What's Sy up to these days?

Bye Bye India

sronb — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 00:21:00 GMT

The moment has finally come. When I was sat at the airport, on the plane, the first few days back at the beginning of September this seemed so far away. And I guess it was.

So, for my last week in India I headed across to Pondicherry... did I mention that? Pondicherry is nice, very French,and just in case I didnt mention i, what I was told was a 9 hour 2 bus ride overnight to get there was in fact, a 19 hour 4 bus ride.

Anyway, the real reason I went to Tamil Nadu (the state wot it's in) was to see Auroville, a place I nearly went to 3 weeks earlier instead of Viswadarsanam. It's a model, international town founded in 1967 by two fairly religious hippy types. I was told it was all self sufficient communities, no money everybody pitching in etc., but actually, it's not at all. There's money and profiteering just like everywhere else, the hippies are dying out and the people who live there expect people who visit to pay more for everything. Having said that, there are still a lot of hippies, a different breed to the ones in Goa, they can still remember who they are but nobody cares.

I still had a great time in Auroville (despite the downpours), as yet again I met a really good group of people, and no silly English types! When we went out to Pondicherry on the Saturday night to watch the football (the results of which we won't mention) there was me, an Irishman, a German, an American and a Brazilian. Sounds like the beginning of a very long joke. And the only place we could find that would show the football was Pizza Hut, who don't serve alcohol. So, with 1/2 an hour before the game, we nipped down the road to a bar for a beer, then back for the football. Then again at half time, again at full time, and half timeof the second match. Each time we came back to reclaim our table in front of the bar at Pizza Hut, we ordered our pizza a little louder than the time before.

What else? We played few games of poker, I came a frustrating and incalculably unfortunate third each time (just missing out on the cash, although rupees don't count for much). On the last night, between the restaurant and the poker game, the bike broke on Irish Steve's moped (the rubbish ones we all had) and so I towed him the last 10-15 minutes with him holding the back of mine- a tricky manuvere, but we pulled it off! Half way through, my bike cut out too, although luckily there was still some fuel left in the reserve tank. That was no good when it was time to ride the 2 kilometres through the woods back from a beery poker game (I came third) and my moped wouldn't start. American Zeb and I tried the same thing, although for some reason it didn't work so well, as we kept swerving too close and far away. Then I had the slightly silly idea of hooking the back of my sandal to the back of his moped, cleverly leaving both my hands free to steer. Unfortunately, it also meant that when Zeb wobbled I couldn't stick my leg out, and flopped slowly into the mud. After a while, Zeb noticed and came back for me, although I was good enough not to move until he could see me with the bike on top of me in the road. We got better at it, perfectly sweeping a corner, before I found that the moped would start again andzoomed off. When I finally got back, I realised that we'd both left our bags behind and we had to head off again, me on the back of Zeb's moped. And when we got back to the party, we realised we might as well stay a while longer!

So I made everyone a proper English breakfast to make us feelbetter in the morning.

Then, aftera large lunch, I went and got on a bus to Kochin, and now I'm here, killing time before I head to the airport for my 4am flight. I'm quite looking forward to the flight, nice comfy seat, food and drinks brought to me, a film that's in English- much nicer than the 16 hour journey here!

So, in conclusion to the trip, I've had a swimming whale of a time. People, myself included, have asked me what my favourite place was, my highlight of the trip. It's not a very easy qustion to answer.The Himalayas are beautiful, Rajasthan enchanting, Goa was a lot of fun... but I really have to say it's the people that have made it, and those are the memories I'll take with me. I've had a lot of fun, and made some great friends. You know who you are... no, not you, cocky! I meant everyone else... no really, you've been great. And now I'm looking forward to seeing everybody who weren't here, which is everybody else. I'm also very much looking forward to not eating any fluffy rice that leaves you hungry again an hour later no matter how much you eat, and my first hot shower in 2 1/2 months.

I guess I should also say, India is great.You should come, really. I mean, it a bit smelly and dirty,and thereare infuriatingly stupid cows everywhere, but the people are really nice, except the ones who own shops and rickshaws and try and rip you off, there's an innocence about them and they wear their hearts on their sleeves. When they feel a certain way about something, they really feel that way about it. And they're all a bit mental.

Roger and out

Viswadarsanam

sronb — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 21:09:00 GMT

First of all, It seems that when I've put this up it's gone over the last note I wrote on here- 'Um, still in Goa.' So could someone, ie Mandy, who may have printed out a copy keep hold of it for me please?! Argh!

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Everybody I meet travelling who has a journal starts off writing in it almost everyday and then gives up completely. The unusual becomes ordinary. So even though I haven't written on here for a few weeks, it's not that bad!

But quite a lot has happened since I last wrote on here, so I'll have to get you all up to speed. I left Goa on the 21st November, on an overnight train to Kochin, the largest city in Kerala. I had a few hours to kill there before get a 2 hour train back on myself to Changannur. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I really didn't want to leave Goa! Arambol is really great, and I'd made lots of good friends. For any of you who can make the reference, it felt like Monday morning at Glastonbury. Except that I was the only one leaving! I did think about just spending the rest of my trip there, but I reasoned that I had to leave sooner or later, and it was best to do it with my wallet and my sanity more or less in one piece. There are A LOT of crazy people in Goa. And I felt pretty good about going to volunteer at the charity. Viswadarsanam is a centre that tries to spread awareness of environmental issues in Kerala, and after my travels in the north of India, I thought that was very good cause!

So, a couple of hours to kill in Kochin. I had some breakfast and then walked down to the harbour though a maze of cottage industries and wholesalers. Walked straight past the ferry stop, then found it about half an hours later. Bizarrely, there's a little shop called 'The Ken Livingstone Cafe'. Apparently, the owner had seen him on TV and decided he liked him. So I got the 20 minute ferry over to old Fort Kochin, took a (very) quick look at the outside of a couple of 16th century churches then decided that lunch was a bit more important. Chatted to some Americans in a little cafe for a while, one of them showed me the old cantilevered Chinese fishing nets on the dock. With 45minutes until my train I said goodbye and went to catch the ferry back. It took me about 10 minutes after getting there and discovering I'd missed the ferry to realise my watch was about half an hour slow. It stopped completely in another hour.

So I had to get a later train. By the time I arrived (I borrowed somebody's phone on the train to ring ahead) my lift had gone and I had to get a taxi, arriving at about 10pm. First impressions of the centre were a little concerning. It was very small, with very few buildings, just a guest's room, an office, another outbuilding and the main house. Viswardarasanam is run by Umesh Babu, a short but large-bearded man, who lives at the centre with his wife Janee, a Keralan couple in their late 50s. That first night, sat in their kitchen, conversation was forced and intermittent, and Umesh seemed a little aggrieved about a mix up of train times which meant he'd waited at the station for ages that afternoon. There were no other volunteers. That night I went to bed wondering what the next month was going to be like, and wondering if I was going to stay.

The first few days, I was constantly asking Umesh what I could do to help, and would eventually be given a small task which would be finished in half an hour, I would then just be told to just 'relax, read a book.' There was no functioning computer, so most of the work could not be done, and they were also replacing the roof of the 'activity room' the other outbuilding, so I couldn't do anything in there either. After a few days, I had a bit of a go, asking why nothing was ready before I'd arrived, and he told me that there had been no money before I'd arrived so nothing could be done. I should also mention that due to diabetes, Umesh had lost much of his eyesight in the last 6 months, and could no longer read or write for himself. So I decided to do as much as I could before another volunteer arrived from London in 2 weeks, and then go to Auroville as I had originally planned. Well, I wasn’t sure how long I’d stay to start with, or what I’d do, but after a week that was the final plan. Auroville is a group of around 40 self-sufficient communities just outside Pondicherry. It was founded in the 60s, and now has a permanent population of around 1400 people from all over the world.

So I did what I could in that first week, preparing for the next week’s ‘One day outdoor nature school’ visits by 2 groups of local school children by going into the nearby town of Pathanamthitta to use the computer and doing what I could at the site. I also helped Umesh with correspondence and some promotional work. After a few days I met Sherif, Umesh’s part-time helper, and the three of us went on a boat trip on a nearby fresh water lake. When I told Umesh I was going to leave at the end of the next week, while we were having lunch in another town where I was working on the computer, he didn’t take the news that well, but then we were soon having the best conversation we’d had since I got there, laughing and joking, and we actually started to like each other.

Over the next week, we took a business/pleasure trip to the capital of Kerala, Trivandrum, as well as trips to the elephant camp (horrible), a Lion’s Club meeting, which I found myself addressing (!), a tea plantation and factory (which was brilliant) and I went to see a Bollywood movie at the cinema the night we were waiting to pick up the new volunteer, Prakesh, from the airport. I couldn’t understand hindi, and Umesh couldn’t see the screen, so between us we got all of it! I liked it though, it was the big hit at the moment – ‘Om Shanti Om’, very expensively made, just like Hollywood, and they through in some English in important places, so I could follow the (very silly) story just fine. With Prakesh, we spent a night on a boat on the famous Keralan Backwaters as well. During the night, Umesh had breathing problems and had to go to hospital, but he was fine and rejoined us in the morning. The same day I, who had been recently boasting of my miraculously good health while I’d been traveling, was ill. However, it wasn’t the famous ‘Delhi Belly’ that everybody gets, just a really bad cold that put me on the sofa for the rest of the day.

During that second week, there was also an incident in a rickshaw. I was sharing one from outside Viswadrasanam to Pathanamthitta, which I’m proud to say I could pronounce well enough by then for most of the locals to understand me, with two locals who were already in it. Umesh had delayed me by an hour or so, so I was going on ahead of him and thought I’d get a rickshaw rather than the bus to get there quicker. There was a small driver, a tall bloke sat next to me, and a crazy beardy religious type the tall bloke kept making gestures at to me to indicate how crazy and beardy he was. All three tried to talk to me all at once in Malayalam, nothing unusual there, But then the driver stops half way in a small town and asks me where I want to go. I told him again, same as the other two, to Pathanamthitta, and showed him the name of the town on some letters I had with me. He tried to snatch at the letters, and then the tall bloke was snatching it back, and then the two of them were arguing, getting in and out of the little rickshaw, shouting and giving each other little slaps in the face. Before long all the other rickshaw drivers nearby where getting involved too. I tried to get in another rickshaw, but then the argument followed me. I still had no idea what it was about, and then the little driver tried to tell people that I’D slapped him. He was obviously really drunk. After a while, somebody found somebody who spoke English, and I was in another rickshaw, alone, to Pathanamthitta. It was all pretty funny, and cheered me up a bit after getting a bit frustrated at the delays! And when I finally got to thje town, Umesh and Sherif were already waiting outside the internet café for me!

When I left the centre on Sunday night, a little more than 2 weeks after arriving, I was actually pretty sad to be leaving. The days with the school kids there had been great fun. They always started out to shy to talk to me, but ended up not leaving me alone. For some reason I ended up singing the national anthem to both groups! But after that, they were much more comfortable with me. By the end I was really find of Umesh, and we were always chatting and making each other laugh. Sherif too was great, and when Prakesh arrived it was nice to have another native English speaker to talk to, and we got on well. Janee was nice, but I always found her more polite than friendly. I got a lot out of it in the end, it was good to be totally emersed in the culture and away from all other tourists, although I don’t think I can eat rice again for a while! I didn’t get any better at eating rice and curry sauce with my hand either. I think I left at the right time- I had a good last week as we tried to fit everything in before I left, and since there wasn’t really enough work for one person, I can’t imagine what it would be like with two.

The coast-to-coast journey from Kerala to Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu, was supposed to be an overnight coach journey of 8 hours to a town I couldn’t remember the name of (it was Coinbatore), then a half hour local bus to Pondicherry, which I was assured the driver would help me catch. I should have looked at the map, or remembered the name of the town so I could look at the map, because Coinbatore was not even half way. The whole journey from Kerala took me 4 buses, and 19 hours. There’s no direct train line on the way back (I’m flying from Kochin) but I’ll try and sort something better out, since I’ll be straight onto a long flight.

Pondicherry is really nice, very French-colonial, and I decided last night to spend the day here, sort out my travel arrangements, write on here and go to Auroville tomorrow morning. So that just about brings you up to speed! I guess this is the penultimate message, the last will probably be written on the way back through here or Kochin, at an airport, or even in South Africa. Very strange to be returning to the real world, and to be starting to go through what I’ve seen in so many people I’ve been traveling with who’ve gone home while I’ve stayed. Until then!

Gallery: Up to Goa

sronb — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 19:25:00 GMT

Lots of different things!

Going, going, Goa

sronb — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 18:15:00 GMT

Well yet again it seems like I've done far too much since I last wrote on here, I hope nothing gets missed out. So last time I wrote I was in Jaisalmer, seems like ages ago now. Everything got a bit hectic for a while after that, as I thought it might.

After updating this I spent the afternoon chatting to a couple of really nice young Indian guys, had some dinner with them then went to the station. Overnight train to Jodphur, arrived very early, so asked to be taken to somewhere I could watch the sunrise. Ended up on the roof of a hotel (driver wanted some comission, as usual), and watched the
sun come up over the clutter of blue houses around me. A lot of the houses in Jodphur are blue, originally it was just the brahmin (priest caste) but now it seems just about everybody has got involved, which is why it is known as the blue city. Jaipur is the pink city (sorry Jeni, it's horrible!) and Jaisalmer is the golden city, both because of the colour of the sandstone used to make them. That hotel wanted far too much to rent me a dusty cupboard with a bed in it for the day to leave my bag in, so I wandered along and found a nicer one.

The manager was called Poonam (which means 'full moon', because he was born under one, but unfortunately this is also what the Indians call bald people, so sometimes when he introduces himself people take offence!), and because I only had the day I paid the extra money and went on a drive around all the sights of the city with him. He was really good company, and I loved Jodphur, really beautiful and the fort was the most impressive I've seen, a real medieval fort and palace. I had dinner with Mette and Stilte, two really nice Danish girls I met on the tour, then had to get an autorickshaw to the bus stop, which I had been told by the waiter was two kilometres away, but it turned out I was going to a different one. I had fifteen minutes, they told me in it would take ten, but after 25 minutes we were still driving around, them asking directions (they even drove to the agency that organised the bus!), me asking how far away we are, them replying in hindi 'das (ten) minutes' and me going 'Das?! Go! Go! Go!' (I've been learning to count in Hindi). Anyway, the bus was still the (just) when I rolled up 15 minutes late, so I was on my way in a very uncomfortable and dusty air-conditionless coach.

Arriving in Ahmedabad I couldn't get hold of Harsh, but eventually he picked up and I got a taxi to his home and met his family. I spent the day with Harsh, Mahul, and his family and friends, we visited Gandhi's ashram, which was very simple and humbling, and returned to the house in the afternoon. They were all really, really nice and I had one of my nicest days in India, would like to be able to stop off here again as part of another trip and spend more time with everybody. I wasn't able to spend the night because there was a festival on and everything was booked up, so I had to get another overnight bus (mmm... air-conditioning) to Mumbai or I would still be there.

Mumbai is a typical Indian city, huge and hectic, and although I didn't see everything there is to see, a day was more than long enough. Dropped my bag off at the Salvation Army hostel, then thought I'd book my train quickly before breakfast (even though it was now about 1pm). The walk to the station wasn't 20 mins, it was about 40, in the heat of the day, and then I was in there for about an hour and a half, and had to queue at 5 different windows, partly because I was told I couldn't pay in rupees without a receipt for changing the currency, which I then found I could. Feeling a bit grumpy, I splashed out 900 rupees on lunch at Thandulkar's (cricket player's restaurant), which was very nice, I had Bombay Duck (when in Rome...) which isn't made of duck at all, just fried fish. Spent the afternoon in the museum of modern art, which was great, then got another overnight train to Goa, which made it 4 nights in a row on bus or train!

In Goa I soon met Max and Lesley, honeymooners from Bournemouth, Stefan from Germany, Nick from London, Northern Irish Emma and Angie, David from Edinburgh, and Tamara and Tess from Holland. It's been a really fun few days with a great bunch of people, first in Anjuna and now in Palolem. Anjuna was supposed to be busy and Palolem quiet, but it's the other way around. Spending a bit too much money here, going back to Anjuna on Wednesday probably. Sadly Stefan had to go home the night before last so now it's just the rest of us. The dutch girls, Stefan, Nick and me went for a swim at four in the morning the other day, which was awesome, although I did think I'd lost my passport for a bit!

Managed to find a firestick too, whoopee! Met a Belorussian called Serge who's staying in Anjuna, I'm going to teach him firestick and he's going to teach me fire-knunchucks! I've got a feeling I'm going to hit myself with them a lot!

That's about all the news for now, that took ages but it kept me out of the midday heat. Going to go buy some more vests and shorts now, it's too hot for t-shirts and pants!

Love and that, bye!

Trains, dust, camels and less tigers than a petting zoo

sronb — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:47:00 GMT

Hello again everybody, and me when I read this at some point in the future.

Not so long since the last one as last time, so pat on the back for me. I'm in Jaisalmer at the moment, a place that no Indian person seems to understand when I try to say it, even though when they finally understand where I mean, they say it just the same as I just did.

From Amritsar I travelled overnight to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan and big noisy city. A bit like Delhi, you can't walk more than 10 feet without somebody trying to sell you something- 'Hello my friend! Which county you from? England! Very nice country! How long you in India?' etc. Everytime its exactly the same conversation. Its pretty annoying, as they won't leave you alone and you're constantly harassed.

Despite this, I still had many enjoyable moments in Jaipur. I travelled down with Yoav and Liat from Israel (which easily outnumbers every other nationality), and who I promised last night that they would have a whole paragraph about them. So here it is guys! We took an autorickshaw sightseeing in the afternoon, saw the old obseratory with its weird constructions and the magnificent Amber Fort. I will put some photos up on here as soon as I get a better internet connection.

Then I caught an early train to Ranthampore National Park to go on tiger safari- after much queueing I had a place in a 6 seat open top jeep in the afternoon and again in the morning- at about 7 pounds a pop! Didn't manage to see a tiger (after the monsoon it's too overgrown), but still had a really great time. In the evening I met a group of students from Ahmedabad (prompting te usual surrounding, questions and lots and lots of photos). They were really nice and took me outside the lodge they were staying in to watch a BBC documentary filmed in the park organised as part of their trip. I've arranged to have the day with one of them (although maybe all of them!) in Ahmedabad on Friday.

After this excitment and having not got much sleep the night before, I went back across the road to the small local restaurant I had eaten in earlier, who had a room I had agreed to take, since it was much cheaper then everywhere else. There were a group of locals in the room next door, and one of them asked me to come in as they wanted to play me a song. Soon they were all playing and singing, I know at least 2 were professional musicians and 1 also taught harmonium. I ended up staying up quite a bit longer, and even though most of them didn't speak any English, they were so talented and friendly it was one of the highlights of my trip. The next day (after not seeing any tigers) a bought one of their percussion instruments from them (called Kertan) and they gave me lunch. I also managed to have a bit of firestick practice with a staff that was left in my room, although it wasn't ideal. When I left, the harmonium teacher even said I was his big brother and gave me a small bottle of Indian aftershave called 'Super Havoc!' Watch out ladies!

After an overnight train from Jaipur to Jaisalmer (which was really, really awful- hot and dusty. It was 3 days ago and I still woke up coughing this morning!) I met up with Yoav and Liat again, and along with Audrey and Anais (Switzerland) and Aya (Australia) we went on a 2 day/1 night camel trek through the desert, which was really fun. My camel was called Victor (I was a little dismayed that he already had a name, as I was going to name him after Jeebo), and he was absolutely huge, easily the biggest. It was a bit like riding a smelly giraffe! We slept open air by the dunes, after rolling down them and taking loads of photos of the sunset.

Said goodbye to the guys last night, they're on their way to Jodphur the same as me but they got here a day before me and its so pretty I couldn't leave without a proper look around. Its a massive sandstone fort rising up out of the desert, full of grand old buildings and a warren of alleyways.

So, overnight train tonight (air con carriage this time) to Jodphur (where the riding trousers come from!), then again overnight to Ahmedabad, stay with Harsh, then overnight to Mumbai (Bombay), then a quick look around before another overnighter to Goa, where I'm going to stay a few weeks. Woo! Looking forward to it after travelling around so much, and the beach and sun will be nice after the cool of the mountains. Going to have my look around now, can't go out in the middle of the day, too hot!

Thanks to everybody who has left any comments on here, it's really nice to hear from you even it doesn't seem to be a way of replying (hope you've recovered Binners!)

Byedeebye bye bye

As far as Amritsar

sronb — Wed, 3 Oct 2007 16:50:00 GMT

Hello again

Well, first of all, sorry for it being so long since I've updated this, I've got tons of excuses I can make up if you like, but really I just haven't got round to it. I'm now in Amritsar with a keyboard perched on my knee and a couple of hours until I have to get an autorickshaw to the station for my train to Jaipur. (leaves at 2.30, gets in at 9 tomorrow morning, but I get a bed).

The result of me not updating this for ages, is I've now got a hell of a lot to write, and you've got a hell of a lot to read. I feel sorry for both of us, but many for me, since you can give up and go and watch telly if you get bored, and I can't. So we'll break it up into chunks to make it easier for everyone. No photos today because I've got no battery in my camera, but soon. (promise!)

Prologue

In my last story on here that actualy I did have some news, I just forgot to mention it. Tim and I took a trip to a local castle out of Manali on the local bus, but when we got there it was more like a big house. It was very nice and pretty though, and we took lots of pictures etc. However, the real fun was on the way back when there were no seats left on the bus, and so I had the fantastic idea of riding on top, Indian-style. (sorry Mum, won't do it again!) It just so happened that on this bus we were the only two people doing it, and so we got a few surprised looks and a bit of laughter from the locals as we went through the villiages. We decided that the higher up off the ground you are, the better mood you're in, as most people on the ground wqouldn't wave back, and everybody on top of vehicles and buildings thought we were hilarious. This theory was confirmed by somebody on a balcony, half way up, giving us a half smile and an unsure wave. Which was nice.

Chapter 1

Um, what hapended then? Oh yeah, Shimla (not mentioning football). Had a great couple of days there, met a french girl called Anais who was teaching there, and an Indian guy called Belal. Went on a day trek with them and a few others, including Shane from Canada who got me quite interested in teaching english abroad. (quite a lot of money for not a lot of work!). We saw a really nice waterfall and the old palace of the Viceroy, will put some pictures on here soon. Then said goodbye to Tim and headed on to McLeod Ganj (Dharamsala), sat next to a cool Columbian guy called Guillermo on the bus was was heading for Panthankot.

Chaper 2

will be longer than chapter 1. Had hardly been in McLeod Ganj 5 minutes whan I met Rose, from North East India near the Myanmar border, and Ledoe, a local. Spent the next few days there with them, some of Rose's friends came up from Delhi. Ended up staying there longer than planned since there was a teaching with the Dalai Lama on the first of October, and I'd finally managed to find people who liked staying up and drinking beer. Went for a couple of nice walks, a nice waterfall (where, bizarrely, we ate supernoodles), and equally strangely went on the paddle boats on a lake half way up a mountain.

On the thursday, actually bumped into swomebody I met in Nottingham 2 months ago (Anybody who went to the Chill in the park remember meeting lyrikool lipz after? Jeebo you've met him before because he beat you in the beatboxing champs!) which was really weird and freaked us both out for a bit.

Also had some Indian cookery lessons- learned to make mater paneer, spicy veg, dal, garlic naan, chapati and butter chicken, which is really, really nice. No doubt some of you will get to sample the fruits of my talents at some point!

On the last day went to the teachings with the Dalai Lama. It was really packed, but I had a good seat beacuse I got woken up at 5.15 by some noisy french-speaking Indians in my hotel. The teachings were interesting, but had spoke in tibetan was was translated into english over fm radio, so I wasn't so much listening to him speak as the translater, who was a little monotone and hard to follow. All good though, and then later that afternoon bumped into Guillermo (had alreay said goodbye to Rose et al)- another strange coincidence! It turns out Guillermo quite likes drinking beer too, and just as I was about to leave the bar at an almost sensible time (had to be up at 3.30 to get the bus), bumped into a brother and sister from Totnes (Devon) and didn't get back until after 12, when I still had to do some untidy packing before setting my alarm for 3.45 and falling asleep. Just made the bus, slept on the first one (30 mins), then tried to sleep on the second, long distance one, but had a really crap seat at the front, where I had my knees strapped up to my chest and was shaken until my liver hurt. Relocated to the back and slept for 2 hours with my head vibrating against the window.

Chapter 3

Arrived in Amritsar (Punjab) earlier than I thought, so had time to head straight to the Golden Temple (which is literally covered in gold). Felt tired, hungry and out of place for a bit, felt like people were staring a bit too much, but after an hour or so and some free dal, chapati and rice in the temple canteen felt much better, and realised that most people here are actually incredably friendly. REALLY friendly. In fact, walking through the alleys of the textile market nearby, and around the streets and temples, everybody (especially kids) keeps coming up and saying hello (the only English word they know) and shaking my hand. At the border someone (a bloke) asked for my phone number, and one family even took a picture of their child meeting me. LAst night I was also surrounded by about 20 Punjabi youths ouside the temple, all asking me questions about England, mainly to do with girls and cricket, and then wanting me to come and stay at their house and party with them when they heard I was going to spend the night in the temple dorm. Sounds a bit suspect when I write it doen, but they were all really nice, again will put a picture on when I can. It's like being a celebrity, except that no-one knows your name (or can pronounce it).

Went to the India/Pakistan border closing ceremony last night, was really good fun, hundreds of people watching from the stands, lots of cheering, flag waving and theatrical marching and stamping by the soldiers. Even managed to sit in the VIP area! Still a bit too far away for decent photos though, its a really strange specticle given the political tensions between the two countries.

Epilogue

Which takes us up to today. Not much has happened today really, slept for absolutely ages on a bed that was really just a blanket on a raised piece of wood, had some breakfast and then struggled to find a working internet cafe. This actually didn't take that long, so have an hour to kill unitl its time to get the train. Could just ramble on like this for a bit... no, you've read enough already, although there's probablt a lot of stuff I've forgotten. Did you know in Tibet they put butter in their tea? It's not very nice.

Take care everybody, bye for now.

Not where I thought I'd be

sronb — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 23:23:00 GMT

Good evening ladies and gentlemen

Not going to be such a long one tonight, which is a curse or a blessing depending on how much you like reading these and whether or not you get round to finishing them. The reason is.... I haven't really done much. One thing worth mentioning though is that, contrary to what I said last time, I haven't been to Dhamamsala. I got half way, after a 10 hour bus ride to Keylong, where I stayed the night. Then we (Tim was with me) got to the bus station at 5, as advised, and were told by the man in a slightly patronising tone that the 'direct' bus to Dharamsala was at 11, and to come back at 10 to get a ticket. A bit more sleep and some samosas were had, and then we bought our tickets. We were then told that the bus went via Menali, where it would arrive at 5, and then wouldn't get to Dharamsala until 4 in the morning the next day, so I thought 'sod this, I'm getting off at Menali.'

Menali was nice, still in the Himalayas but much greener than Leh, Hindu rather than Buddhist, and an old school hippy hangout. However, there's not much to do in the area except trek (which I didn't fancy again just yet after last time), so after a few days we took another 10 hour bus ride to Shimla, where we arrived last night.

Shimla was the summer capital of the Raj, and it's quite surreal being surrounded by old English-style buildings covered in monkeys. Now it's an Indian tourism and honeymoon destination, and its quite nice to be able to experience the more affluent, middle-class side of India as well as what I've seen so far. Having said that, you don't have to walk far off the main street to return to 'normality'.

Anyway, I have one more day here, when I think I'm going to have to watch the Chelsea v Man Utd game by myself in my room, (nobody here cares about anything but cricket!) and then I am going to Dharamsala. Definately. It's 10 hours on the bus again, seems like all the major Himalayan towns are exactly the same distance apart for some reason. Answers on a postcard.

Roger and out

PS I posted some photos on here the other day, just in case you didn't notice.

Gallery: Leh

sronb — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 23:16:00 GMT

A few photos from the first couple of weeks

I've taken just as many yak photos in Nottingham

sronb — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 15:21:00 GMT

Hello again. Pretty sure I can remember where I left off last time so here we go.

Repeated my day trek/excursion to Saboo with Tim, Johann and Hem (London med student), because it was so nice they wanted to see it and because I had nothing better to do.

Also had a couple of meals with those three with a ridiculous amount of food- everything is so cheap everybody ends up ordering loads and sharing with everybody else- the other night we had 4 kinds of curry, and 5 kinds of bread- and more than one portion of most of the bread! We actually had to send one back. And all for about 1 pound 25 each!

Don't think I mentioned the the language here is Ladakhi, and they have the same word for hello, goodbye, please and thank you - julay. Which makes it pretty easy really, although Julie, if you ever come, I expect everything to get pretty confusing!

Also, they have the most amazing road signs telling you to slow down here- our favourites are:

-Don't be a gambler in the land of the lama

-Be mr late not late mr

The fantastic

-I like you darling, but not so fast

And a new favourite we saw yesterday

-Don't gossip, let him drive

Somehow I don't think they'd get away with that one in the UK!

Anyway, last time I wrote I mentioned Johann and I were sorting a trek. We managed to join one at short notice leaving the next morning, and despite saying he never wanted to trek again, Tim decided to join us (just like I said he would!). It was a trek through the mountains to a salt lake called Tso Kar. We were planning originally to go to the Nubra [green] Valley, which is supposed to be very beautiful and feel more like central asia than india or the himalayas, but we were assured by the very knowledgable-seeming man that this was also very beautiful, and we were having some difficulty sorting the Nubra Valley trip.

Already signed up for the trip were Jerry, a med student from Belgium, and Becky, a staff nurse from London. Quite why there are so many medical people in India, I don't know. Funny since there are so many Indians in the medical proffesion in the UK... Anyway, it was a 2-3 hour jeep ride to the start of the trek, and after breakfast and lots of tea, we set off in high spirits at the bottom of a valley. After a bit it started to rain. Then it started to snow. Then it started to hail. I was trying to think of other kinds of things that could fall on us while we finished the 4 hour trek of the first day. Me and Johann developed a new catchphase- 'I'm so glad I bought this'- we both bought bit fleecy, woolly coats in Leh before we came, and I am still really glad I bought it. That evening we all huddled inside the communal tent, fighting for space by the stove for out wet boots, clothes and bodies.

In the morning the sky was clear and we could enjoy the amazing scenary a bit more. We climbed the first pass of the day (something like 4400 metres) which was really, really hard, and collapsed at the top. By the time we reached the second pass (4700m) it was snowing and blowing again, everyone was suffering with the altitude- as soon as you started off from a rest, you felt you needed another one. My. legs. were. so. heavy. At the top we collapsed again, and amusingly, Johann fell asleep. When we made our way down from that pass, everybody developed splitting headaches from over-excursion, under-nourishment, dehydration and altitude sickness. We wandered through a herd of yaks, and I couldn't even be bothered to take a picture (and I took 151 pictues on the 3 day trek!). I was expecting a gentle potter though some pretty valleys, not an endurance event! Money, our Nepalese guide, and the pony men really looked after us though, and the food was really nice. Money even managed to make a cake!

The next day was tough, but not as bad as the day before, and by the time we reached the jeep we were all pretty knackered again. We drove to the lake, took a picture, and started off on the 5 hour drive home. Which, incidentally, was brilliant- the road went over the second highest mountain pass in the world! And even better, we didn't fall off the side off the road!

Bolognese and sleep last night, a wash this morning (somebody borrowed the water heater from my guest house while I was away and I had to borrow a bucket full from the owner's sister next door).

Tomorow I'm getting the bus to Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama lives, which takes about 24h or so. Yippee! Think it'll be ok actually, and Tim's coming too. Only planning on spending a couple of days there, then will head to Shimla, summer home of the British Raj, for a bit.

Will be back in touch in another week or so, hopefully will be able to show you some photos soon. I've noticed you can subscribe to this as an RSS feed if you know how, which I don't, so you'll have to ask someone who does if you want to.

Bye Bye

From landing to Leh

sronb — Sat, 8 Sep 2007 20:36:00 GMT

Hello everybody! This is the first of what should be more or less weekly updates (I hope), and I think it's the best way of keeping in touch with you all at once, no need to repeat myself so I can go in to a lot more detail. No photos on here as yet, as this town only has a sateilite internet connection and nowhere will let you upload. I have got some amazing photos though!

So lets get you up to speed... Landed in Delhi on Monday, straight to hotel, which was ok. Thought I on the main street of Paharganj (traveller area) but was actually a few streets away- didn't find out until day 2, so didn't see anyone the first night (ate in dark, underground bar). Arranged to go to Agra to see Taj Mahal on the second day, because you've got to really haven't you? and I'm not planning on heading back to Delhi, which, to be honest, isn't that nice. Was told when I booked it there would be others on the trip, but found out in the morning it was just me and Khrisna, the driver in a small hatchback. He was nice enough, but didn't speak much English. The Taj was impressove, but then got taken by Khrishna and my guide to different places who tried to get me to buy things I didn't want. The ride was pretty cool there and back though- crazy driving- it's not even who's car is in front for who has right of way, they just go if they think the other car has time to brake!

That night I found a bar on the main strip and soon bumped into a Londoner called Chris and his three local friends. It was really nice to be able to have a conversation with someone, and we ended up having quite a lot of beer, and the staff waiting for us to leave at the end of the night. I was in a good enough mood (and pissed enough) not to mind that I had to get up for my flight to Leh in 2 1/2 hours!

The flight into Leh, at dawn over the Himalayas, was the most amazing flight I've ever had. I've got some incredible photos, despite being told to stop it twice because it's a military area and photography is not allowed! Everybody was doing it... it you only get chances like that once!

At the airport in Delhi I met Alice (from London) and when we landed we met Olivier (from Belgium). Both of them are really, really nice, and we went and found ourselves a guest house together. It was a bit of a trek (Leh is the highest inhabited place in the world and the air is really thin... and I needed a wee), but we found ourselves one called Sabila, where Efor (sic) told us to name our price for a room. We said 100 rupees (about 1.25 pounds) and he said yes, so we have the cheapest rooms in town. He's the niceest guy in the world, soon we were all drinking tea in his living room with Nick (USA) and he was helping us plan our stay. Olivier came to India just to trek, and was planning a solo 25 day solo mission, so on the second day (a bit soon with the altitiude, but Alice only had a couple of days) we went for a 5 hour trek over the mountains, to the most beautiful Gunpa (buddist temple) I've seen and back. I'll get some photos on here as soon as I can. Just to show that we'd overdone it a bit Alice was ill that night, but she felt better by the morning and we hired a taxi with Tim (also from London) to go around some of the local Gunpas. We wanted to get some scooters, but that fell through when they wouldn't let us drive their manual bikes).

Last night we just chilled and drank tea (I am drinking more tea than you can imagine). To give you an idea of what Leh is like, the people are incredably friendly, giving you free taxi rides etc and everything is really relaxed, the mountains are amazing. The food is really nice and you can have a meal for about 50p - 1.50 It's really cool, but can't stay too long as meeting Charlotte from work in Goa in October, and going to spend a month at a self-sufficient commune in Tamil Nadu that Nick told me about at the end of the trip (he's on his way back there), so have only about 4-6 weeks to do everything I want to do in the North. At the beginning of the week 3 1/2 months seemed like such a long time to be away, and now it doesn't feel like long enough!

Said goodbye to Alice last night (it was then just me in the guest house, even Efor was away for a few days!), only to be awoken at 3.30 with her at the door. She'd been walking down to the bus station and been bitten by a stray dog, so we had to wait a couple of hours playing cards until sunrise (Efor's sister next door told me there were no taxis and the hospital didn't open until 10.30) and get a taxi to the hospital, which it turns out was open all along. The cleaned up the bites and she had all her jabs, so she's here for another day, limping quite bad and unable to sit properly but ok. Seems the dogs are a bit of a problem here, as they are all buddist and so won't do anything to harm them.) As a side note, the streets are also full of wandering stray cows and donkeys, which is a bit weird. We're going with Tim and Yohan (Munich) to watch a polo match in about half an hour. (forgot to mention the Ladahki (local area) festival is on at the moment, saw some some cool dancing the first night!)

So, should be here for another week or so, planning on a 5 day or so trek (prob with Yohan and others) and probably some white water rafting with Yohan and Tim as well. Then going to Utar Pradesh for similar stuff, then probably Rajasthan and Varanesi if I've got time.

Hope you are all well, as you can tell I'm having a great time, missing everyone though, thinking about you all a lot.

Ta Ta for now