India 2008 and beyond

Oh my gods!

2009-02-12T23:29:00.000-08:00

So, not that I'm turning hindu all of a sudden, but I think it's a rather awesome religion.

It's one of the worlds oldest religions and is completely non-organised and unofficial and is the predominant religion of the Indian sub-continent. It has, however no definitons and no founder between the many branches of hinduism practiced by over 900 million people in the region.

Do you ever have to que to go to church at home? No. that is just silly.

But you do have to frequently que to get into one of the thousands of temples that are spread across the land. From little concrete boxes with a poster of Vishnu to a 6 foot statue of Ganesh in ancient old heritage, UNESCO sites.

A simplified summary of the main themes of Hinduism, although very fuzzy edged, are:

Dharma - ethics/duties. Can be translated to "law" or "the teachings of the Buddha"

Samsāra - The ever continuing cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth

Karma - We all know karma, our action and subsequent reaction

Moksha - liberation from samsara, the release from a worldly existence

Yogas - of infinite practices from meditated hyperventilating through your nostrils to no less than athletics!

So although there are hundreds and hundreds of deities they are not actually "individual gods". They are, rather, different representations of particular aspects of the one god, the creator known as Brahman.

So here are a few of my favourites and the more well known ones.

The Three Infinities:

Brahma, who grew in a lotus of the naval of the sleeping Vishnu.

however, he is The Creator, and we can thank him for the daily alteration of day and night.

Vishnu is The Preserver and protector of creation, He is an emodiment of mercy and goodness. He also maintains the cosmic order of Dharma.

Shiva is The Destroyer and basically follows Brahma and Vishnu around destroying the earth which Brahma tirelessly recreates. He is responsible for both negative change such as death and destruction but also in the positive sense of new beginnings and shedding old habits. I like him, he's crazy.

Ganesh is the Remover of All Obstacles and lord of existing beings. Shiva, creator or, you could say, father, cut off his head after Ganesh forbade him entry to see Parvati, one of Shiva's lady friends. He later replaced ganesh's head with an elephant head as the was the only thing available!

Goddess Sarasvati is the wife or Consort of Brahma and possesses the powers of speech, wisdom and learning. She has four hands representing four aspects of human personality in learning; mind, intellect, alertness and ego.

Lakshmi is the Consort of Lord Vishnu and is the goddess of Wealth, purity, chastity and generosity. Many businesses in India you will see ("Lakshmi Saris - best material in town!" etc) are named after Lakshmi for good luck.

Kerala continued

2009-02-12T22:15:00.000-08:00

So, after a long time with no blog activity it's pretty damn daunting to try and catch up but I will try in dribs and drabs!
I will start where i left off. In the most affluent, most highly educated and most successful communist state in India: Kerala.
I think the backwaters is in that book "1001 things to see and do before you die" or something along those lines. So of course we did. We stayed around just long enough to do the touristy things that books tell you are nice and touristy. Sometimes when travelling you do get drawn into the tourist traps because, even if you're a self catagorised "traveller" or "backpacker" who wears local clothing and only eats in the small back alley cheap places where no-one speaks a word of English... You are really just a glorified tourist. That is how the locals do, and always will, see a foreigner. Also, as we found in Tamil Nadu, a neighbouring state of Kerala, the off-beaten track isn't always so great. In fact, sometimes travelling in these less-frequented-by-tourist-places makes you want to hit the vacant faced tamil bus conducter who has just pushed you off his bus because your bag is too big.

So Kerala is nice and touristy.
So are the backwaters. Although the ethnic, serene and sunny canals peppered with palm trees and old leathery fishermen are no less than breath-takingly idylic, I, personally, found it difficult to ignore all the other pink faced, cannon weilding "travellers" gliding quietly past you. All of us trying, almost viciously, to imagine we are the only foreigners to have found this exotic and undiscovered land.
The locals think it's funny, to them the backwaters are just their neighbourhoods. the canals their streets and the canoes their bicycles. It's probably the equivalent of a whole load of strange foreigners cruising down the back streets of Leith on the handlebars of some-ones bike.

The tourism was different, it definately doesn't cater to budget backpackers and many people we met there were older, more affluent travellers who hired private drivers. It's hard to budget. I felt kind of out of place, coming from Om Beach in Gokarna with my baby dreadlocks and Aladin pants. It was a bit of a culture shock after months and months of living in the fake little hippy enclaves full of djembi drums, old dutch men/rastafariens, plastic seated cafe huts and fried rice for 50p.
In kerala it was either the pretty basic dhabas or the strictly for tourist places with, granted, awesome food and atmosphere but a rather prestigious, colonial feel where the bow tie clad waiters, calling everyone "madam" and "sir" (I am not a madam!) were so intensely focused on looking posh it took several attempts before they saw you were waving.
It was beautiful and very easy to travel in Kerala but I've never felt more like a "tourist".
Bite size chunks of their culture are whitled down and served on overly authentic platters. The Kathakali dance, one of the major attractions in Kerala and a deeply imbedded part of the culture and religion is shortened from a deeply symbolic, 12 hour religious ritual - usually reserved for hindu festivals - to a half hour, visually pleasing dancy thing where all we really understand is the shiny costumes and crazy face paints.

whatever, it was pretty awesome and was a nice little rest before the crazy stress inducing adventures to follow... dot dot dot

My spots!

2009-01-19T04:44:00.000-08:00

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My new stick

2009-01-17T06:57:00.000-08:00

I'm getting a bit over excited about this but I just bought this stick today and it's amazing.
Basically it's a tribal instrument from the Uttar Pradesh region up North and it's a hollow bamboo stick, about one meter long.
You swing it with an intricate twist of your hand and it makes the most beautiful whistling sound that varies by how fast and in which direction you swing it in.
It's called a wind flute and I'm going to attempt to travel to the other end of india with it in my guitar case.

Oh yeah, and my guitar, it's not so happy.
It was already pretty crappy, i bought it second hand from a guy in Macleod Ganj but I'm going to try and make it back to his shop before I leave india and be like "cheeers, here's your guitar back, sorry about the various scratches, dents and mysterious cracks..."

It's all music to my ears.

Oh, I'm also pretty stoked right now as a just had 2 pints of beer out of a really nice and stylish teapot.
I will explain...

later.

Kerala - South India

2009-01-17T00:38:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I was just wandering around town, had walked up Rose street and was walking down Princes street parallel to it when I met a guy from Livingston.
Tonight we're going to go for dinner on Napier street down Elphinstone road.

Guess where I am.
It's not Edinburgh, believe it or not.
Nope, not even Scotland.

The Scots obviously got around a bit...

Anyway, Kerala is beautiful. A bit odd, it seems to be a melting pot of the world...

More to add!

Karnataka

2009-01-16T23:53:00.000-08:00

The view of Hampi from the Hanuman temple
Hanuman monkey temple
Hampi main temple
The blessing elephant hard at work
My little slice of paradise - Om Beach, Karnataka
A parked cow
Calum enjoying the local food
Boats are the way to go
Another parked cow... on a beach
My last few miles through Goa
City beach - Gokarna, Karnataka

Culture shock Warning - rant

2009-01-16T01:11:00.000-08:00

Gone are my beach bum days.

So me and Calum left the surreal dali-esque landscape and Indian hut cafes of Hampi and, after some poking about with our railway bookings managed to get trains all the way to Kochin, Kerala, with a day in Bangalore.
Well, I've been mostly spending my time on beaches and in villages and small towns for possibly too long and when I arrived in the technological and student capital of India (25% of Bangalores population are students!) I felt very out of place.
It was all so modern, women were walking around in jeans and smoking (blasphemy) and there were sidewalks and traffic lights!!!
McDonalds and subway was everywhere and the price you would pay for a full meal and chai up north was just enough to get you a Grande Latte in Coffee Day (ah but real coffee is amazing!)
The real shock for me though was when we decided to go to the mall for the sole purpose of buying an i-pod. I had almost been going crazy since me and my i-shuffle parted ways and decided something had to be done about the lack of music in my life. Also, at least the taxes on i-pods here are less than home!
I find myself hating shopping centers though. The shiny, clean, perfection of everything makes me feel inferior and insignificant, advertisements for perfect skin, the latest model of I-don't-even-care and skinny mannequins sporting what to be seen in this season makes me feel depressed and self-conscious and everywhere there's a subliminal message of "buy, buy, buy".

Now this all sounds a bit strong and pessimistic seeing as in my younger days I spent plleeenty of time in a shopping center (and not even a very good one!) after all, they are handy things sometimes. If you need a new i-pod for example. But i guess my perception has changed slightly in the last 3 months of travel... Don't ask me how yet, I doubt I have enough insight to answer truthfully but in my introspective moments it is something I shall be thinking about!
Anyway, I split the cost of a new shiny i-pod with Calum so really, I'm being a little hypocritical When I say I'm so against consumerism. I'm a westerner, I grew up with the consumer root firm within me (well, maybe not so much as some people in my society I dare to say and hope is true) every advert we see on TV, in magazines, on posters, etc, hits home to our sub-conscious minds that if we were skinnier, more tanned, had more money, shopped in monsoon and owned the new nokia model that can do almost everything except perhaps make phone calls, our lives would be perfect. Just like the model we see plastered up the billboard along the grey, monotonous streets where faceless people trudge along in their joyless little bubbles of imperfection.

bullshit!!!!
Anyone who can think for themselves are beautiful in my eyes.

*Ahem*
With my mind going off the track of what I originally intended to write in my blog I may end this post quite soon or just surrender completely to the ramble/rant dialogue that seems to pour so freely through my fingers...
Whatever, if I intended to write something perfectly formed and meticulously edited I don't think I'd ever have the energy or spirit to approach a keyboard. I'm also not asking anyone to read my rambles. They're just here because I enjoy forming my thoughts into words sometimes. Why not?

A new companion

2009-01-13T00:29:00.000-08:00

So a new era of my travels begun when i traveled with great anticipation about 200km from Gokarna to Goa airport to pick up my beloved and one and only sibling.
Calum Arrived on the 7th with great oomph only to crash in my hammock 2 days later on his Birthday with a fever and upset Stomach. it's obviously not such a good thing to go from -19° in Latvia, northern Europe to +30° in southern India.
All is ok now though, we stop in Hampi (for me the second time) before *hopefully* getting the overnight train to Bangalore tomorrow night.
I say hopefully because we are the waiting list for the waiting list for a seat on the train.
The train booking system is funny here but mysteriously seems to work...
In the past few months of travel or at least while I've been travelling on my own i don't have so much a plan as an intention.
Now with Calum's arrival we are attempting to do the south in less than 3 weeks, get a 2 day train from Chennai to Calcutta then head to Nepal for a couple of weeks before scuttling down to Himachel Pradesh to say one more goodbye to MacLeod Ganj before jumping on a plane from Delhi to Kuwait on the 16th of march, chilling there for a couple of days before a brief glide to turkey where my family will be reunited over a shisha or two...

I'm still here.

2009-01-07T21:05:00.000-08:00

Well, "here" isn't very descriptive and that doesn't really tell you a lot so I'll be a bit more informative...

I ended spending three weeks in Arambol (the "plan" was 3 days) in the North of Goa after finding a place at the time I would have defined as home but I impulsively left after the vibes started feeling mixed. I was living a pretty idyllic lifestyle, by the beach, in the sun, driving to little beaches on my rented scooter. After a while, however, I was feeling a little lost, I had too much time for contemplation and even though I was with a large group of fantastic travelers spending time together and doing what backpackers do all day I started feeling a little lost and very unfocused. Thinking about my future and money, where i was and what I was doing wasn't making me feel very fulfilled. There were some of my friends on that rooftop who had been living there for over three months and just sitting around smoking charras all day, which is nice occasionally but not something that is good to initiate into your daily routine. So I went down South to the North of the next state - Gokarna, Karnataka with a good friend where we had some peace and focused on yoga and eating lots of fruit. Gokarna is the way Goa was about 10 years ago (apparently), gone are the sun loungers and the orange package holiday tourists and here are the campfires and 50 year old hippies from Aberdeen who like to talk about BBC4 documentaries and where the world went wrong (which is quite a long time ago in some places).

Anyway, I think Goa is going a bad way, due to the terrorist attacks and the "high risk" (pah!) that Goa was going next, the police really clamped down on the independence of travellers; even if you were just sitting round a campfire with a couple of friends after 10pm they would order you to go home and possibly search you. It wasn't actually very shanti in that aspect. One of my friends on the rooftop, who was very insightful offered his theory that this was their way and excuse of herding away the travelers with less money - the type more likely to sit around a campfire on the beach after 10pm drinking cheap bottles of rum rather than the type that sit in one of the many posh bars sprouting like mushrooms along the beach front sipping on their 130rps mocktails.

Whatever, I'm not going to get political and i am not going to rant about the corruption in the authorities and police that I have witnessed in the last few months, it's not going to change anything. India is a pure example of relativity, without bad, there is no opposite.
And I see a lot of good here, optimism is everywhere, progression is everywhere and productivity is everywhere. I reckon it's doing alright for itself seeing as India supports 16% of the world's population on 2% on the world's land.
i have loved more than anything seeing how each state changes; the people, the culture, the food, the landscape... I now realize how ignorant I was when i got here to think of India as one large blob, a very big and unorganized country thats smelly and dirty.
Ok, so it is smelly and dirty...
But anyway, I'd like to see the UK do any better in these circumstances, although Indians can be rude, pushy, and unashamed scam artists I have never seen so much compassion shown between family members, friends and even strangers. Imagine a local train that is so stuffed you may have several pairs of feet at once firmly parked in front of your face and several screaming children pushed into your lap while whole houses of appliances and furniture are optimistically shoved into these small metal compartments. would we absently acknowledge this crush of bodies and waggle our heads with warm humour at each other? No, someone would most likely get seriously injured in a stampede of aggression and frustration. Imagine an event such as the changing of the guards between the Indian and Pakistani border - Would Scotland and England cheer and wave companionably and sincerely at each other across the border? No. We'd slag each other off and throw beer cans at each other's heads.

I still learn something everyday and now i feel happy to be moving away from the coast and into the heart of the south - Kerela. I know it is high season and everyone that I've met are doing the same thing, going the same places and I will most likely see them in a cafe a few hundred kilometers down the line. that doesn't change anything though, ok so I'm treading the beaten track, in many places the track is beaten for a reason. It's not going to stop me turning down interesting alleyways, streets and paths along the way.

brain not work

2009-01-01T00:20:00.000-08:00

I have many things to catch up on and the words are buzzing round my head like mozzies but to be honest it's new years day and i need more sleep and possibly a banana lassi.
I am still in Goa... but i should probably leave now..?

One thing i will say though, Russian villa parties are bizaar, and have way too many prostitutes hanging around for my liking. However, the music is a world better than indian run parties which all rotate around songs like "all cool boys put your hands up and sing 'om shanti ooom'"

Hm, now i feel like dancing.

Goa and Hampi

2008-12-23T01:00:00.000-08:00

Across the river in Hampi - We arrived at a shiva festival that only happens once every 12 years for 12 days!
I want an elephant...
A profound message on the back of a rickshaw..!
A Tikka powder seller on the streets of Hampi
On the road in the north of Goa
Me, my moped, and a typical Hampi hill. You can see why it's a heritage site!

Sunset at Arambol
Beach - Goa

Thankyou Cressa for letting me steal your pitures!!

2008-12-19T22:07:00.000-08:00

Yesterday someone asked me where I was going.
Without thinking I replied "I'm going home to my roof"
When I leave for good, it will be with forced enthusiasm and external motivation...

"Plans don't work in India"

2008-12-15T23:44:00.000-08:00

This morning I woke up on a rooftop.

It's a nice rooftop, for 40 rupees! Covered in mattresses and a comfortable clutter of djembi drums, philosophical books and sleeping hippies it's pretty sweet...

Although you should watch out for falling coconuts.

You know sometimes it's nice to have plan, it's nice to have focus and know what you're doing next instead of sitting around in cafes with old dutch Sadhus smoking chillums all day. Although that's nice sometimes as well.
I was going to do this voluntary work in Mapusa working with street kids but it turns out - even though i called the office several times before - when i got there i was told a need some silly form from the British bureau or something saying I'm safe to work with children. Seeing as i worked with babies in McLeod, however, I didn't think I needed a form or anything of the kind! This is the place I've seen health certificates written on paper napkins and bus tickets scrawled across my hand.
Whatever. So I'm staying in Arambol a bit longer. I was going to go stay in Anjuna for a while but I find I enjoy myself more, and get more out of a place if i really settle there for a while and get to know the people :)
If only I knew where i was going next!!

Goa - India..?

2008-12-13T01:44:00.000-08:00

This morning i woke up in a beach hut.

It is a nice beach hut. It has a bed, a toilet and even a sink!

So I survived a 2 day journey combined with mystery sickness - first time I've actually been sick properly in India. On the overnight bus ride i had to run off at the dodgy and random, middle-of-nowhere kinda stops frequently made along the way to throw up in a corner. In great Indian style i had about half a dozen men standing around me not even 3 feet away watching the spectacle of me vomiting. Oh, so charming.

So I went through yesterday in a bit of a weak daze, wandering the streets and lying on the beach. I did wonder if I'd accidentaly slipped into a different country though... first time i made my way to Arambol beach I was confronted with countless carefree, thonged western women meandering down the beach, I even saw a couple topless. The most amazing thing was though, that the men only gave a few appreciative glances before getting back to what they were doing! I actually felt like a proper prude sitting around in my tankini set-up so I've actually purchased a bikini!!! My tan at the moment reminds me of those tubs of multi-flavoured ice cream though. You know, you have the chocolate flavour, then the vanilla in the middle, and then the pink strawberry bit... I guess I have a bit of a way to go before I'm one of the those bronzed, skinny beach goddesses. Whatever, the ice cream look is soooo this season.

Aanyway, it's different here. Gone are the many poverty stricken, traditional Indian streets full of shoe makers and chai stalls and here are the hippy like chilled out palm fringed sand tracks full of cafes and small shops full of knitted hats and sew-on badges of glow-in-the-dark mushrooms and om signs.

Anyway, ramble ramble ramble, I have an analogy:
India is like a cake. A weird cake. A bit like the mayonaise cake Calum baked for me on my 19th. (It was nice though!!!) The north of india and the big dirty cities are like this cake that's just been grabbed out of the oven, piping hot, and chucked at your face with spirit. Now Goa, is the same cake, same ingredients, but left on the windowsill for a day, then covered in sweet icing to disguise the strangness of it's authenticity and cut up into little bite-size pieces.

Whatever way it's served though, it's a nice cake, and I keep wanting more :)

Wake me up!

2008-12-09T22:16:00.000-08:00

Today I leave Diu, I need to, my head is fuzzy from too much rum and sun. Goa is my next destination though, so I'm not sure how that's going to help anything! I've really liked it here, when I first arrived I thought no way could i stay a week but looks like i have! I think people help to make a place and I've met alot here.

So I have a 2 day bus and train ride to look forward to now... it shouldn't be too bad though, from here to Ahmedabad I get a sleeper bus. Now I had a sleeper apartment once before and it's great for those on the top bunk! You pay a little extra to get a bunk with a sliding door and curtains and it;s probably the most comfortable form of transport. If you're sitting beneath however, you may need to see someone about your neck if you're tall... (even I dwarf indian people!!)

From Ahmedabad I get a direct train which is favourable to the bus as you can walk around, use the "toilet" - a bit draughty, and then you have endless opportunities for chai. Every 10 minutes there are little men with massive kettles and dusty plastic cups weaving in and out of the crouching men, women, crawling children and haphazard parcels and bags calling out in a kind of self assured way "garam garam garam chai chai CHAI!!!"

The only time they don't seem to be around is if you need woken up for your station, it's always a bit of a guessing game of when to get off and the locals find it a funny game to tell you it's your stop at 5am in middle of f**king nowhere! Anways, I should probably set my alarm as otherwise I will most likely end up in Kerela... which is nice... whatever I'm sure where-ever I'll end up it'll be lovely...

Oh! What a beautiful place.

2008-12-08T23:26:00.000-08:00

The Holy Ganga - Rishikesh

The family who kindy accosted us - Amritsar

the Golden Temple - Amritsar

Prayer flags... and lots of them!

Samosa?

Udaipur

The monsoon Palace - Udaipur.

Unfortunately, I did not take all of these pictures myself (although some, do guess!)
but thankyou to all the awesome people I've just stolen some pictures from... I saw with my eyes, I just didn't have a lense!

Saab kooch milega

2008-12-04T21:11:00.000-08:00

Well.
My most recent journey started from Jaislamer, after three contemplative and magical days in the desert. The next day I bit the bullet and booked a 12 hour overnight, sitting bus to Ahmedabad. I was sad to leave, I'd been travelling with a very good friend i had made earlier in my trip, in Dharamsala. Even though Heather had left me a week before I'd been travelling with this charasmatic and crazy guy from Canada. It was only after i said my final goodbye to him and started making my way through the sweltering, vibrant and twisting streets to my bus that I realised what i wonderful time I'd had in his company. I was pretty overwhelmed but at the same time I felt liberated and alive.

On the "delux" bus I was the only blonde, and the only female travelling alone. I had forgotten how much attention i get after travelling with "Mr beard" for a week and five minutes after getting on the bus an indian man sat down next to me: "What is your good name?" i told him unenthusiastically, then the next thing he said to me, after a small pause "May I have your home address and contact number?" Hah!
Sometimes the questions I get I don't believe I should grace with an answer but they hold your gaze with such sincerity and seriousness, as if I am to turn around and say "ok, here's my address, number, and oh, why don't you stop by my hotel later. It will be bundles of fun"
Sometimes I feel I have starred in a porno that only I am oblivious to.
Aaaanyway, If I'm not careful, this will turn into a rant, I'm not saying all men are like this here, there are some genuine guys but I just notice the dodgy ones more.

So, after 10 minutes on the bus, another westerner stumbles on, safari hat, hiking boots and GPRS hanging off his 200 euro trek pants. I don't like using people's real names so from now on I will make up an alias for each person... Lets call him Henry, cause that's what he looks like. Me and Henry decide to pair up and spend the 12 hour, uncomfortable ride in companiable silence. At 5am we arrive in Ahmedabad, a big, dirty, dark, and smoggy city. We somehow find a bus which will take us to another place in Gujarat, from there we can get to Diu, my last minute destination. I was sort of planning to go to Bhuj, in the Kutch region of Gujarat but it would have been harder to get there and was also slightly put off by an article in the paper (since the Mumbai attacks i have been religiously studying the local papers) A new and most proven theory so far is that the terrorists have smuggled their way across the Sir creek border point in Gujarat, Kutch region. There is a grey area in the border between india and pakistan where there is hardly any security, it is owned by both countries but at the same time, owned by no-one. The locals call it "Harami Nala" I know that harami is not a nice word and if referred to a person it means something like bastard or orphan. Not so nice. So anyway, they believe the terrorists smuggled themselves across this area disguised as fishermen. It also seems the whole of Gujarat is being vigilent, there are police everywhere in Diu, apparently looking out for terrorists. Some have bicycles and sticks and i have no idea how it works. what exactly does a terrorist look like?! Whatever, I'm sure they have a system.

So diu is like a breath of fresh air in the the sticky atmosphere of inland India. As soon as I came into the Gujurati region the geography changed considerably, palm trees begun to emerge from every roadside and the land became even flatter than the desert. Miles and miles of marshland and salt pans stretch unbelievably pancake flat before my eyes. The poeple changed too, they become smaller, their faces more european looking and the women less conservatively dressed.
My first site of the Arabian sea was less spectacular than i expected but I was not disapointed by my first dip in the sea. Last night I floated in the very salty and calm sea and watched the sunset upside down. It was nice. So yesterday was a mixture of good and bad. The bad, I was unable to withdraw any money from the bank and found myself with 15 rupees to my name, I had a very unhappy stomach and the moped i hired broke down on a dark road after sunset. the good, there is always a way round everything. After a regrettable outburst at the indian bank manager, a fellow lone female traveller hands me 2000 rupees and tells me i can pay her back in goa. I meet some wonderful people who cure me with cheap rum and a sweet faced police officer fixes my bike with the flick of his hand. Anything is possible.

Excuse me while I have a lunch time swim :)

Back from the desert

2008-12-01T03:20:00.000-08:00

So, I'm back from 3 days in the desert Thar. It was hot and yellow and for some reason absolutely fascinating even though there is literally nothing to see apart from sand, the occasional scrub and sky.

More to write but I'm tired!

Just saw the news...

2008-11-27T06:53:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I'm a little freaked. I was planning to be in Mumbai just now. Instead I made an impulsive decision with a travel buddy of mine to go up to the north of Rajastan for a camel safari. We booked into a hotel this morning in Jodhpur, just as a stop off point, and happened to see pictures in the local papers that were even more gruesome than usual (indian newspapers don't really censor anything) and even though it was in hindi, blood seemed to drip from between the lines. Pictures of blown up rickshaws and bits of bodies lying in torn up streets filled the papers leaving not much for anything else. The stuff you've seen on BBC news? That's only the international stuff.

So. Don't think I'll be going to Mumbai anymore!!
Special note to my parents: I'm going to stay as safe as I can and I won't take any risks so don't worry about me!!

Tomorrow, onto Jaisalmur and a few days of trekking with camels in the desert, camping out at night :)
Far away from the cities that just seem to be on self-destruct.

Hungry?

2008-11-22T19:47:00.000-08:00

So. You've been travelling all day and you could really do with a good feed. But what is there to have? No worries, just pick up one of the many menus lying about in the cafes and resaraunts that pepper the streets.

Perhaps you'd like to start off with some fried paper or maybe you want something sweet? There's lots of banana craps (crepes) to be had, just ask for extra cocotale. Or maybe you want something more substantial, the chess curry is great. Tired of curry? No worries, just choose something from the continental menu. There's smashed pots, macronnie or perhaps just a good old buger. and then, maybe once you're full you can wash it down with a nice cold glass of cok.

But remember kids, when you enter a shop or cafe please open your shoes kindly.

Going solo

2008-11-22T19:24:00.000-08:00

Well, Guess what folks? I'm going it alone!
Heather is heading home (she calls it home now!) to Dharamsala in the north. I don't want to say too much about it but due to some serious bad news from home she's lost her spirit to travel so I'm heading south on my own. I say my own, I know I won't be, this whole time we've been picking up lone travellers who stick around for a while before they go off and find another group. You also wouldn't believe how easy it is to travel here:
Need to go somewhere? Shout it out and you're likely find a bus crawling round the corner or an eagre rickshaw driver just waiting at your feet.
Need something? Click your fingers wherever you are and someone will come running, you're a celebrity here baby. Live up to it.

Not that I click my fingers, that's just silly. I'm merely making a point.

So I'm gonna be in Udaipur for another few days, then i head to Diu in Gujarat - It's a french colonised fishing town so it should be interesting. Then Mumbai which, apparently, I'll either love or hate. Then to Goa mid December. I'm trying my hardest to get a cheap apartment there for a month and there's also an Orphanage in Anjuna i'm planning to work at... Watch this space!!!!

So I got the BEST news the other day, my dear brother is coming to join me in january for a few months... doesn't look like I'm gonna be leaving this hectic, colourful, stressful, serene, random, erratic, ordered, mis-matched, dirty, funny, ugly, beautiful country anytime in the near future...

AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!

2008-11-19T20:32:00.000-08:00

Stupid stupid camera.
Last night i plugged it into a computer to upload some pictures and somehow, mysteriously, they have all been wiped. ALL my pictures. Please, someone tell me I can undo it?!?!

A bumpy road...

2008-11-19T20:05:00.000-08:00

So...
I don't know where to start or what to spill... We left Rishikesh last monday and only got to our destination, Udaipur in Rajastan, yesterday. On Sunday night before we left we went for some dinner with some friends in this posh Korean Restaraunt, During the course of the night Heather developed food poisoning. Stupidly we continued to catch our medly of trains that had been booked: monday to delhi, getting there late, tuseday to Jaipur, leaving Delhi early then overnight to Udaipur! During our breif stay in Jaipur (where I saw a street and 2 hotels!) Poor dear heather got worse and i ended up taking her to an indian government hospital.
We were ushered into a big tiled room that was full of indians of different conditions, shapes and sizes. Heather was shoved onto and metal trolly while 6 doctors crowded round her and stuck a drip into her arm expertly but carelessly - I was the one squeezing her hand!! The room was full of doctors at desks with a sea of scrap paper surrounding them, a sea of gray faces somberly watching with white eyes surrounded us! We were the only westerners in the whole place...

Thankfully heather has recovered a bit (although still not so great) and now we're in Udaipur. It is gorgeous here although the water has sunk and there seems to be alot of garbage swimming around. One thing I learnt about india though is to look at beauty from a distance and never up close! Also, This is the city where part of James Bond: Octopussy was filmed and so in every cafe and restaraunt, every night, they proudly play the film to amused foreigners. but yeah, watch the film and you''ll see where i am though I must say, there are a heck of a lot less half naked girls and a lot more dirty old men sitting in doorways with handlebar mustaches that would put super mario to shame.

The path to enlightenment?

2008-11-15T02:57:00.000-08:00

So yeah.
I have somehow found myself completing level 1 of reiki. I was just sitting on the roof eating a papaya the other day and i got talking to this cool CSer who teaches reiki here. Before I know it I'm sitting cross-legged in this room learning about universal life energy...
Of course I was sceptical, especially seeing the type of people this type of thing manifests. The type of people who get up at 3:30am to meditate and then stir up a fuss if they find honey in their porridge - seriously. I've met them and can't say I feel much of a connection.
Aanyway, so in every culture there is a variation on this theme - life energy. We are surrounded by energy, everything is made out of it and basically it is seen that the whole universe is "god". Not in a religious context but as in everything is made out of one thing, one source of energy. I guess in more scientific terms we'd be talking about atoms and such but I'm not very scientific... In reiki, you channel yourself to absorb some of this energy and and to focus it onto another being to be absorbed. I'm still not the most spiritual person but I did my first proper reiki session on my teacher this morning, it's basically a two way meditation. I reiki'd for an hour and a half and i swear it only felt like ten minutes, my mind was totally empty and it felt pretty good, I got lots of praise for it as well which was nice. So before that I'd done yoga all morning so i was feeling pretty damn peaced out and then this afternoon, me, heather and some friends went swimming in the Ganga. Apparently, when you submerge yourself in the Ganga all of your sins are completely repented. I did a few laps against the current for good measure.

So i feel pretty nice and peaceful now after all this but I am ashamed to say I would like a beer.

Holy cities are very good for your karma but as a friend of ours said "build up your good karma now, go down south, sin to your hearts content, then maybe do it all again next year."

Maybe...

Today

2008-11-12T05:45:00.000-08:00

Ok, Rishikesh is really nice. I like cities with rivers flowing through them. From the banks there are beaches apon beaches where people bathe in the holy Ganga and from the beaches are jungles of flat open roofed buildings that seem to be confused where one ends and the other begins.
Most of these buildings, in the main area where i am - Luxman Jhulla - are ashrams, guest houses, cafes full of stoned isrealis, Dhabas andclothing boutiques that are soooooo cheap and yet still rob me of valuable rupees :(

So today I signed up for a 5 day yoga course where this endearing, incredibly flexible, small, mustachioed indian warbles to me to "rrreeeelllaaaaaxx your eyebrrrows" and attempts to bend me into shapes as if i were plasticine.
Heather signed up for a palmistry course and after we sat in a cafe called "the little buddha" where she told me i was very sensitive, courageous and excitable, impatient, quick to show my emotions, gullibe, very friendly and a little lazy. All of which is true but because she knows me so well already she doesn't need my hand. I think the rest of the cafe, which was full of foreigners, learnt quite alot about me though...
Another thing we did today was wash our clothes in the holy Ganga. We were worried it would seem disrespectful but people seem to do everything else in it so we went ahead. There's something really nice and communal about washing clothes in rivers... we did get attention though, i think poeple thought we were planning to swim and get naked or something as the bridge far above us collected an impressive crowd all cheering and cat-calling as if 2 western girls washing their clothes was the most errotic and unusual thing they had ever seen.
And then, a 90+ yearold looking pilgrim, completley naked apart from a headdress and immodest toga, with a beard down to his bellybutton and an equal amount sprouting it, standing one legged in the water seems to be the most normal thing in the world.

A summary.

2008-11-12T04:16:00.000-08:00

I thought I would take a moment to share the amazing and seductive chat-up lines indian men use to lure western girls...

*"Hello, madam... hello, hello... HELLO HELLO!!" (most often used)

*"hello!" (as you walk by) "oh, verrry niiiice"

*"Hey, you come to my room and be my sleeping beauty"

*"hello madam, take a look at my yak bone" (He had a yak's skull on the table next to him)

*"Hey, Listen, my girlfriend dump me yesterday, you be my new girlfriend?"

*"Madam come here now!"

*"So... which country is suffering without you?"

*"Madam. Would you mind if I lick your p***y?"
(This was not said to me thankfully but it is from a reliable source, a man did come up to one of my blonde friends and say this!!!)

etc...

I don't know how I'm still single(!)

5 of the most heard noises:

*"Crooooaaaaak... ptaaaaaahhh" - People spitting. It is everywhere! there are even signs saying "no spitting" and "you are in a no spitting area". Usually it's the men in the most public areas. Sometimes I feel like they're aiming at us! It reminds me of male cats marking their territory...

*hoooonnnnnkk, nyeeeooooow, drriiiiiiinnnnngggg... etc. - Horns. The roads here fill my heart with terror. People here drive as if they are bits of elastic that will fit in any space, round any bend and bounce if they hit anything. On the back of every commercial truck and lorry there are the decorative and carefully written words "horn please". This is along with bits of tinsel and sparkly bumper stickers of gods.

*"Hello what is your name where are you from my name is ___ do you like chai come to my shop!!???!?!" - This is said usually with a chorus of others and most likely said without taking a breath.

*Music. - Music is everywhere. and loud. I do love it but sometimes after a long day it gives me headaches and in my more irritable and negative moods it's like nails down a chalkboard.

*"MOOOOOOOOooo.." - The Holy Cow. There are a lot and they're really arrogant for cows. they totally know they're holy.
And did you know that if you hit a cow with your vehicle you can be fined up to 5000 rupees? (like 60 quid) I dont know what punishment you get if you hit a human but my impression is it's quite a lot less severe...

More to write but I'm hungry. Going to a Dhaba for daal :)

On the road again

2008-11-11T04:24:00.000-08:00

Ah, overnight bus journeys... I was almost starting to miss them.
So we're in Rishikesh now. Got into the city at about half 6 in the morning at a very non-descript place that looked like any other big city in India but after a confusing richshaw ride we finally found the place in Rishikesh that everyone is always raving about! I don't know what I think of the place yet, we have to move hotels tomorrow as we're not in the busiest area and we only really found the hub as it was getting dark. We seem to be in the pilgrim's area by the Ganga river where all along there are people washing in the holy water and every second building seems to be a temple or an Ashram (holy place for pilgrims... as far as i know). It really is beautiful here though and I have no idea why I'm not more enthusiastic! Really I think I'm a bit tired and missing the familiarity of McLeodganj which felt like home so much. To be honest, i think i know that place better than inverness now. Heather is also in a bit of a dispondant mood, the place never jumped out straight away and I know there are people in Dhasa(Mcleod) that she's missing. My ass is also a bit sore as i got head butted by a bull earlier when we were negotiating the streets. Sure, laugh! Seriously though, cows here are so arrogant and annoying, they totally know they're holy.
More later and i need to get pictures up.. aagh!

Anywhere in the world

2008-11-06T04:22:00.000-08:00

I know I'm in India but I still have the same life-style. I still drink one too many beers and have a soft spot for cheap clothes, I also spend too much time on facebook and forget to take pictures when I really should.
But oh well. So we're leaving here soon, don't know if I already said that but there's a festival on saturday for the NGO I work for. It includes a football match and a theatre production? But instead I think we're going to a reggae party with the hippies in Bhagsu, to me it's an attractive notion, you only have to stand near them to feel happy and stoned.

We also have met many other travellers, some we just have a random day with them and some we hang out the whole time. I like it how it is here, I have instant friends of all types, maybe tomorrow I won't see them again but hey, today we have fun and tomorrow there are more randoms to meet, shoot pool with, drink chai with and treck mountains together (5 hours there, another 5 hours "chilling" at our destination, and 3 hours back). We have one friend who is an old German hippy who lived in caves for a long time in the past. The stories he tells you! they melt your brain. In a good way.

I am being really lazy today, I'm not looking after babies as I should but I feel a bit buggy and dread developing a fully fledged flu by the time we leave for Rishikesh on Sunday. Rishikesh is where the Beatles went and so because of this, you could imagine the crowd it brings there... Apart from that though I don't know much except it is the Yoga capital of India. And it has mountains. I am going to feel pretty weird when I am no longer surrounded by the Himalayas though. They feel like the walls of a very big and comfortable house.

Sorry for the lack of new pictures! I have mostly been relying on other peoples cameras lately as I keep forgetting to charge mine. No fears, soon there will be an explosion of miscelaneous photos on facebook :)

What a week...

2008-10-25T22:57:00.000-07:00

I've been in McLeod Ganj for about 8 days now and it pretty much feels like home already! I've had a full week of teaching English and Heather has a Tibetan boyfriend called Chootuck! He is actually a genuine and lovely guy. He invites us round for dinner sometimes and makes momos (noodle dumplings) and thenthuk (thin noodle soup) while he tells us stories about being imprisoned by the Chinese authorities. The hospitality is intense here, almost overwhelming! Sometimes the guys can be a little too friendly though, I've already had 2 confessions of love from tibetans in a week and I've realised you have to firmly decline their offer of partnership at least 3 times before they get the idea you are not, also, "in love". The problem is there does not seem to be much distinction between love and mere interest. Also the truth is I'm blonde and due to the lack of media exposure to tibetan or indian women where the most x-rated thing you will ever see on television is a kiss, the comparison of hollywood movies where you more or less see every anatomical part of a long legged blonde, generally speaking, gives the male population here the wrong impression.
Anyway. rant over.
I've been teaching English one-on-one to a few tibetans here including a monk which is pretty cool. I've also been going to conversation class at the tibetan refugee english school here where you simply sit cross legged in a room full of english students and bullshit about whatever you want for an hour. As long as it's fluent English you're speaking everyone seems raptly attentive to what you are saying.
It's small enough here for everyone to know who you are in a matter of days and I've also noticed there is a large passion for gossip here; Apparently there is a rumour going round that Heather is getting married... (I'm not saying anything on the matter)
Oh and I saw the dalai lama yesterday. There was a 48th aniversary of the TCV schools (Tibetan Children Villages) where there were celebrations and performances from the students that sent shivers down my spine. His holiness made an appearance and spoke for a loong time. All of which I could not understand, obviously, because it was in Tibetan but just to see him and hear his voice was good enough. His voice reminded me of a grandfather reasoning and comforting a confused and indignant grand-daughter without sounding too patronising. His voice made me smile.
I keep reminding myself this isn't "real" india. A majority of Himachel Pradesh is a continuation of Tibet where hopeful refugees have spilled over the mountains. I love these people though and I really feel an affinity with this place.
Next Monday I start more voluntary work in the afternoons at a tibetan baby care center. It's a charitable trust which relies on volunteers to take care of over 50 babies to the age of 3 while their mothers can earn a living here. How awesome?
And my achievments so far is that i have mastered eating with chopsticks, I can fit into a size 10 again and I bought a guitar for half the price of a set of guitar strings at home! I'm hoping to carry it around for a while until it gets too cumbersome or i lose it ;)

Happy!!

2008-10-16T07:46:00.000-07:00

Back in McLeod Ganj where I'm gonna settle for a month. It's so great to be back here, I'm in my element!!

An average day...

2008-10-16T06:43:00.000-07:00

So so so.

Here's a day which kinda sums up what my time is like at the moment...

I wake up to the sound of monkeys rampaging the roof of our budget hotel (about1 quid per night) Me and heather rush to gather our increasingly travel-worn things and are out the door to the bus station. On the way we wake up our friend Asaf, (a randomer we met on a bus) a chilled out isreali who carries around a yoga mat and canstantly entertains us with borat impressions. So we make our way down the steep hills of Shimla (formerly a british station village but now touristy and relatively expensive...) We finally find our way to the 7:40 bus to Amritsar and settle down for a bumpy, sticky and crushed 8 hour journey. The landscape changes as we go from the fresh mountainous air of Himachel Pradesh to the smoggy and dusty air of Punjab. The landscape flattens and the populace increases; old men selling equally old shoes sit on the dusty streets, stalls overflowing with black bananas and street food pour into the roads where the vendors wave and call almost desperately. the roads themselves choke at every junction with an errattic army of rickshaws, bicycles, taxis, cars, cows, people and busses. Everywhere the promise of westernaisation is apparent and so is the blatant poverty that creeps into every street and every corner.
The heat is claustraphobic and every single part of you is ingrained in dust (never wear white in india... big mistake!)
We stop for lunch in a typical eatery. We sit in plastic chairs that wobble on bear concrete and eat dal and rice with chapatis while eyes burn our backs.
We arrive in Amritsar as its getting gloomy and the sun's turning red (as it always does) After getting a rickshaw to take us to about 4 different full hotels we finally settle for "hotel paris" and all share one room for 400 rupees (4ish quid) after getting tired of indian drama on our room TV (best comedy I've seen in years) we go out in search of food only to get accosted by a large punjabi family. They shove us into their modest home and about 20 or 30 friends and family crowd round us like we're celebrities. Every question that is answered is met with an applause and we're invited to lunch and a wedding after talking to them for 10 minutes. We felt like the centre of the universe, they all wanted to touch us, shake our hands, know our names... after a while we had to leave as the whole experience was so intense and we all felt like we'd just shared a drug induced trip of some kind!
So after that we get lost in a bizar... and it is bizarre!! we don't have enough eyes to watch out for mopeds and bicycles on the road, the mud and rubbish that spreads so freely, the multicoloured miscellaneous stalls, the people, shouting and pinching for attention "madam, special price!" "this way, come here""goodmorning sir!" etc.
finally we come across a slightly dodgy foodstall thats situated next to a small slaughter house but we are so hungry and disorientated we dont care. We sit in the small, concrete open building facing a dark road and cages of chickens. Chapatis are thrown into our laps as they're made and we messily eat (more) dal from metal plates and try our best to avoid looking at the cockroaches. It's late by this time and we decide to escape the crazyness and retire to our marbled air conditioned haven. untill tomorrow...

And I haven't even started on the Golden Temple yet...!

Old Manali - Manali

2008-10-11T04:35:00.000-07:00

Damn, I can't seem to upload my pictures here, i have some really good ones and i may just build suspense!
So anyway, it's our last day in Manali, I like it here.
It's so chilled out and in old manali I could easily have walked back in time. On the way to our guest house (the owner found us at the bus station utterly disorientated and confused at 5am and took us here!) we have to go through a labyrinth of local farms with lots of cows and locals with baskets of hay and grass tumbling from their backs.
I can't say what I've done for the last 4 days, just absorbed the atmosphere... Oh and i did absail down a waterfall. that was fun :)
So. tomorrow we are on to Shimla, a lot bigger and busier than I've aclimatised to in the last week but should be good to see. I don't know the time in each place but after that we're onto Amritsar then Srinigar in Kashmir (I hope) then back to Mcleod Ganj for a month to volunteer and make myself useful rather than taking pictures of cows and whatnot.
its a plan anyway.
I am in danger of rambling but will update pictures soon!

Not even a week gone...!

2008-10-06T22:56:00.000-07:00

It's our last day in McLeod Ganj today, don't want to leave but have to remind myself that so far I've only seen Delhi and Dharamshala.
I could write so much but i have to limit myself as i still have over 2 and a half months to go!
So I really love it here, we've had some great days, the whole place just breathes excitment and unpredictability, everything is immense. I'm not so descriptive though, i know!
But anyway, when we got here we couldn't see much of the backdrop as everything was thick in fog and clouds, we're already very high up but i really did feel like i was floating in the clouds!
That took way, however to the most extreme storm ever, we got caught in hail stones as big as malteasers and during the night we woke to continuous rumbles and screaming monkeys!
So mostly we've just been exploring, drinking chai and meeting poeple. Me and heather had a big adventure yesterday where we went for at least a 3 hour trek and had to race back over rocks, hills and jungle before it got dark. we were 2 young girls caught out on a dark road with a pencil for protection against monkeys and bears and... things!! That was put into perspective however, when we met a young tibetan refugee who told us of how he got into india: like most tibetans who are not born here the only way is to trek for a month over the Himalayas, mostly by the cover of dark to avoid authorities.
I was inspired and humbled at the same time!

Some internet cafe, McLeod Ganj - Himachel Pradesh (Himalayan province)

2008-10-04T05:08:00.000-07:00

I am actually quite happy to be out of Delhi, that place is pure dead mental. The very atmosphere of the place is like you've been wrapped in a soggy blanket that a cow has been sleeping on...
So. We never got the train, they were actually all reserved it's just that we got very close to being ripped off most probably. instead we took the bus which took over 14 hours and stopped for the toilet once and stopped every now and again to let street sellers on with brightly coloured floor mops and peacock feathers. like, i totally need one right now..?!
Anyway, the journey was not the most comfortable, especially as I think I am bordering on a kidney infection which i was reminded of every time we went over a bump or in more likeness a small crater that seemed to frequent the roads quite a bit. But anyway I'm better now (really mum, I'm fine), I like to look at those experiences as a reminder of how comfortable and lucky i am most the time. I'd only get peeved off if i had to repeat that journey every week or something!
So I really love it here, it's where heather volunteered for 3 months before and i could really see myself doing something like that. although our plans are so fluid we're not staying here for so long and instead will make our way indirectly to Kashmir which is totally open to tourists now. I would like to experience "paradise on earth" before it's too cold.
Haha, and guess how much I'm paying for the hotel we're in at the moment? about 80 - 90p :D

The Ivory Palace - Delhi

2008-10-02T08:57:00.001-07:00

Oh well then. First day and I havent been accosted, got lost, lost heather, lost my passport, got Delhi belly or disapeared... yet :P
No but seriously, I'm not so sure what to write, my senses have been relenlessly attacked today but i dont want to bull***t for pages...
So. got to delhi, its very different. Smoggy, smelly, colourful, noisy... i could actually ride around on a rickshaw all day and never EVER get bored... its very exciting, i saw a family of monkeys in a dumpster and herd of cows liing on a motorway... they have right of way on main roads... people dont... but yes..
The people! they are very friendly and helpful... maybe a little in your face - nothing a "no thankyou, goodbye" cant fix though. I also think this place is good for my self esteem, i've lost count how many times I've been told i'm beautiful :D
So we're off tomorrow to Dharamshala... finding tickets for a train was a but hard though, theres a tourist info place on nearly every street and they all tell you different things... Most people say there are no places free on the trains due to a double holiday (ghandi's birthday is one of them!) and also worst flooding in the north they have had in 46 years :/ I think we're settling on a train tomorrow night for 1230 rupees though (13 quid ish) for a 10 hour journey.
Anyway, gonna try and get some pictures up soon, I havent taken any today as i was dumbstruck most the time and forgot. My camera has about 10 pictures of me and heather on the plane journey being incredibly drunk from free chardonnay... I love British Airways!

Selkirk - Scotland

2008-09-30T15:29:00.000-07:00

I'm spending my last night in the UK in a part of my country I've never seen before - Selkirk! with Heather, my dear companion drinking wine and packing (well, repacking for me which is pretty pointless..)
The excitment only really kicked in today at the post office while buying £300 worth of travellers checks.. I'm scared of the amount of things I have to keep safe actually, with the consequences of NOT keeping them safe quite diar (passport, bankcards, money, me) but hey.. I've done this before.. in Europe. Only now Europe feels like a back garden and I'm about to step out the gate..

Anyway, the plan is we're leaving for Newcastle tomorrow morning and by morning on thursday we'll be in Delhi :)

Forest cafe - Edinburgh

2008-09-24T04:45:00.000-07:00

So...
I'm starting a blog.

Partly because this time next wednesday I'll be on a plane to Delhi :)
I'm pretty happy about that!

Watch this spot...