We are now in Srinagar, the place in India people tell you not to go to ever. A lot of extremists (Islamic extremists) here, so bombs and violent protests are the norm. The danger is exaggerated since it doesn't happen TOO often and its not always in the cities.
We have been staying at a house boat, which is exactly how it sounds; a house that is also a boat. We have to take boat taxis to get to shore and back. There are floating markets to buy everything you need and a lot of wild life. Its really nice here. We have been just relaxing, since we are about to go back into the shit storm of central India where you die in rickshaw accidents 3 times a day and the weather never bends below 45 degrees (and your ridiculed if you wear shorts!!).
Although I'm a fan of the place itself, since its gorgeous and reminds me of Canada in many ways, I'm not a fan of the people. They all seem like tricksters and sheisters. Even the family we are staying with can be really sketchy at times.
We have about 10 more days in India and I've realized 2 month trips are definitely not long enough. I feel almost upset to have to go home despite really excited about a lot of things coming up when I get home.
Speaking of which. When I come home, along with me will be cartons of cigarettes and beadies if anyone is interested :):)
Friday, June 26, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Dave on the solo
So.
We are in Ley. It is awesome here up at 3500m. The drive from Manali was bumpy, uncomfortable, dusty and absolutely incredible. Literally driving amongst these behemoths we call mountains.
Two days into acclimatizing, we realized we have to make plans, and make em quick. Andrew decided to go on a motorcycle trip with Reto (Switzerland) and ... i forget (Israel). I decided to go off on my own, up north to villages near the pakistani border. little did I know, what an amazing interesting place it is.
The people of Dah-Hanu are completely different looking from the rest of India. They are almost Mesopotamian looking (south Greece? Iran?). They have their own language that only 3 thousand people in the world understand and can speak it. They are the descendants of Aryans and the lost soldiers of Alexander the great. They are called Dards and they practice a mixture of Buddhism, amistali and pre-vedic religious aspects. They are called brog-pa, since their is a Muslim clan in Pakistan. I visited 3 of 5 villages left of these people on earth.
The Indus river and the surrounding area is pretty gorgeous (where they live). Green patches and thriving vegetation in the mists of desert-y hills and barren cliffs. The Dards dress very different, hard to explain.
I bought some grape wine (hand pressed, completely organic, nothing else but grapes and maybe water) that is delicious. I discovered Orhan Pumak? If thats spelled correctly. I was sexually molested by a Nepalese man (not really, but kinda). I ate amazing food and chilled with the locals. I was the only tourist there that added to my experience.
All in all, it was an amazing experience that I am both disappointed and glad that I experienced alone. Andrew should be back from wherever he ended up going (since he didn't show up in Dha!)in a few minutes. Thank god I called home today, luckily, it was fathers day.
Pace.
We are in Ley. It is awesome here up at 3500m. The drive from Manali was bumpy, uncomfortable, dusty and absolutely incredible. Literally driving amongst these behemoths we call mountains.
Two days into acclimatizing, we realized we have to make plans, and make em quick. Andrew decided to go on a motorcycle trip with Reto (Switzerland) and ... i forget (Israel). I decided to go off on my own, up north to villages near the pakistani border. little did I know, what an amazing interesting place it is.
The people of Dah-Hanu are completely different looking from the rest of India. They are almost Mesopotamian looking (south Greece? Iran?). They have their own language that only 3 thousand people in the world understand and can speak it. They are the descendants of Aryans and the lost soldiers of Alexander the great. They are called Dards and they practice a mixture of Buddhism, amistali and pre-vedic religious aspects. They are called brog-pa, since their is a Muslim clan in Pakistan. I visited 3 of 5 villages left of these people on earth.
The Indus river and the surrounding area is pretty gorgeous (where they live). Green patches and thriving vegetation in the mists of desert-y hills and barren cliffs. The Dards dress very different, hard to explain.
I bought some grape wine (hand pressed, completely organic, nothing else but grapes and maybe water) that is delicious. I discovered Orhan Pumak? If thats spelled correctly. I was sexually molested by a Nepalese man (not really, but kinda). I ate amazing food and chilled with the locals. I was the only tourist there that added to my experience.
All in all, it was an amazing experience that I am both disappointed and glad that I experienced alone. Andrew should be back from wherever he ended up going (since he didn't show up in Dha!)in a few minutes. Thank god I called home today, luckily, it was fathers day.
Pace.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Strongest Man On Earth
Everytime I am about to do something I had reservations about, well, I'm obviously skeptical about my own abilities to do it, whatever it is.
This time, it was about climbing a mountain. It took us eight hours in total. We accented about 1000 meters within that time. My legs are hurting pretty bad, but in a good way. I feel really good bout not just making it up there, but making it all the way to the top and realizing I am in shape to do things like this.
We got up there, and there were locals with their sheep, cattle, buffalo, horses, ect... We had a 180 view of all the mountains surrounding this mountain town. It was breathtaking. An incredible end to an amazing hike filled with hot chai, wild horses and packs of stinkin apes :) (seriously)
No time to rest though. In 4 hours, we are off the Ley in Ladack to do some intense trekking. The bus ride is about 18 hours WOO! Looking foward to it though. We only have 3 weeks left. May seem like alot, but its nothing. We are already making sure we have enough time to do what we want and it looks tight already, but we'll manage.
Thank zombie jesus we didnt try to fit southern India in this trip, that would have been impossible.
PACE
This time, it was about climbing a mountain. It took us eight hours in total. We accented about 1000 meters within that time. My legs are hurting pretty bad, but in a good way. I feel really good bout not just making it up there, but making it all the way to the top and realizing I am in shape to do things like this.
We got up there, and there were locals with their sheep, cattle, buffalo, horses, ect... We had a 180 view of all the mountains surrounding this mountain town. It was breathtaking. An incredible end to an amazing hike filled with hot chai, wild horses and packs of stinkin apes :) (seriously)
No time to rest though. In 4 hours, we are off the Ley in Ladack to do some intense trekking. The bus ride is about 18 hours WOO! Looking foward to it though. We only have 3 weeks left. May seem like alot, but its nothing. We are already making sure we have enough time to do what we want and it looks tight already, but we'll manage.
Thank zombie jesus we didnt try to fit southern India in this trip, that would have been impossible.
PACE
Sunday, June 7, 2009
MAMAMIA
So.
Have not blogged in 3 weeks. A lot going on, a lot of moving around. I'm back in India, Rishakesh to be specific. It's where the beatles came in India to 'find' themselves. A lot of yoga, meditation, ect.. ect..
Hot as balls. Like 45 degree's? But we make up for it by finding waterfalls and bathing in the ganges. Met some really cool people. James, who we traveled with for 2 weeks has left back to bangladesh, gunna miss that guy.
Convinced him to shave all his beard except for his mustache and his life litteraly picked up since then. He got like 12 compliments a day. Only one guy, this drunk as fuck Nepali dude hated it. That's only because he's rascist towards Indians, which apparently a lot of tibetans/nepali's are.
Had a fantastic bday. Filled with hash, boat rides, boozing, steak, pool and more hash.. oh! and lemon fantas.. yyuummm.
Met up with a buddy from home in pokhara. That was cool. Hung out with alot of wierdo travelers fucked on valium, the essentials for long travels.
Just finished a 32 hour bus ride. Haridwar was balls, ganges was nice. Met a Indian tourist who loves his 'bang lassis'. Now in Rishakesh.
Gone tommorrow. Off to Manali, the mountain getaway, woot woot.
Its always tough to write this stuff. So much goes on in just a day, let alone trying to fill a 3 week gap in my travel blog.
ok. so I have decided a few things, since I've had time to contemplate my future. 1) I will be going to south america in the fall. 2) I am going to take my free trip to israel in december 3) moving to denmark will be in jan/feb unless unforseen events occur 4) I'll be going to N.B., N.S., T-dot, O-dot and the NYC during the gaps of the previous three points i have mentioned.
Ok, off to smoke 20 cent cigarettes, drink a limca (best drink on earth), listen to my ipod and work on this killer sudoku book I nabbed in Pokhara.
PACE
Have not blogged in 3 weeks. A lot going on, a lot of moving around. I'm back in India, Rishakesh to be specific. It's where the beatles came in India to 'find' themselves. A lot of yoga, meditation, ect.. ect..
Hot as balls. Like 45 degree's? But we make up for it by finding waterfalls and bathing in the ganges. Met some really cool people. James, who we traveled with for 2 weeks has left back to bangladesh, gunna miss that guy.
Convinced him to shave all his beard except for his mustache and his life litteraly picked up since then. He got like 12 compliments a day. Only one guy, this drunk as fuck Nepali dude hated it. That's only because he's rascist towards Indians, which apparently a lot of tibetans/nepali's are.
Had a fantastic bday. Filled with hash, boat rides, boozing, steak, pool and more hash.. oh! and lemon fantas.. yyuummm.
Met up with a buddy from home in pokhara. That was cool. Hung out with alot of wierdo travelers fucked on valium, the essentials for long travels.
Just finished a 32 hour bus ride. Haridwar was balls, ganges was nice. Met a Indian tourist who loves his 'bang lassis'. Now in Rishakesh.
Gone tommorrow. Off to Manali, the mountain getaway, woot woot.
Its always tough to write this stuff. So much goes on in just a day, let alone trying to fill a 3 week gap in my travel blog.
ok. so I have decided a few things, since I've had time to contemplate my future. 1) I will be going to south america in the fall. 2) I am going to take my free trip to israel in december 3) moving to denmark will be in jan/feb unless unforseen events occur 4) I'll be going to N.B., N.S., T-dot, O-dot and the NYC during the gaps of the previous three points i have mentioned.
Ok, off to smoke 20 cent cigarettes, drink a limca (best drink on earth), listen to my ipod and work on this killer sudoku book I nabbed in Pokhara.
PACE
Thursday, May 14, 2009
One Week In
Hello errvyone,
So I suppose I'm supposed to give you all a summary of my trip thus far. I'll try to do it justice, but no promises.
The flight was pretty good. We got the seats we wanted, the food was great and we got pretty wasted since we get all the free booze we want. Trip was pretty long though. Think the whole thing was 20 hours?
So we get in Delhi just fine. Andrew accidentally gives the guy for the paid taxis (since we didn't wanna have to flag down a tuk tuk after being on a plane so long)way too much money. The guy played dumb, but Andrew was pretty confident and sure enough to get him to cough up the extra 500 rupees he pocketed (15 bucks?).
So we tell the taxi to bring us near the central train station. Apparently its where a lot of backpackers go to find a cheap place and head out the next day. There is a reason why many people from delhi look down on this area. It was pretty filthy. I mean like shit and piss everywhere and people shouting at you ect...
I didn't notice it then, but Andrew was pretty shocked and stressed due to the culture change, which is obviously expected. I suppose my prior trip with Sean to SEA prepared me for what we saw. We decided to pick a guest house close to this celebration going on. Little did we know that it went on to 430am and starting again at 7am, suffice to say, we did not get a good sleep.
The next day we had about 6 hours to kill before we hitched our 15 hour train ride to Varanasi. We walked around with our bags and payed the obvious price. People harassing us to go here, buy that, do this. We avoided as much as we can. We sat down for some shade at one point and low and behold, a group of 'professional' ear cleaners offered their services. Did I say offer? I ended up reading hilarious testimonials he got tourists to write about his ear cleaning services. When I didn't respond well, he offered to look in my ears for free, lucky me. When I refused, he showed me various pictures of him cleaning other tourists ears. What a trooper.
Train to Varanasi wasn't too bad. We met some really cool people who had been traveling for a year and India was their last stop. They taught me a new card game which is pretty awesome and kills loads of time.
Varanasi is a crazy little city. Complete chaos and mayhem. You think your going to die just about every second your riding in the back of a tuk tuk. The merchants are relentless and are ready to start the bidding for anything you want about 5 times the price, hoping you'll settle for half which is still outrageous. We took on a friend, Alison is her name. We met her at the train station and is still traveling with us here in Darjeeling (where I am writing this). We ended up at a really nice guest house with a court yard, good food and close to the Ganges (what people go to Varanasi for). Took some walks on the Ganges, watched the beginning of a cremation, the whole works.
Ended up meeting these four awesome girls from Australia and pretty much chilled with them for the 3 days we were in town for. We took a sunrise tour on the Ganges by boat watching people bathe in probably the most polluted water source known to mankind, it was good times. We got serenaded and everything. Andrew searched his heart out for a sari for Lianne but alas, it is VERY difficult to haggle, especially when your a foreigner and you don't know shit.
We winded up in a variety of shops. Some saris were awesome but too expensive, others offered us shit. They try to doll you up a lot by offering you things to drink and showing you shit you didn't ask to see. We winded up at one place where they showed us these wool/cotton blankets. They were incredible. Seriously awesome stuff. We angrily haggled them down to 2500 rupees each from 4800 each. But in the end, we walked out thinking we'll find better stuff. I hope we do, cause this one blanket was animal themed, and I really really liked it. So I hope I can find something better in Kashmir or something.
We finally said our goodbyes to Varanasi and the people at the guest house and headed off to jump on a 16 hour train to JNP, the drop off point to get a 3 hour jeep to Darjeeling. We left at 730pm in Varanasi and arrived in Darjeeling at 730pm the next day. Suffice to say, we were dirty, hungry and tired as all hell.
The journey had taken a lot out of me. There were no signs telling us which train cabin we were in so we had to ask. People weren't very helpful except for one who finally told us. When we entered in our cabin, it was FILLED with people sleeping on 'our seats'. We thought it was the wrong cart, ran around for a few more minutes to then realize that they had just decided to sleep on empty seats since Delhi. I quite viciously, kicked them out of their spots, got stuck with the bottom bunk, although I'd rather it had been me over Alison or Andrew, and enjoyed a terrible sleep. The only redeeming feature of the ride, other than booting this one motherfucker who tried to cuddle me, was meeting 'Yesh'. Really nice kid on his way to visit his parents in Nepal. He gave us a bunch of advice, we talked about life, he showed me the girl he's arranged to be married, it was a nice chat.
Haven't bathed or eaten in 29 hours, we arrived at NJP station. We then scrambled to the jeep stand in the nearby twin city (Silguri) and hopped in a jeep packed with 12 people for a 3 1/2 hour ride or so. The drive was breathtaking. It seriously is fantastic out here. The hills and cliffs and tea villages. It was just spectacular. During the drive we went from sweating buckets, to cold as ice. The temperature drop and altitude change was pretty intense. We finally arrived at our destination, walked around for a bit in the cold, then found our destination.
Nice, quiet place. Beds are simple. The owner is really nice. We ended up having a nice chat with a Tibetan man who was quite distraught at the transformation happening in his city, the new apt. buildings and such. With some encouragement from him, we realized how completely different central India is from Northern. The people, the culture the weather, literally everything. We felt safe. No harassment, no fear, no leering. It is just so nice. Also, as a side note, people in Northern India are mostly Tibetan and Nepalese looking people, not south Indian (stereotype of what an Indian looks like).
Had a really nice first day, no beg bug bites :) (Andrews thing). We walked around almost the entire city meeting a lot of people, scoping the Himalayas. We eventually bumped into this Nepalese man who converted to Christianity despite his father being Hindu and mother being Buddhist. Our discussion led us into his home where we drank tea and furthered talking. Although he claimed to know the truth, he knew little about religious traditions or 'fads' outside his own city such as Islam being the fastest growing religion in the world. It was nice though, and his dog was hilarious. We met a friend of his, a famous drummer apparently.
We eventually met up with Alison, got some grub and then decided to watch a bollywood movie. Turns out, its from bollywood, not a bollywood movie. It was set in Darjeeling actually and wasn't too bad of a movie despite the over acting, but who gives a shit right? What the best thing was about it was that at one scene, this guy is trying to serenade his wife in a bar and who do we see? the freaking drummer guy we met at the christian dude's house!!!! Me and Andrew instantly looked at each other and burst out in laughter. I almost shit myself.
Well, I've left out a lot of details but this is what you're getting. Hope you enjoyed my first entry! PACE
So I suppose I'm supposed to give you all a summary of my trip thus far. I'll try to do it justice, but no promises.
The flight was pretty good. We got the seats we wanted, the food was great and we got pretty wasted since we get all the free booze we want. Trip was pretty long though. Think the whole thing was 20 hours?
So we get in Delhi just fine. Andrew accidentally gives the guy for the paid taxis (since we didn't wanna have to flag down a tuk tuk after being on a plane so long)way too much money. The guy played dumb, but Andrew was pretty confident and sure enough to get him to cough up the extra 500 rupees he pocketed (15 bucks?).
So we tell the taxi to bring us near the central train station. Apparently its where a lot of backpackers go to find a cheap place and head out the next day. There is a reason why many people from delhi look down on this area. It was pretty filthy. I mean like shit and piss everywhere and people shouting at you ect...
I didn't notice it then, but Andrew was pretty shocked and stressed due to the culture change, which is obviously expected. I suppose my prior trip with Sean to SEA prepared me for what we saw. We decided to pick a guest house close to this celebration going on. Little did we know that it went on to 430am and starting again at 7am, suffice to say, we did not get a good sleep.
The next day we had about 6 hours to kill before we hitched our 15 hour train ride to Varanasi. We walked around with our bags and payed the obvious price. People harassing us to go here, buy that, do this. We avoided as much as we can. We sat down for some shade at one point and low and behold, a group of 'professional' ear cleaners offered their services. Did I say offer? I ended up reading hilarious testimonials he got tourists to write about his ear cleaning services. When I didn't respond well, he offered to look in my ears for free, lucky me. When I refused, he showed me various pictures of him cleaning other tourists ears. What a trooper.
Train to Varanasi wasn't too bad. We met some really cool people who had been traveling for a year and India was their last stop. They taught me a new card game which is pretty awesome and kills loads of time.
Varanasi is a crazy little city. Complete chaos and mayhem. You think your going to die just about every second your riding in the back of a tuk tuk. The merchants are relentless and are ready to start the bidding for anything you want about 5 times the price, hoping you'll settle for half which is still outrageous. We took on a friend, Alison is her name. We met her at the train station and is still traveling with us here in Darjeeling (where I am writing this). We ended up at a really nice guest house with a court yard, good food and close to the Ganges (what people go to Varanasi for). Took some walks on the Ganges, watched the beginning of a cremation, the whole works.
Ended up meeting these four awesome girls from Australia and pretty much chilled with them for the 3 days we were in town for. We took a sunrise tour on the Ganges by boat watching people bathe in probably the most polluted water source known to mankind, it was good times. We got serenaded and everything. Andrew searched his heart out for a sari for Lianne but alas, it is VERY difficult to haggle, especially when your a foreigner and you don't know shit.
We winded up in a variety of shops. Some saris were awesome but too expensive, others offered us shit. They try to doll you up a lot by offering you things to drink and showing you shit you didn't ask to see. We winded up at one place where they showed us these wool/cotton blankets. They were incredible. Seriously awesome stuff. We angrily haggled them down to 2500 rupees each from 4800 each. But in the end, we walked out thinking we'll find better stuff. I hope we do, cause this one blanket was animal themed, and I really really liked it. So I hope I can find something better in Kashmir or something.
We finally said our goodbyes to Varanasi and the people at the guest house and headed off to jump on a 16 hour train to JNP, the drop off point to get a 3 hour jeep to Darjeeling. We left at 730pm in Varanasi and arrived in Darjeeling at 730pm the next day. Suffice to say, we were dirty, hungry and tired as all hell.
The journey had taken a lot out of me. There were no signs telling us which train cabin we were in so we had to ask. People weren't very helpful except for one who finally told us. When we entered in our cabin, it was FILLED with people sleeping on 'our seats'. We thought it was the wrong cart, ran around for a few more minutes to then realize that they had just decided to sleep on empty seats since Delhi. I quite viciously, kicked them out of their spots, got stuck with the bottom bunk, although I'd rather it had been me over Alison or Andrew, and enjoyed a terrible sleep. The only redeeming feature of the ride, other than booting this one motherfucker who tried to cuddle me, was meeting 'Yesh'. Really nice kid on his way to visit his parents in Nepal. He gave us a bunch of advice, we talked about life, he showed me the girl he's arranged to be married, it was a nice chat.
Haven't bathed or eaten in 29 hours, we arrived at NJP station. We then scrambled to the jeep stand in the nearby twin city (Silguri) and hopped in a jeep packed with 12 people for a 3 1/2 hour ride or so. The drive was breathtaking. It seriously is fantastic out here. The hills and cliffs and tea villages. It was just spectacular. During the drive we went from sweating buckets, to cold as ice. The temperature drop and altitude change was pretty intense. We finally arrived at our destination, walked around for a bit in the cold, then found our destination.
Nice, quiet place. Beds are simple. The owner is really nice. We ended up having a nice chat with a Tibetan man who was quite distraught at the transformation happening in his city, the new apt. buildings and such. With some encouragement from him, we realized how completely different central India is from Northern. The people, the culture the weather, literally everything. We felt safe. No harassment, no fear, no leering. It is just so nice. Also, as a side note, people in Northern India are mostly Tibetan and Nepalese looking people, not south Indian (stereotype of what an Indian looks like).
Had a really nice first day, no beg bug bites :) (Andrews thing). We walked around almost the entire city meeting a lot of people, scoping the Himalayas. We eventually bumped into this Nepalese man who converted to Christianity despite his father being Hindu and mother being Buddhist. Our discussion led us into his home where we drank tea and furthered talking. Although he claimed to know the truth, he knew little about religious traditions or 'fads' outside his own city such as Islam being the fastest growing religion in the world. It was nice though, and his dog was hilarious. We met a friend of his, a famous drummer apparently.
We eventually met up with Alison, got some grub and then decided to watch a bollywood movie. Turns out, its from bollywood, not a bollywood movie. It was set in Darjeeling actually and wasn't too bad of a movie despite the over acting, but who gives a shit right? What the best thing was about it was that at one scene, this guy is trying to serenade his wife in a bar and who do we see? the freaking drummer guy we met at the christian dude's house!!!! Me and Andrew instantly looked at each other and burst out in laughter. I almost shit myself.
Well, I've left out a lot of details but this is what you're getting. Hope you enjoyed my first entry! PACE
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
NEW CHAPTER
So,
This is the first post of my India/Nepal trip. Haven't left yet, leave tomorrow. Packing is in process. I will attempt to update this blog more than I did while I was in SEA but I cannot guarantee it. I hope you all enjoy what I have to say.
-Dave
This is the first post of my India/Nepal trip. Haven't left yet, leave tomorrow. Packing is in process. I will attempt to update this blog more than I did while I was in SEA but I cannot guarantee it. I hope you all enjoy what I have to say.
-Dave
Friday, June 6, 2008
I do not feel like blogging
so I wont.
Whast you need to know is that we gots our chinese visa and we're heading to the islands tonight, most likely Krabi then Ko Jum.
Peace
Whast you need to know is that we gots our chinese visa and we're heading to the islands tonight, most likely Krabi then Ko Jum.
Peace
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