Namaste to India

We're sad to report our journey is complete and we fly back to the U.S. tonight. For those who have been brave enough to follow my blog the past 10 weeks, this will be my last post. :-(

Lori and I arrived Delhi from Rajastan yesterday after a looooong 19 hour train ride. Rajastan was great and predictably hot. The only downfall to going during the low season was that many places were closed and I think it lacked some of the liveliness it might normally hold had we gone during cooler months. Even the obnoxious touts seemed too hot to bother us. Instead of being harassed when we walked by shops, we'd just see feet and arms dangling out the door where the shopkeepers were lethargically sleeping. The waiters of restaurants that chose to remain open had an attitude when you entered suggesting, "If it weren't for you, I could be sleeping off this hot day, you stupid tourist."

But Lori and I didn't let the pesky 108 degree heat slow us down because we're Americans, damnit! We rolled into each town and took in all the sights. We signed up for a cooking course in Udaipur and learned how to whip up a delicious curry with chipotte. We sat on rooftops in Jodhpur watching the full moon rise over the red hills, enjoying cool night breezes and King Fisher beers.

We saved the very best for last and embarked on a camel safari in the western city of Jaisalmer. Our guide was the famous Mr. Desert and we had a surprisingly comfortable ride atop Balu and Babalu in the Thar Desert while they burped, grunted and snorted and were clearly annoyed as well that we chose to travel during the hot season. Along our journey we saw wild peacock and gazelle running by in the distance, while back at camp we sat on a blanket and watched several shooting stars until a hot dinner of Indian thali was served.

Our trip was wrought with a little havoc when I threw my back out 4 days ago. I think I used poor body mechanics carrying my bag the day before and it came back to haunt me. Without warning, I had the worse back spasms and couldn't even stand. The beauty of India is there is a chemist on every corner and you can buy all sorts of good drugs here they'd never let you purchase over-the-counter at home. Someone recommended I try 'nise' and it was the 'nisest' thing I could have done. It allowed me to partake in camel rides and 19 hour train trips that would have been impossible otherwise.

The things I'll miss most about India are the food, colors, spirituality, cows and people. The things I'll miss the least are the filth and lack of personal space. Lori said she's glad we did this trip in our 30's and I have to agree. Travelling through India is not easy, but it is very rewarding. Now I'm ready to come home and pop open a bottle of red wine and have a juicy steak!

Thanks for sharing my journies with me.
Love Kristin

Udaipur and Fukhar

Lori and I are now in Udaipur, who's recent claim to fame was the filming of a James Bond movie (Octopussy) a few years back. It's a beautiful city with several huge palaces from the old Maharaja days. I attached the above video of a scene we witnessed from our hotel balcony. We were in our room and heard drums and singing drawing closer from outside. We opened the door and the noise had scared the monkeys and they were running and jumping all over the rooftops trying to get away. We waited for the monkeys to clear and came out to find a procession of women in flamboyant saris marching behind a band which stopped just at the Hindu temple below our balcony. We later learned this was a bachelorette party! I hope my friends throw me something as lavish someday when I get married.

A funny thing happened to us on our way to Udaipur, which I probably shouldn't write in my blog but I will anyway. We were in a rickshaw on our way to catch our overnight bus. This rickshaw was a little different from most in that the seats faced backwards and we had to stare at the traffic the whole way. We thought the station was a quick 5 minutes away, but it turned out to be more like 20 minutes across town. Two large, white girls facing all the traffic was quite a site and we had several honks and waves and flashing headlights directed our way.

Now I try to be very humble when encountering Indian men. Unless they are with their wife and kids, I don't make eye contact because unlike the U.S., it might be miscontrued for wanting something more. Those who know Lori will not be surprised that Lori is the opposite and never saw a person she didn't want to wave and say hello to. So when a couple guys on a motorcyle followed us for a bit and then turned off and waved, Lori waved back and yelled "Namaste!" The next thing we knew, that bike was right behind us again and they were following in full pursuit. Our rickshaw driver stopped briefly and one of the guys ran over to talk to Lori. He told her it was destiny that they met and he immediately gave her his phone number and e-mail and tried to set up a time to talk the following day.

When he introduced himeself, I about choked at his name. It was "Fakhar" but sounded phonetically like......well, you get the idea. Lori and I did everything we could not to laugh while he explained that Fakhar meant "proud." When we finally left, Lori said, "Fakhar, I will never forget your name" and he stood there and beamed at the compliment. We both yelled out, "Bye Fakhar" and "Take care Fakhar" and couldn't stop laughing as we pulled away. Lori stated, "He's one proud Fakhar."

We finally arrived at our bus to find we were the only women on board and our sleeping berths were about 5'x 2' and could barely fit us. In addition, the 3 berths surrounding us were filled with men who looked and dressed like the Taliban. The whole bus stared while we tried to fit our luggage in the berths and get sorted out. And low and behold, I turned around and Fakhar had followed Lori across town to make sure she got on the bus okay.

I squeezed into my berth and shut the curtain and fell asleep chuckling to the Taliban's horror at Lori as she yelled down the bus, "Goodnight Fakhar, thanks for checking on me Fakhar."

Namaste from Rajastan. We arrived yesterday in Pushkar, which is famous for it's beautiful, holy lake. Unfortunately, the holy lake needed some holy maintenance and so it's been drained and there are lots of holy bulldozers digging around inside.

It's actually cooler here than in Dehli so we're enjoying a balmy 100 degree day. We woke up early and climbed to a temple on a nearby mountain. From what we've observed, Indians don't work out much and a climb up a mountain is quite a chore. Therefore, we got a chuckle at the restaurant near the bottom of the trail that was called, "Cafe Base Camp."

It's low season in Rajastan right now due to the heat. I guess some tourists aren't keen on travelling in 119 degree weather. Go Figure. We're enjoying it because we get the locals all to ourselves. Pushkar is a pilgrimage city so many Indians journey here from smaller towns and don't see many enormous white girls. Many people just want to shake our hands and have a chance to speak with us. It's cute because they use children as an excuse to get close to you. They pretend like little Raj wants to meet you but Raj is actually terrified of you and it's his whole extended family of 29 relatives who really want to meet you and shake your hand and get their photos with you.

We've only once had a bad experience with someone who wanted to meet us. It was on an all-night bus trip and in the morning, a guy came up to us and asked if he could borrow our Lonely Planet India book. (As a side note, Indians are interested with whatever I read and always ask to see the book I'm reading.) When he gave the book back, he had a freaky, devilish look on his face and started to move his hand towards Lori and said, "Can I touch you?" Our reaction was so violent he ran back to his seat and hid for the remainder of the trip.

I've been asked by some of you about the negative in India . Overall, we've had a wonderful experience and the positives far outweigh the negatives. If there are negatives or quirky things, they are the following:

1. Everything is filthy. The streets are jammed packed with pedestrians, cows, cars, motorcyles and garbage. Littering is not only acceptable, it's expected and there is trash everywhere. When walking, you are dodging potholes, honking horns, screaming vehicles, holy cow crap and everyone's dirty garbage.

2. Horns, horns, horns. Every vehicle constantly blares their horn. If you are walking down the street and see a car coming your way and move to the side, they will still blare their horn at you from 3 feet away just to be certain you don't jump in front of their car. They don't consider it rude to contribute to your hearing loss. They think it's compassionate to let you know they're coming.

3. The begging. I expected to see much more begging than we have. I live in Santa Monica and I'd have to say begging there is comparable to India. None-the-less, it's never fun to see a dirty 10 year old carrying their 6 month old sister begging for money or food. Lori and I have a general rule that we don't give any money. What we might do is pop into a store or restaurant and buy them some naan or milk.

4. This last one isn't really negative, it's more comical. Whenever we pull into town early in the morning on a train or bus, you'll always see the men lined up around the tracks or out in the field using the toilet. But they aren't technically using a 'toilet', they are just squatting and doing what needs to be done. We never notice the women doing it and we chalk it up to women being more evolved and a little classier than men!

Right, Lori and I are off to Udaipur now on yet another overnight bus. I'll report more from there! Love K

Smelly Dehli

I've been remiss in posting anything in the past week. Now that our trip is slowly coming to an end, we're rushing around trying to see and do everything! We just arrived in Delhi this morning after another long bus trip (16.5 hours.) Usually after such a long trip we compare cankles on arrival. This morning I won.
We had an incredible journey through all of Kashmir. After leaving the western Islamic area, we took a 20 hour jeep ride on one of the most remarkable roads I've traveled. It crossed two mountain ranges and passed along the border of Pakistan and slowly entered the peaceful Buddhist region of Ladakh.
We stayed in the capital of Ladakh called Leh, which is 11,500 feet above sea level. It was so cold that Lori wore a heavy wool blanket whenever we left our room (much to my dismay.) We went up to the Nubra Valley and crossed over the highest motorable pass in the world at 18,500 ft. The next day we crossed it again, and the following day we headed south and crossed the 2nd highest motorable road at 17,500 ft. It's a strange feeling when 16,000 feet feels just about normal and you have no problems with shortness of breath.
After leaving the Kashmir region, we travelled to Manali, which is famous for Israelis who travel there after leaving the military to smoke the famous Manali 'charas.' I've never seen so much pot growing wild in my life. It was all over the hills and everywhere you looked. The best thing about the influx of Israelis was the delicious food that all the restaurants served in order to get their business!
From Manali, Lori and I hopped on a bus and arrived Dehli this morning. It is pushing 108 degrees here and it's a hard adjustment after the freezing weather up north. (I know I have no sympathy from my Phoenix relatives.) Lori and couldn't take it at one point today and had to find a bar that sold cold beer and had A/C. Tomorrow we take the train to Rajastan, where it's even hotter. We changed our plane tickets to fly back two weeks later. There is just so much to see and so little time to see it.
I'll write more from Rajastan. I've posted more photos to the right.
Love K

Kashmir

Hello from Kashmir. We're in the city of Sriningar right now staying on a houseboat on the lovely Dal Lake. We left Dharamsala without any Dalai Lama sightings, but still had a great time and learned a lot about Tibetan culture.
Next, we took a bus to Amritsar, which is the prominent Sikh area of India. The Sikhs wear the turbans and practice a religion somewhere in between Hindu and Islam. They are also wonderfully polite and everyone wanted to be sure we enjoyed their famous Golden Temple.
One of the best parts of our visit was going to the India-Pakistan border and watching the border ceremony. Each evening, about 4,000 Indians and Pakistanis come to the border and gather in bleachers for an elaborate show the soldiers put on. The Pakistanis get their citizens all riled up on loudspeakers and the Indian soldiers do the same. The crowds chant and sing and the Indians scream "Long live Hinduism" and I imagine the Pakistanis were chanting "Long live Islam." Then the soldiers march to he border, throw open the gates, puff their chests out at each other, kick their legs up in the air, and try to out-tough the other guy. But it's all in good fun. Given that India and Pakistan are ready to come to blows in real life, it's kind of sweet they readily agree to put on a fun show each night.
From there, we travelled north to Kashmir. Kashmir has a bad reputation but has actually been safe for the last 3-4 years. We arrived yesterday and it may as well be a separate country. Well, separate except for the hundreds of Indian police lined up along the road getting here. I've never seen such a heavy police force before. There are checkpoints everywhere and several Indian military convoys.
Northern Kashmir is predominantly Muslim. It used to be a huge tourist destination because of it's beauty, but fell into decline after two decades of terrorist attacks. It's surrounded by the Himalayas and there are mountains and lakes and greenery everywhere.
We found a nice houseboat out on the lake and are staying for a few days. The family who owns the houseboat is adorable and invited us to a big Kashmiri party last night. Their friends just moved into a new house and were hosting a housewarming party. There must have been 20 different dishes that we were told took 3days to prepare. The men ate first in the house, and the women ate next in a tent that had been erected. The ladies were delighted to see Lori and I enter the tent, and they were very patient in teaching us how to eat the food. We sat on the floor and each group of 4 shared a huge plate of rice. We ate with our hands and every 5 minutes, someone came by and scooped out a new dish to pour on the rice. Kasmiri food is more like Persian food and there was lots of lamb served. I thought I ate pretty fast but you should have seen these Kashmiri women!!! Wow, I had to be quick just to get a few bites, and
this wasn't easy. Have you ever eaten rice with your hands? I think half of my food ended up in my lap. I must have done something right though because when I finished, an enormous woman came up and gave me a bear hug and a huge kiss on the face. This is our last day in Srinigar. Tomorrow we leave to Ladakh, which is a 2 day, difficult journey over some of the highest mountain passes in the world. Apparently Ladakh is like no other place on earth and we'll be entering Tibetan territory again. That's what I love about India. Every state and city is so completely different from the other.
Okay, until Ladakh.......

Happy Birthday to Me

Thanks to all of you for my wonderful b-day greetings! My special day started with an alarm waking me out of a deep sleep at 5:20am. Lori and I are determined to meet the Dalai Lama and have confirmed he's currently in town. We were told he occasionally makes an appearance at the Buddhist temple around dawn. So off we went half-asleep to the temple. I'm sad to report we didn't have a Dalai-spotting, but we did find how the Tibetans spend their early mornings.
There is a small, winding path that runs 1 kilometer around the temple and living quarters of the Dhali Lama. It's a beautiful trail that looks out over the valleys and mountains and contains prayer flags, prayer wheels, as well as Buddha stupas and gift offerings. The Tibetans walk clockwise around the path at least once and carry their prayer beads and say their morning prayers. It was so beautiful to join them and a great way to start my day.
After leaving the temple area, we gabbed some coffee and had breakfast on our deck. I found a phone and called my whole family back home so they could all sing me happy birthday. (If you think this is obnoxious, you should see me when I'm actually IN the country.)
We plan to spend a few nights in this town. We have a great guesthouse overlooking the mountains and it has a huge deck that just begs us to drink large, cold beers on it. Plus, it was no easy task getting here. After starting the journey without a seat, I realized I had seen my worst nightmare come true: Sitting on the floor of a public bus in India! Shortly thereafter a seat opened and all was good.
Tonight we'll find a nice rooftop restaurant for a celebratory birthday dinner. There are numerous western hippies in town so I'm sure we'll have company. In fact, I just left Lori in a cafe with 3 of them and they were last seen playing cards.
We plan to resume stalking the Dalai Lama tomorrow morning so wish us luck!

Monkey Business

Before I forget, I've had a few of you comment on my swimming in the Ganges River. I should have mentioned that I swam in the Ganges in Rishikesh, the mouth of the river and much further north than where the cremated bodies are thrown in. As a general rule, I try to avoid contracting Hepatitis when I travel. :-)
I don't have much to report. We've been slowly working our way up north. And I do mean slowly. We're getting into mountainous regions and each city we travel takes a minimum of 10 hours to reach by bus.
After leaving Rishikesh, we went to a few towns up in the mountains that are mostly visited by Indians wanting to get away from the heat further south. These cities were started years ago by the British and they all straddle steep hillsides. We're in Shimla now and it's besieged by monkeys. I do not like monkeys and I certainly don't like them here. Back in Rishikesh, we had a monkey try to get in our room and when I intervened, it bared it's teeth and went after ME.
We're on a bus tonight to Dharamsala, which is where the Dali Lama and his exiled Tibetan community live. I wanted to be somewhere nice for my b-day (May 19 in case you wanted to know)and Dharamsala sounds like just the place! Lori is getting tired of me doing the countdown for my birthday. I've already chosen what kind of cake I expect and I want "Happy Birthday Kristin" written in Hindi on the top.
Until my birthday,
Kristin