By now we had made pretty good friends with a lot of the staff at our houseboat and so we were having a pretty fun time joking around and felt like we had our own little family there... A French Canadian couple also arrived this day and we ended up chatting to them a bit but I have to say that I missed about 90% of the dialog as their french accent was sooooo strong that we couldnt understand a word they were saying (but was pretty funny too!) The next day we went to see K2 (second highest mountain in the world) but it was too cloudy to see it so it was a bit of a waste of time but it was ok because out funny driver took us and we ended up having fun and then on the way back he offered us to have tea with his family in his home village which was nice even though they spoke no English. When we arrived back to the houseboat, we had a chat to the Canadian couple who freaked us out a little bit a lot! They had actually been to the same place as us that day and had been eating lunch in a little cafe in a village when suddenly they heard an explosion, ran outside where everyone was panicking and running in all direction and saw a dead man lying on the pavement... Hmmmmmm, a little cary perhaps?

On the last day there we didnt do much as Gwen and I were both quite sick with a nasty cold from the cold weather there... We visitied a few mosques in Srinagar in the afternoon but felt to crappy and came home pretty quickly... On arrival back at the hotel the manager Bashir was there. He said to us that if we wanted to stay there longer that there was no problem and that he could maybe find us something to do in exchange for accomodation and food... This sounded like a nice offer so we went to have a proper chat to him about this... He asked me if he could have a talk to me in person (without Gwen) which made me a bit worried but I went to talk to him... He said to me that if I wanted to stay longer that there would be no problem if I wanted to sleep with him - Know I realized just what kind of job he had in mind the creepy bastard - was even worse because I knew that he was married with kids! After he said that we decided that we definitely had to go straight away and so off we went to Dharamsala. We were in a car for over 14 hours with three chains smokers who insited on smoking all the time with the windows up because it was too cold! Was about to kill them all by the end of the trip and luckily made it the room before screaming (just!).

We are now in Dharamsala, the home of the Dalai Lama and we are loving it here! Will write more about it in my next log!

Gallery: Gulmarg

clarinette — Sat, 2 Dec 2006 00:41:00 GMT

Gallery: Gagangir, Kashmir

clarinette — Sat, 2 Dec 2006 00:07:00 GMT

Gallery: Srinagar, Kashmir

clarinette — Fri, 1 Dec 2006 23:52:00 GMT

Gallery: A kashmiri Wedding

clarinette — Fri, 1 Dec 2006 23:38:00 GMT

Gallery: Dijon

clarinette — Tue, 7 Nov 2006 02:30:00 GMT

Gallery: Normandie

clarinette — Tue, 7 Nov 2006 02:11:00 GMT

Gallery: Paris

clarinette — Tue, 7 Nov 2006 01:42:00 GMT

Gallery: Machu Picchu

clarinette — Tue, 7 Nov 2006 01:08:00 GMT

Gallery: Cuzco and surrounds

clarinette — Tue, 7 Nov 2006 00:36:00 GMT

Gallery: Uyuni

clarinette — Mon, 6 Nov 2006 20:43:00 GMT