We made it to Nepal! We crossed the border on Sunday (Valentines Day) and were glad to escape the mentalness of India for the relative clam of Nepal :)
We first visited Lumbini which is one hour from the India/Nepal border, and is the exact birthplace of Buddha, which was an awesome thing to see. The garden around it is covered in Buddhist prayer flags and many pilgrims.
We then left here for a small undiscovered town of Tansen, where we only met two other white people in 2 days! This town was a really nice introduction to the Nepalese people and culture, without the usual tourist trappings.
We left here for Pokhara on a local bus at 5am in the morning, and today have just sat outside in our accommodation garden relaxing, due to possible exhaustion. Maybe the stresses and the constant travel and changes have exhausted me, because today I've hardly been able to muster enough energy to get up. This does not bode to well as we wanted to start a 10-14 day trek into the mountains in a few days! Maybe one day in one place doing absolutely nothing will be enough?!
New experiences in Nepal are varied and many, just within the first day i did four new things i've never done in my life before:-
1. Visited the birth place of Buddha
2. Rode on the roof of a packed local bus (more on this...)
3. Had water-buffalo for tea
4. Crossed the Nepal/India border
This was all on Valentines day and i don't think i'll ever have such a varied one again.
Riding on the roofs of buses in Nepal is awesome, the Advantages include:-
1. The best air conditioning
2. The most leg room (inside the bus is always packed well beyond capacity!)
3. Stunning scenery
4. You get to keep an eye on all your luggage (theft is a real problem on the Nepali buses, Chrissy already foiled two attempts of theft, while she was trying to pay for tickets!)
5. You get to meet interesting characters (like the smiley Tibetan who was doing a circuit of the four major Buddhist pilgrimage sites)
The dangers however are... everything! Bus crashes are common in Nepal, and most roads travel along mountain passes, and of course you're not strapped in, hold on tight! Also the practice seems quasi-illegal, traffic police don't like it at all, and motion for you to get down, until the conductor intervenes and sorts it out!
As soon as i have energy again we'll be departing for the Himalayas trekking along the Anaapurna base camp trek, so this will probably be the last post until Kathmandu in about 14-18 days time.
So for now we just need to focus on getting a warm sleeping bag, trekking shoes, warm clothes, let our embassies know and organize a trekking permit!
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Naked Sadhu kisses Christina!
We reluctantly left Dharamsala a few days ago on an over night bus to Rishikesh. Dharamsala was quite literally a breath of fresh air, the mountains and gentle spirit of the Tibetans helped a lot as well.
We actually saw the Dalai Lama as well! Completely by accident we were walking close to his residence after breakfast, and there was a crowd of people waiting, we waited for a while and a convoy of cars came along with the Dalai Lama in one of the cars, waving (just like the queen!). This was as much as we could have hopped for considering his schedule and less than optimal health. It was a very special experience to see and have the Dalai Lama one meter away from you!
We arrived in Rishikesh at about 7am after getting multiple buses and rickshaws, the place is nice, but a bit cliche in all of it's yoga/hippy vibe. It claims itself to be the worlds yoga centre, where every self-professed guru offers a class for the right price. Although i could imagine staying in one of the Ashrams might be rather more authentic. The place is probably most famous for The Beatles visiting an Ashram and writing most of the White album there. This is also the first place where we saw the Ganges river, and as such is considered a very holy town.
The surrounding hills out of the valley offer some nice walks, and it was on one of these walks that we encountered our first naked Sadhu (Hindu holy man), he was just walking along the quite cliff road, completely naked, walking towards us, he then proceeded to talk to us in maybe Hindu or maybe even Sanskrit, and either blessed or cursed me and Christina. It's hard to tell, my powers of discern were blunted by the real fact that he was wearing no clothes at all, and covered in some kind of white powder, which I'm really hoping was not human ashes, as some Sadhus seem keen on this practice. In hindsight this should have been the strangest encounter we've had in India, but at the time it kind of made sense, which leads us to believe we've been in India for far too long!!!
We left Rishikesh quite happily feeling a kind of urgency to leave, you could call this being scarred by naked sadhus or the encroaching storm. By the time we reached the train station in Haridwar the storm had started with much rain and lightening all around, we got very wet and muddy in a very short time.
The train from Haridwar to Varanasi took much too long (22 hours), and as usual was filled with the joys of traveling sleeper class (cockroaches/beggars/weirdos...). It reminds me of a conversation Christina had with a Sikh in Delhi which went something like ....
"What! You're taking sleeper class!!? But you're white, you must have enough money for AC!"
We arrived in Varanasi yesterday to much hassle at the train station, as soon as we stepped off the platform, a guy tried to befriend us, asking us where we're staying and which guidebook we have (tip: try and confuse them by saying you are traveling by the guidance of the gods instead of lonely planet!), he then proceeded to wait while we booked our onward train ticket, and followed me out to the main car park while i was scouting for the pre-paid auto-rickshaw booth, i made it very clear he was getting no money from us and we didn't require any of his "services", i also suggested a visit to the nearby tourist police, at the mention of which he turned and left me alone! Only to see him another ten minutes later waiting for us outside the ticket booking office again! When we left here he followed me, along with five other hustlers through the car park to the pre-paid rickshaw booth, where i made it very clear in public to all that i did not want to get into a Rickshaw with him. At some point we arrived at our chosen accommodation in Varanasi, without paying anyone commission, quite an achievement in Varanasi!
We leave for Nepal in two days time, and to be fair we're done with India, it's an amazing country but we're exhausted by all the travel and (a minority) of the people, and most of all the crazed traffic!
We actually saw the Dalai Lama as well! Completely by accident we were walking close to his residence after breakfast, and there was a crowd of people waiting, we waited for a while and a convoy of cars came along with the Dalai Lama in one of the cars, waving (just like the queen!). This was as much as we could have hopped for considering his schedule and less than optimal health. It was a very special experience to see and have the Dalai Lama one meter away from you!
We arrived in Rishikesh at about 7am after getting multiple buses and rickshaws, the place is nice, but a bit cliche in all of it's yoga/hippy vibe. It claims itself to be the worlds yoga centre, where every self-professed guru offers a class for the right price. Although i could imagine staying in one of the Ashrams might be rather more authentic. The place is probably most famous for The Beatles visiting an Ashram and writing most of the White album there. This is also the first place where we saw the Ganges river, and as such is considered a very holy town.
The surrounding hills out of the valley offer some nice walks, and it was on one of these walks that we encountered our first naked Sadhu (Hindu holy man), he was just walking along the quite cliff road, completely naked, walking towards us, he then proceeded to talk to us in maybe Hindu or maybe even Sanskrit, and either blessed or cursed me and Christina. It's hard to tell, my powers of discern were blunted by the real fact that he was wearing no clothes at all, and covered in some kind of white powder, which I'm really hoping was not human ashes, as some Sadhus seem keen on this practice. In hindsight this should have been the strangest encounter we've had in India, but at the time it kind of made sense, which leads us to believe we've been in India for far too long!!!
We left Rishikesh quite happily feeling a kind of urgency to leave, you could call this being scarred by naked sadhus or the encroaching storm. By the time we reached the train station in Haridwar the storm had started with much rain and lightening all around, we got very wet and muddy in a very short time.
The train from Haridwar to Varanasi took much too long (22 hours), and as usual was filled with the joys of traveling sleeper class (cockroaches/beggars/weirdos...). It reminds me of a conversation Christina had with a Sikh in Delhi which went something like ....
"What! You're taking sleeper class!!? But you're white, you must have enough money for AC!"
We arrived in Varanasi yesterday to much hassle at the train station, as soon as we stepped off the platform, a guy tried to befriend us, asking us where we're staying and which guidebook we have (tip: try and confuse them by saying you are traveling by the guidance of the gods instead of lonely planet!), he then proceeded to wait while we booked our onward train ticket, and followed me out to the main car park while i was scouting for the pre-paid auto-rickshaw booth, i made it very clear he was getting no money from us and we didn't require any of his "services", i also suggested a visit to the nearby tourist police, at the mention of which he turned and left me alone! Only to see him another ten minutes later waiting for us outside the ticket booking office again! When we left here he followed me, along with five other hustlers through the car park to the pre-paid rickshaw booth, where i made it very clear in public to all that i did not want to get into a Rickshaw with him. At some point we arrived at our chosen accommodation in Varanasi, without paying anyone commission, quite an achievement in Varanasi!
We leave for Nepal in two days time, and to be fair we're done with India, it's an amazing country but we're exhausted by all the travel and (a minority) of the people, and most of all the crazed traffic!
Friday, 6 February 2009
A slice of Tibet in Dharamsala
Yesterday we left Amritsar for Dharamsala, this involved three separate local buses and one rickshaw! The local buses are a lot of fun but quite painful, the total journey time was around 10 hours, and we're now at an elevation of 1770 meters, which means there's snow and it's really cold!!!
We're staying in McLeod Ganj which is 10km further up the mountain from Dharamsala, and the views down into the valley are amazing and the views up to the mountains are even better, it's a nice taste of the Himalayas before we head to Nepal soon.
Dharamsala is the residence of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Government in exile, and as with all of the holy places we've visited in India, it has a special atmosphere. The atmosphere is very different to the Golden Temple in Amritsar, there the atmosphere was one of intense devotion and worship, where as here it's one of complete peacefulness and tranquility, both very special, but for different reasons.
We arrived in the dark last night and looked for a hotel, we found one quite quickly called the Hotel Om, which is run by a really sweet old Tibetan couple, in fact most of the people up here are Tibetan, and it's really like a little slice of Tibet, but probably in some ways more Tibetan than Tibet, due to the Chinese occupation.
We're going to stay here for a few days because it's so unlike the rest of India, this could quite easily be a different country than India, it makes heading down to busy Varanasi seem quite daunting! We've been looking for meditation courses here but there's not that much, due to it being low season here. We may head down to Rishikesh, to continue our spiritual trail, then after that into Varanasi and then towards Nepal.
India is without doubt the craziest country with the widest facets of contrast maybe in the world. It's mind blowing that you can travel a few hours by bus and feel like you're in a new country with different people/religions/temperatures/landscape. My mind is constantly reeling at the speed of change!
Did i mention it's freezing up here, first purchase this morning was a woolly hat from a Tibetan lady.
We're staying in McLeod Ganj which is 10km further up the mountain from Dharamsala, and the views down into the valley are amazing and the views up to the mountains are even better, it's a nice taste of the Himalayas before we head to Nepal soon.
Dharamsala is the residence of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Government in exile, and as with all of the holy places we've visited in India, it has a special atmosphere. The atmosphere is very different to the Golden Temple in Amritsar, there the atmosphere was one of intense devotion and worship, where as here it's one of complete peacefulness and tranquility, both very special, but for different reasons.
We arrived in the dark last night and looked for a hotel, we found one quite quickly called the Hotel Om, which is run by a really sweet old Tibetan couple, in fact most of the people up here are Tibetan, and it's really like a little slice of Tibet, but probably in some ways more Tibetan than Tibet, due to the Chinese occupation.
We're going to stay here for a few days because it's so unlike the rest of India, this could quite easily be a different country than India, it makes heading down to busy Varanasi seem quite daunting! We've been looking for meditation courses here but there's not that much, due to it being low season here. We may head down to Rishikesh, to continue our spiritual trail, then after that into Varanasi and then towards Nepal.
India is without doubt the craziest country with the widest facets of contrast maybe in the world. It's mind blowing that you can travel a few hours by bus and feel like you're in a new country with different people/religions/temperatures/landscape. My mind is constantly reeling at the speed of change!
Did i mention it's freezing up here, first purchase this morning was a woolly hat from a Tibetan lady.
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Desert Safari!
We've finished the desert state of Rajhastan now, and befitting of a desert state we had to go out into the desert!
Through our hotel we organized a two day and one night trip into the desert on camels. We went especially far into the desert via jeep to get away from the usual tourist routes, and were in fact only 20Km from the Pakistan India border. We didn't see any other tourists in the whole trip it was just us, the guide, the camels, and the occasional nomad! We each had our own camel to ride, which we learnt how to control and ride pretty much without assistance.
After the first day we stopped riding and set-up camp in some very nice sand dunes, and spent the night under the amazing night sky, with zero light pollution! I've never seen so many stars, satellites and shooting stars. That was the highlight for me. On the second day we proceeded to ride through a lot more desert and we visited several small villages, where life seems especially tough as pretty much nothing will grow in the heat they have. By 5pm on the second day we'd had enough of riding camels, it really really hurts!
After Jaisalmer we traveled back to Delhi on an overnight train, stopping in Delhi for just a few hours before carrying on another over night journey to Amritsar. The strangest thing happened (well many strange things happen on Indian train journey!) i woke up at 5am to see some random bloke wearing my sandals, no idea what he was doing with them, but i grabbed them back, glared at him and that was it! So random, i was just completely shocked. Everything else we had was locked up and secure except my sandals, a lesson learnt for next time! It seems Indians don't have the same boundaries as Europeans, we've had other passengers sit down in our carriage complete one of my sudoku puzzles and then move on again without saying a word, we've had numerous inspections of the books we've been reading too, sometimes it feels like we're a travelling library :)
Today we arrived in Amritsar which is most famous for the Sikhs most holiest of temples, the golden temple ! We're staying within the temple grounds where it's free to stay and eat, and we've met a lot of friendly Sikhs, even one on a pilgrimage from Southampton back in England! He was cool and helped me put on my turban, some people even claimed i looked Punjabi, the long beard is starting to pay off!! It's an awesome temple, surrounded by a lake and covered in 750KG of pure gold, and the place has an atmosphere, unlike the last ashram we visited.
Earlier we took the bus to the small village of Attari (a short distance from the Pakistan/India boarder) where we watched the boarder ceremony, which was hilarious. The Indian army and Pakistan army try and out do each other with macho poses and posturing, both sides has scores of spectators/supporters which are on each side of the boarder and there's a lot of national pride visible within both sides.
Tomorrow we're heading for Dharamsala, home to the Dalai Lama, and the tibetan government in exile. We look forward to that, but not the drop in temperature.
Just in case you were wondering, i'm still wearing my turban now, whilst writing this :)
Through our hotel we organized a two day and one night trip into the desert on camels. We went especially far into the desert via jeep to get away from the usual tourist routes, and were in fact only 20Km from the Pakistan India border. We didn't see any other tourists in the whole trip it was just us, the guide, the camels, and the occasional nomad! We each had our own camel to ride, which we learnt how to control and ride pretty much without assistance.
After the first day we stopped riding and set-up camp in some very nice sand dunes, and spent the night under the amazing night sky, with zero light pollution! I've never seen so many stars, satellites and shooting stars. That was the highlight for me. On the second day we proceeded to ride through a lot more desert and we visited several small villages, where life seems especially tough as pretty much nothing will grow in the heat they have. By 5pm on the second day we'd had enough of riding camels, it really really hurts!
After Jaisalmer we traveled back to Delhi on an overnight train, stopping in Delhi for just a few hours before carrying on another over night journey to Amritsar. The strangest thing happened (well many strange things happen on Indian train journey!) i woke up at 5am to see some random bloke wearing my sandals, no idea what he was doing with them, but i grabbed them back, glared at him and that was it! So random, i was just completely shocked. Everything else we had was locked up and secure except my sandals, a lesson learnt for next time! It seems Indians don't have the same boundaries as Europeans, we've had other passengers sit down in our carriage complete one of my sudoku puzzles and then move on again without saying a word, we've had numerous inspections of the books we've been reading too, sometimes it feels like we're a travelling library :)
Today we arrived in Amritsar which is most famous for the Sikhs most holiest of temples, the golden temple ! We're staying within the temple grounds where it's free to stay and eat, and we've met a lot of friendly Sikhs, even one on a pilgrimage from Southampton back in England! He was cool and helped me put on my turban, some people even claimed i looked Punjabi, the long beard is starting to pay off!! It's an awesome temple, surrounded by a lake and covered in 750KG of pure gold, and the place has an atmosphere, unlike the last ashram we visited.
Earlier we took the bus to the small village of Attari (a short distance from the Pakistan/India boarder) where we watched the boarder ceremony, which was hilarious. The Indian army and Pakistan army try and out do each other with macho poses and posturing, both sides has scores of spectators/supporters which are on each side of the boarder and there's a lot of national pride visible within both sides.
Tomorrow we're heading for Dharamsala, home to the Dalai Lama, and the tibetan government in exile. We look forward to that, but not the drop in temperature.
Just in case you were wondering, i'm still wearing my turban now, whilst writing this :)
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