i left mussoorie with anchal, josh, and zoe in a rented car - a 7 hour drive from mussoorie to delhi. i'm not sure why we took a car instead of a train...a train would probably be safer, much cheaper, and much more comfortable, but anyway we arrived at anchal's father's friend's house in noida, right outside delhi. this was certainly the most wealthy indian residence i had ever been in. honestly, i don't really feel like writing all this right now, i just feel like i need an update on this thing, so i could probably do it more justice at another time, but suffice to say it was a house that would have certainly impressed people even if it was in the united states. it seemed to be all professionally decorated inside, with fish swimming in artificial ponds, subtle lighting, a sunken living area made of stone...plus all the meals that were prepared for us were some of the best i've had. one incredible misfortune to befall me while i was there was the loss of theft of my camera...not sure if it was stolen but i'm 99% sure i didn't remove it from the side pocket of my pack...but i also was not the one to move the pack from the car to the house. suddenly it was just not there. i have to call them to see if it turned up but at this point i'm not overly optimistic. so no pictures on here until i either recover it or get a new one. actually, i'm not as unfortunate as zoe, who got bitten pretty bad on her face by one of the 6 dogs in the place. the dog looked innocent enough but apparently you cannot put your face close to his. she'll recover and probably not even have a mark, but right now it looks like a chunk of her lip got taken out.
one night, we went to an indian wedding, my first one, which was quite nice. it wasn't really as crazy as i thought it would be - i had heard about loud music and drunken dancing, both of which were conspicuously absent, but it was nice. i had on a long orange kurta that inam had made me while in mussoorie, but i think for my friend rachna's brother's wedding i want something a bit nicer. the food was good, the atmosphere was nice, and anchal's father invited me to meet them while they're on their trek to everest in nepal. i may try to do that after rachna's brother's wedding.
the morning after was election day in delhi, and everyone in the house seemed to be worried about getting out on the roads after early morning, so josh and i left at 7:00am - he went to pahar ganj, the slimy backpacker's mecca i've already spoken of, and i went to meet my friend rachna - an indian living in the united states and one of my best friends, who i've known for the past 6 years. anchal and zoe left for kathmandu with anchal's dad.
meeting with rachna was really strange - it was a little odd to see her in her own country. i think we were both feeling a little disoriented - her because it was her first day back in india in a while, and me because i was suddenly estranged from my laid-back life in mussoorie. her parents are really nice and gave me my own room in their apartment, which is where i stayed last night. this is wedding season, and last night we went to yet another wedding. this one seemed slightly more lively, but i still saw no dancing. the food again was amazing. i asked rachna how much she thought events like that cost, and she said that it can easily be $250,000. i did type that correctly, and this is india, so you can imagine how amazed i was by that. given, this is an upper class wedding, but still.
actually, i'm right outside the taj mahal right now. rachna and her family have to prepare for the wedding and i thought it would be best if i left them alone for a bit so they don't feel that they have to take care of a guest in addition to their other responsibilities right now.
i honestly just don't think i'm a sightseeing type tourist. i always fail to meet the expectations of excitment for these tourists destinations. the golden temple, the taj mahal...these are impressive structures, but they're just buildings. i'm neither a historian or an architect - i can appreciate how pretty they look, but what are the characteristics of these huge tourists places? throngs of people, confused westerners, high prices, and always, the suffocating presence of sprawling commercialism and aggressive salesmen that surrounds the gates of whatever you're going to see. you always have to break through a thick layer of this to get to these places.
maybe my definition of tourist destination simply differs from most people. i'm not really that into things like the taj mahal and the lal qilal, but i like playing the guitar in a bar in mussoorie, or looking at the night sky from our balcony, or connecting uniquely with other travelers in mcleod ganj. these are the experiences that are unique to me, that i'll remember most. and there was no entrance fee. my advice to the first time indian traveler would be don't worry about the big tourists spots - go out, get lost, don't stick to your itinerary, always leave the door of opportunity open, keep the positivity up, don't resist anything pulling you away from the cities and towards the stuff that's not even in your guidebook. eventually you'll find yourself having an adventure more fulfilling than you could have imagined before you left. i actually voluntarily left my rough guide to india book at the house in mussoorie. those books, lonely planet and rough guide, are just overgrown directories of restaurants and hotels. you can find those yourself, you don't need to carry around an encyclopedia with you. the most valuable traveler's tool is a sense of humor about yourself and others. even the armies of rickshaw wallas that tourists are so often intimdated by have a sense of humor. i had to wrangle my rickshaw driver down from 1000 rupees to 300 rupees, but we were both laughing the whole way through - plus i'm currently trying to convince him to let me drive his rickshaw and pick up tourists for comic effect, a prospect he just might find hilarious enough to embrace.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend
well, the show at the swanky JP hotel here in mussoorie has been canceled, disappointingly, so i won't be able to perform as part of shiva music group. however, last night we had a party in our place for our friend josh's birthday. our friend kelly came over and we ended up playing probably 20 or 30 songs from the 90s in a row. i was kinda bummed that noone in the house was really into the music of the 90s, but kelly is all about it. so now me, her, and rishi might get together to play at a bar around here, just for fun. the hardest part is choosing between all the different songs of the 90s - we're talking third eye blind, eve 6, jewel, oasis, everlast, fastball, live, ace of base, pearl jam, savage garden, madonna, foo fighters, green day, sara mclaughlan...all the goodies.
haven't done pictures in a while...here are some views from around here:
haven't done pictures in a while...here are some views from around here:
motorcycle
to elaborate on my last entry - i spent forever trying to get a motorcycle here in mussoorie, but it's difficult to find one. there's no dealers so you have to buy from a private person. all the ones i looked at were really expensive for a really crappy bike. then inam, the tailor, offerred to let me use one of his bikes, for free, until i left. inam knows everyone and has been nothing but an all-around good guy to me since i arrived. for some reason i like to refer to him as the kingpin of the mussoorie tailoring underworld. anyway, it took a while to get it because inam first wanted me to have this other bike, which was getting repaired, but it never did get repaired for some reason. so i have this old red and black yamaha. it's been a learning curve the past couple days figuring it out. yesterday i just went around and around the chukker (hindi for "circle"), a pretty scenic drive from chardukkan, where i do my hindi lessons (and where i am now), and my house...just a big loop. today i was brave enough to go down to mullingar, which pitted me against some seriously steep roads...much harder going up than down. actually today i messed up a bit...i had stalled going uphill, i started it back up, put it in first, and must have hit the accelerator too hard, because the bike went right out from under me, and suddenly i was standing up, spooked and desperately trying to control a now vertically oriented motorcycle by the handlebars. i haven't hit the main bazaar yet...that will be the real test. i feel pretty good about riding now. it's just nice to cruise around these winding roads, totally free, the wind in your face, looking out over the valley, the mountains, sometimes even getting a view of the biggies, the snow capped monoliths like nanda devi, out in the distance...
'd love to pick another one up in a different part of india, maybe goa...not sure where i'll settle next but i think settling down for a while is the key to successful and fulfilling travel.
let's see - anything else? the weather is getting really sporadic. it's warm enough now, but last night it actually snowed. we put a ridiculous amount of wood in the bacari (stove), and it was so warm inside we actually slept without blankets on for a while.
i'm happy i get to see my friend rachna in a week and go to her brother's wedding, but i'm sad i have to leave. i would like more time here. i wish i knew more hindi than i'll know when i leave...part of the problem is how little i meet with rani, my teacher, another part is how seldomly i study when i'm not with her. mey karab vidiharti hun. sigh...
namaste,
andrew
'd love to pick another one up in a different part of india, maybe goa...not sure where i'll settle next but i think settling down for a while is the key to successful and fulfilling travel.
let's see - anything else? the weather is getting really sporadic. it's warm enough now, but last night it actually snowed. we put a ridiculous amount of wood in the bacari (stove), and it was so warm inside we actually slept without blankets on for a while.
i'm happy i get to see my friend rachna in a week and go to her brother's wedding, but i'm sad i have to leave. i would like more time here. i wish i knew more hindi than i'll know when i leave...part of the problem is how little i meet with rani, my teacher, another part is how seldomly i study when i'm not with her. mey karab vidiharti hun. sigh...
namaste,
andrew
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
lineage
when my friend bound e-mailed me recently, uncertain about whether she could complete the trail, i suddenly recalled a passage inspired in me by way of adverse conditions, which i relayed to her:
the thru-hiker is a master of adaptation, fierce as campfire embers,
malleable as earth in a stream, cold but emotional, so vulnerable,
impervious to the elements...they breath air, allowing sunshine to
reveal, darkness to obscure...they are ghosts, wraiths, and living, breathing beings....
they are so difficult to provoke, to anger, yet in battle they are formidable, terrifying, they exhibit olympian strength...i cannot tell you how gentle they are...they are first among friends to animals and innocents...they are indescribably peaceful...possessing an unnerving calm that fails to shudder during cold, strives toward pose during inhuman heat...
they are biology's exhibition of spirituality, they convert oxygen into carbon, sugar into energy...in moments of emotion they cry without embarrassment, when they are happy they are absolutely hysterical, inconsolable, a product of wilderness, indistinguishable from the world around them - the earth, the trees...
they are figures recorded far more permanently than any footnote, any textbook, they leave an entire anthology in the branches they bend, the rivers they lessen, the depressions of their footsteps, even rock yields to them, yet they accept the system that covers their passing as they embrace their place in this world, a single thread...a shadow could create more impact than they...they are infallibly human, but they are sad at times, they long impossibly to become the be the entire scene of the sun setting behind the ridgeline, to merge with this wonder...
they are stewards, rangers, sentinels...they assert themselves even in their absence, in the tread of everyone in their footsteps, in those of who they follow as well, the proudest lineage, a race without nationality, standing taller than the himalayas, causing light to illuminate the morning, and casting shadows at night, way over the ridges and valleys, after the last ember is gone out, the last mile is walked, the smoke permeates the shelters, the new generation sleeps, absolutely in awe, in dream...
the thru-hiker is a master of adaptation, fierce as campfire embers,
malleable as earth in a stream, cold but emotional, so vulnerable,
impervious to the elements...they breath air, allowing sunshine to
reveal, darkness to obscure...they are ghosts, wraiths, and living, breathing beings....
they are so difficult to provoke, to anger, yet in battle they are formidable, terrifying, they exhibit olympian strength...i cannot tell you how gentle they are...they are first among friends to animals and innocents...they are indescribably peaceful...possessing an unnerving calm that fails to shudder during cold, strives toward pose during inhuman heat...
they are biology's exhibition of spirituality, they convert oxygen into carbon, sugar into energy...in moments of emotion they cry without embarrassment, when they are happy they are absolutely hysterical, inconsolable, a product of wilderness, indistinguishable from the world around them - the earth, the trees...
they are figures recorded far more permanently than any footnote, any textbook, they leave an entire anthology in the branches they bend, the rivers they lessen, the depressions of their footsteps, even rock yields to them, yet they accept the system that covers their passing as they embrace their place in this world, a single thread...a shadow could create more impact than they...they are infallibly human, but they are sad at times, they long impossibly to become the be the entire scene of the sun setting behind the ridgeline, to merge with this wonder...
they are stewards, rangers, sentinels...they assert themselves even in their absence, in the tread of everyone in their footsteps, in those of who they follow as well, the proudest lineage, a race without nationality, standing taller than the himalayas, causing light to illuminate the morning, and casting shadows at night, way over the ridges and valleys, after the last ember is gone out, the last mile is walked, the smoke permeates the shelters, the new generation sleeps, absolutely in awe, in dream...
Monday, November 10, 2008
shiva music group
so, the latest, to sum up, is that i'm living in the hill station of musoorie, in the state of uttaranchal, for about a month with 3 roommates - anchal from india, marcos from brazil, and zoe from america - in alphabetical order.
to occupy myself i play guitar, sing, and take hindi lessons for 2 hours every weekday.
however, there have been some pretty exciting developments. for example, yesterday i went for a walk just to get out of the house and move around. after eating at my favorite restaurant, kalsang's, i realized there was an indian guy keeping pace with me, right beside me, who i didn't know. as soon as we made eye contact he introduced himself and said he had seen me carrying around my guitar. it turns out he's a musician who heads up a band called the "shiva music group." he wants me to be in the band. actually, one of the reasons i'm even writing this entry is that i need to kill some time before i meet with him here in the sister's bazaar (my specific neighborhood) meeting place of chartakkan for the first time. so now i'm in an indian band and we're playing a show, apparently, on the 24th of november.
after we exchanged information and said goodbye, i took off for the direction of him, but soon ran into vikas, who had attended a party we had at our house a few days ago. he was on his motorcycle and asked me if i was doing anything - i said no, he said to hop on. riding a motorcycle on the narrow, rolling, winding streets of musoorie is totally exhilirating...i love just feeling the cool air whip past me, rounding a bend to discover an illuminated panorama of the lights of the dehradun valley, from a position far above in the hills, deftly navigating obstacles...it's a real ride. i've pretty much decided to buy a cheap motorcycle while i'm here because it's just too much fun. anyway, vikas and i went back to his house, downed a bottle of whiskey with his roommates, and i ambled home at around 1:00am, not drunk but wary of waking my roommates at that hour to open the door...luckily they were fine with it. actually, anchal and zoe are younger than me and not yet at the age where behavior like this is considered juvenile, so i'm able to comfortably act irresponsibly.
to occupy myself i play guitar, sing, and take hindi lessons for 2 hours every weekday.
however, there have been some pretty exciting developments. for example, yesterday i went for a walk just to get out of the house and move around. after eating at my favorite restaurant, kalsang's, i realized there was an indian guy keeping pace with me, right beside me, who i didn't know. as soon as we made eye contact he introduced himself and said he had seen me carrying around my guitar. it turns out he's a musician who heads up a band called the "shiva music group." he wants me to be in the band. actually, one of the reasons i'm even writing this entry is that i need to kill some time before i meet with him here in the sister's bazaar (my specific neighborhood) meeting place of chartakkan for the first time. so now i'm in an indian band and we're playing a show, apparently, on the 24th of november.
after we exchanged information and said goodbye, i took off for the direction of him, but soon ran into vikas, who had attended a party we had at our house a few days ago. he was on his motorcycle and asked me if i was doing anything - i said no, he said to hop on. riding a motorcycle on the narrow, rolling, winding streets of musoorie is totally exhilirating...i love just feeling the cool air whip past me, rounding a bend to discover an illuminated panorama of the lights of the dehradun valley, from a position far above in the hills, deftly navigating obstacles...it's a real ride. i've pretty much decided to buy a cheap motorcycle while i'm here because it's just too much fun. anyway, vikas and i went back to his house, downed a bottle of whiskey with his roommates, and i ambled home at around 1:00am, not drunk but wary of waking my roommates at that hour to open the door...luckily they were fine with it. actually, anchal and zoe are younger than me and not yet at the age where behavior like this is considered juvenile, so i'm able to comfortably act irresponsibly.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
mussoorie
leaving rishikesh and getting to dehra dun, then to mussoorie, was extremely easy. i just walked to the bus station, the most disorganized bus station i've seen yet, and ran around to all the different buses, asking if they were going to dehra dun, and finally jumped on a moving bus that was. it was only a 30 rupee trip, and when i arrived at dehra dun i was able to take a nice taxi, not a rickshaw, with a few other people all the way to mussoorie for just 50 rupees.
both musoorie and dehra dun are strikingly different than the india i've experienced so far. i didn't get to spend even 15 minutes in dehra dun, but from what i saw from the bus, it's a combination of both clean and modern that i've never seen here before. mussorie is even better. it's a "hill station," a victorian-style hamlet in the himalayas, here in the northern state of uttaranchal, obviously a relatively undisturbed reflection of the british raj. it's just amazing here. i went for a scenic walk - alone - for the first time since arriving in india. i actually had time to myself, while still being in a city, and walking along streets that were wooded on one side, with a view of snow-capped mountains on the other side. from time to time i came upon a gazebo with a telescope where an old man was selling chai for 5 rupees a cup. looking through the telescope, i saw a picturesque, rustic village, bereft of electricity, with red chillies drying on the roofs of the inhabitants. i am determined to walk there and explore. but as of yet i haven't made it. musoorie doesn't seem to have many western tourists, but it does attract many indian tourists...well-off indian families arrive by the carload from delhi, to "the mall" - the main strip of musoorie. fun, festive, modern, and clean, but a bit tacky and the appreciation of it is short lived. more interesting is just strolling around mussoorie. for example, i woke up on my first morning here and walked to a tibetan village, past a huge school of uniformed tibetan children who were all singing in chorus, and up a hill plastered in prayer flags, with what i believe is a "gompa," like a shrine of shorts, on top. i came down, went back to the mall, and started up the other direction, towards what i had heard was an excellent hindi school. i thought it might be fun to spend a week or so learning hindi here. it took a long time to walk there - to the village of landour, all the way to the top of this hill (i kept getting encouraged by the locals to keep walking when i thought that i must be there by now). just before i reached the school i met a girl named simone from switzerland, and we talked a bit about the school and india and the like.
i walked right past the school, still not knowing where it was, and asked a passing indian girl, who seemed surprised that i didn't know it was right in front of us. we ended up talking for a bit, and she, "anchal," asked me if i needed a place to stay, and i said i did. i couldn't have asked for a better situation. here's what happened. i am now roommates, or "flatmates," with anchal, zoe (an american studying hindi), and marcus (a brazilian). they're all really fun, awesome kids. they connected me with a conversational hindi teacher, who i am supposed to meet for 2 hours a day, for however long i want to stay here, which might be a while. i can't believe i've gone from being a lonely, solo traveler to actually having an apartment in india with some really good new friends, feeling extremely welcomed and enjoying the atmosphere of this incredibly relaxing, idyllic himalayan village. this is what i loved about the trail, and what i expected to love about traveling abroad. the unpredictability of it all. just don't try to control your trip and these things will come to you. i'm at a loss for what to say, really, i'm just in awe of it all. i'm having such a great time, and i'm still looking forward, maybe even more now, to seeing all the other corners of this country.
a fun story - last night we ushered the largest spider i've ever seen outside the house. it was absolutely gigantic, and we were all doubled over laughing, stealing glances at this colossal thing and retreating back into the other room, freaked out. but zoe was braver than any of us and got it into a bucket and took it safely down the street.
i've got my first hindi lesson in 45 minutes - namaste.
both musoorie and dehra dun are strikingly different than the india i've experienced so far. i didn't get to spend even 15 minutes in dehra dun, but from what i saw from the bus, it's a combination of both clean and modern that i've never seen here before. mussorie is even better. it's a "hill station," a victorian-style hamlet in the himalayas, here in the northern state of uttaranchal, obviously a relatively undisturbed reflection of the british raj. it's just amazing here. i went for a scenic walk - alone - for the first time since arriving in india. i actually had time to myself, while still being in a city, and walking along streets that were wooded on one side, with a view of snow-capped mountains on the other side. from time to time i came upon a gazebo with a telescope where an old man was selling chai for 5 rupees a cup. looking through the telescope, i saw a picturesque, rustic village, bereft of electricity, with red chillies drying on the roofs of the inhabitants. i am determined to walk there and explore. but as of yet i haven't made it. musoorie doesn't seem to have many western tourists, but it does attract many indian tourists...well-off indian families arrive by the carload from delhi, to "the mall" - the main strip of musoorie. fun, festive, modern, and clean, but a bit tacky and the appreciation of it is short lived. more interesting is just strolling around mussoorie. for example, i woke up on my first morning here and walked to a tibetan village, past a huge school of uniformed tibetan children who were all singing in chorus, and up a hill plastered in prayer flags, with what i believe is a "gompa," like a shrine of shorts, on top. i came down, went back to the mall, and started up the other direction, towards what i had heard was an excellent hindi school. i thought it might be fun to spend a week or so learning hindi here. it took a long time to walk there - to the village of landour, all the way to the top of this hill (i kept getting encouraged by the locals to keep walking when i thought that i must be there by now). just before i reached the school i met a girl named simone from switzerland, and we talked a bit about the school and india and the like.
i walked right past the school, still not knowing where it was, and asked a passing indian girl, who seemed surprised that i didn't know it was right in front of us. we ended up talking for a bit, and she, "anchal," asked me if i needed a place to stay, and i said i did. i couldn't have asked for a better situation. here's what happened. i am now roommates, or "flatmates," with anchal, zoe (an american studying hindi), and marcus (a brazilian). they're all really fun, awesome kids. they connected me with a conversational hindi teacher, who i am supposed to meet for 2 hours a day, for however long i want to stay here, which might be a while. i can't believe i've gone from being a lonely, solo traveler to actually having an apartment in india with some really good new friends, feeling extremely welcomed and enjoying the atmosphere of this incredibly relaxing, idyllic himalayan village. this is what i loved about the trail, and what i expected to love about traveling abroad. the unpredictability of it all. just don't try to control your trip and these things will come to you. i'm at a loss for what to say, really, i'm just in awe of it all. i'm having such a great time, and i'm still looking forward, maybe even more now, to seeing all the other corners of this country.
a fun story - last night we ushered the largest spider i've ever seen outside the house. it was absolutely gigantic, and we were all doubled over laughing, stealing glances at this colossal thing and retreating back into the other room, freaked out. but zoe was braver than any of us and got it into a bucket and took it safely down the street.
i've got my first hindi lesson in 45 minutes - namaste.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
amritsar? i hardly know her!
so i left mcleod ganj...part of me is feeling that i left a bit too early, but part of me remembers that i was getting pretty bored being there. so i took a shared jeep from mcleod ganj to dharamshala, and in the process learned that you can put at least 12 people in a land rover jeep if you really try. then i took a bus from dharamshala to pathankot (you pronounce this "pat-AHN-got") to amritsar, the capital of the state of punjab and site of the golden temple, one of the must-see items on any indian travel itinerary.
when i pulled into the teeming metropolis of amritsar, i got off the bus and got attacked by rickshaw-waalahs all clamoring for my business. stupidly, i didn't look up a hotel beforehand, so i stood there, while the rickshaw drivers swarmed around me, and patiently looked up the name of a cheap hotel in amritsar. actually, since i've been sick, i've had at least one bathroom emergency per day, where i suddenly need to get to a bathroom as quickly as possible, and i could feel this coming on, so i was in a hurry to get there. but the hotel i wanted was full, and i was in agony, ready to burst at any moment, the most uncomfortable feeling in the world, so i told the rickshaw driver to take me anywhere. i've never violated my own rule, that i will never put myself at the mercy of a rickshaw driver, always a bad idea, because they'll take you to wherever they get commission, some overpriced, bug-ridden place, and such was the case, but i was desperate. so we arrived at a hotel where they actually made me stand there and fill out a form and pay, despite me clearly being in distress and needing a toilet immediately. 500 rupees for a room. given, it had its own bathroom and a tv, but the place had a cockroach population that certainly made us humans a minority. but i had access to my own bathroom, plus hollywood movies on tv, so i was happy. i opened the closet where they usually keep the bedding, but an army of cockroaches had already laid claim there, so i just sighed, got out my little summer sleeping and fell asleep. a note about sleeping bags - don't bring one of those huge, heavy, voluminous, cotton things that most people take camping, that must be strapped to the outside of your pack. but do bring one of the little football-sized summer bags you can get now for really cheap. i have a lafuma bag that costs about $60, and i've used it tons of times on this trip. you will definitely use it on the train, where you lay down and sleep but where no bedding is provided (unless you travel first class, which few travelers do), and you will find tons of opportunity to use it if you employ the rock-bottom accomodation options that india has to offer.
the "must-see" stops in india often seem a bit disappointing - visually impressive but so much of the surroundings detract from the granduer of the thing itself - congestion, noise, fever-pitch commercialism. this is the case, somewhat, with the golden temple, but it is still a really amazing thing. it is a sikh temple, a religion based on the teachings of the ten gurus, the first of which is guru nanek and is the most revered. sikhs are the ones here bearing turbans...it must be somewhere specified in their teachings that it is respectful to cover one's head. most people here wear turbans or bandanas, and everyone, including me, is required to wear something over their head before entering the temple. so i pulled out my bandana, left my shoes at the very efficient and busy place that stores people's shoes for free, and walked barefoot into the shallow pool before the gate, which you must walk through, although i have no idea why. the golden temple is in the middle of a pool of water. the pool is walled by a large fortress-like structure. it's probably best that you just look at my pictures instead of me trying to describe it. there's a long line to get into the temple, which i stood in for about an hour. they only let a certain amount of people in at a time, obviously, or the place would be completely overrun. inside there are devout sikhs singing and giving services...then the pilgrims that entered with me all respond to the words of the priest at the same time...i just observe since i know very little about sikhism and certainly don't know their customs. the temple has three levels, and i explore all of them, but it seems very small inside compared to how large it looks outside. it may be that a small amount of the temple is open to visitors. one of the most amazing things is that the temple is actually made of real gold. it's possibly the most opulant place i've ever been to. that said, i couldn't escape the feeling that this was just a building, and overall i failed to be totally thrilled by it.
i left and found a rickshaw driver to take me to the india-pakistan border, where mostly indian tourists gather to watch the ceremonial border closing, which takes place near sunset everyday. indian guards sporting enormous, curled moustaches march and dance for 100 metres from the pakistan border outwards towards the crowd, then back again. the whole ordeal is echoed by the pakistanis on the other side. the indian crowd gets really worked up...there are throngs of them, and a guy on a loudspeaker shouts "HINDUSTAN!", to which the crowd responds with something that sounds like "NUMBER ONE!", though i'm not really sure. i believe "hindustan" is what indians call their own country. actually, there's this pervasive fun-loving feeling at the border. i find it exceedingly odd that something this festive exists between any two countries, but especially between two violent and nuclear-armed rivals like india and pakistan. it was at least just interesting to peer into another country from india. i've talked to several people who have traveled very extensively, maybe more than i ever will, who said that pakistan was their favorite country, with the nicest people and places. i'd definitely like to make it over someday.
when i walked back from the border my rickshaw driver was waiting there for me, and we made the long journey back through the countryside to amritsar. on this trip i was wondering how i was going to find a cheap hotel in amritsar, because i had visited a hotel there called grand, recommended by my guidebook and clean and cheap, but they had changed a lot since 2003 and now their cheapest rooms were 1000 rupees. it was a really nice place, but i was trying to do a shoestring-budget trip, and i had never paid nearly that much. but as i was coming back into the city, i figured, why not? maybe i won't stay in these kind of places every night, but for tonight, i'd treat myself. and i'm pretty glad i did. it was 1000 rupees ($20), but it was clean, spacious, had a bathroom and tv, and a nice courtyard, restaurant, and bar. i met two brothers from england who were traveling india by motorcycle, on something like their 10th visit, and we got along pretty cool. we celebrated my birthday in the bar there, even though it was early i figured i wouldn't have another chance to celebrate it, and even though i couldn't drink more than one beer because my stomach was still giving me problems.
earlier that day, i had gone to get a ticket to haridwar, because i didn't really want to stay very long in amritsar, a TIC - Typical Indian City - large, polluted, crowded, noisy, and dirty. god, getting the train ticket was a process. first i spent an hour finding where to even buy the ticket, during which i had to give a policeman 50 rupees for him to show me to the booking office. then i stood in a line, with perhaps 10 people in front of me. it took about an hour for the line to move through those 10 people. the lines in train stations, i've noticed, move inexplicably, glacierally slow. when i get to the window, i say where i want to go and i hand over the money. given, there's usually one or two catches to doing that, because nothing is simple in india, but still, i don't spend 10 minutes there. i don't understand what the locals do at the window. usually they give the guy some money, then he gives them back some money, then he hands them something, then the person in line hands all of it back, then the process repeats. i'm completely confounded by it. actually, most nicer hotels, maybe even the cheaper ones, will buy a train ticket for you, i've heard, for a fee, but i've never tried this. plus i think i'm getting a bit better about travelling around. anyway, i couldn't get a train ticket for that night, the night after i saw the golden temple and the border, so i got it for the next night. night trains are the best, because you can just sleep through the travel. on trains, in the class i get, second sleeper class, you get your own berth to lie down on. it's nice. second sleeper is the classic shoestring traveler class, i believe. there's a huge price difference between what i believe is called "third tier a/c", where you get meals and clean bedding in an air-conditioned environment, and second sleeper, where they have some fans blowing and you get a berth to lie on, but there's no meals, bedding, or air conditioning. the journey between amritsar and haridwar is pretty long, and takes about 10 hours, but it was only 190 rupees, about $4. besides, it's cool enough now in india, especially here up north, where you don't need a/c.
so i had an extra day in amritsar. i mostly just milled around in the morning, hanging out at the restaurant at the nice hotel i was in, then i tried an upscale restaurant in amritsar called "crystal," which was really nice, though the meal came to about 400 rupees (about $8), far more than i would ever pay normally. in india, it seems like 50 ($1), or less, is a cheap meal and 100 ($2), or little more, is about standard for cheap travelers. 200 ($4) is midrange, and anything beyond that is quite upscale. though it's entirely possible to pay 1000 or 2000 rupees, or more i'm sure, in india, on a meal just for yourself, depending on where you are. the patrons of crystal were mostly well-off indians and, interestingly, a lot of upper class western travelers. when you travel in india, you'll begin to notice that there are several classes of foreigners here, each employing a different traveling style. i would say there are at least three different kinds of travelers here. the first is the backpacker, the budget traveler, who tries to visit everywhere in india on one trip, which is impossible. it's a bit of a shame, since the best of india seems to lie away from the big places, the frequented places, and you have to spend a bit of time in each place to get to know it and the small places that lie around it. it seems like this kind of traveler can spend 6 months here and only here the surface, superficial india. the other is the budget traveler who goes from place to place but spends an appreciable amount of time exploring the area around each destination, or at least spending some time in each major location, so the experience is better appreciated and absorbed. the last class is the upper tier traveler, the wealthy travelers, usually older than the young backpacker crowd. i have nothing against the way they travel, actually i think it's pretty awesome, but they exist in a world apart from us, and i'm often struck by how little i see them. only when stepping into a hotel that costs 2000 or more rupees per night, even $200 dollars or more per night, or a restaurant that constitutes one of the best in town, do you see them. i'm really not trying to say that my way of exploring india is any more authentic, because it's not, i'm just more and more curious about the way these people see india, which is totally different from the way i see it. i feel like i never see them outside, only inside. i'd imagine that if you have enough money, it's probably entirely possible to be shielded from the more unsavory india, the pestilence and the crowds, and private taxis will probably carry you from hotel to restaurant, and guides will probably bear you deftly through the area's attractions. i've met alot of these people, actually...very good people, just experiencing india on a bigger budget.
at night i took a cycle rickshaw, steered by a funny driver, to a bookstore and bought a couple books for when i get bored, and for traveling on buses and trains. i got "the jungle book" by rudyard kipling, an obvious choice, and "the sun also rises," by ernest hemingway. it's funny how different stores are here than in the west. i feel like i really want to describe to you how different it is but i won't be able to. there's no door, just a cramped, open, 10 by 20 foot space where the books, all used and worn, and sitting in unkempt, vertical piles. so you crouch down and look at the title of the bottommost one, then slowly stand up until you've surveyed the entire stack. then you move on.
the cycle rickshaw driver was waiting outside for me, so we went back to the hotel. it's funny - in amritsar there are a couple of hills, and the driver can't pedal you up those, so you both get out and push the whole richshaw up, and then you get back on and sail down the other side of the hill, the wind in your face, at a speed that negates any kind of control, the familiar and casual prospect of death thrillingly near, as on all indian roads. i paid the rickshaw driver 100 rupees, an astronomical sum for a cycle rickshaw, but he made me laugh the entire time and i liked him, plus i feel sortof guilty with the rickshaw drivers. it's often some bearded 60 year old man, pedaling your young, able, mid-twenties body a considerable distance across town.
anyway, when i returned to the hotel i met "deep," an employee of the hotel who is studying hotel management. my experience with people who want to be friends with you in hotels is that they usually just want money, and get it in all sorts of devious ways while pretending to be friends, but deep was really a good guy. we made friends and hung out for the night, visiting a local temple where we crawled through artificial caves and had an orange mark painted on our foreheads by a priest. one of the reasons why i know deep is a genuinely good person is that he refused to let me pay for the rickshaw rides, and i had to fight with him in order for him to allow me to pay for dinner. we went to the golden temple a second time (there's no admission fee), at night, and i saw a totally different version of what i had already seen during the day. not only was the temple strikingly different at night, but it was so nice to be with someone, especially a local, who could appreciate it with me. when i went by myself, i was basically just checking the golden temple off my list of things to see, shrugging, and turning around, but now i was really appreciating it. plus he showed me a couple spots i had missed on my previous visit. we went to a restaurant in amritsar, which i loved because it was one of those spots, like bharat had showed me in delhi, that is clean and where the food is very good, but is obviously visited almost exclusively by locals. i love seeing places with locals. it's almost as though if you don't see a place with a local guide, you don't really see it at all. i think i'm going to employ couchsurfing more, not as a way of staying places for free, but for getting shown around.
afterwards deep dropped me at the train station, and as a testament to how stubbornly confusing and difficult india continues to be, not even deep was completely sure what car i was supposed to get on. we ran from one end of the train to the other, and asked a bunch of different people, and finally settled on a car. i laid down on my berth, got out my sleeping bag, got out my book, and basically just settled in comfortably. but, as i found out after about an hour, i wasn't in the right car. if a local can't figure out correctly what car to be in, and this was a train he had taken many, many times to get to rishikesh (where i was going), then how could i possibly figure it out? soon an indian man was tapping me and gesturing for me to come down off of the berth, and i was thinking "you can't be serious." so i got down, and started looking for the right car. i talked to the conductor, who spoke very little english, and he looked at my ticket and said "last car." so on the next stop, i got off, not knowing when the train was going to start moving again and hoping to god i would reach the last car (indian trains are extremely long) before that happened. i ran to the last car, and just before i got to it, the train started moving, so i jumped on a moving train, and into a very amused crowd of standing indians, with less space between them than most cattle when being transported, in a car that could not have been more clearly the wrong one. but the last car on the train nonetheless. so until the next stop i stood laughing with the indians at this situation, they spoke no english but would occasionally say something in hindi, and everyone would crack up laughing. i just assumed it was good-natured and laughed along. at the next stop i got off and ran around asking where S1 was (that's the designation for my car). luckily i found an indian, ravi, who had also got on the wrong car and was destined for s1, and who spoke pretty good english. he was headed for rishikesh as well. finally i had found my proper berth, and it was about midnight. i settled in and slept until haridwar, my stop, with only one mistake where i got off one stop too early on the advice of another indian traveler on the train. like i said, india is confusing, even for indians. i forget who told me this, an indian definitely, but one of the maxims i've taken away from this experience is: "india is beautiful...but difficult."
i went with ravi and his friend to rishikesh from hardiwar. we took a shared taxi. again, india is difficult. first we piled into an auto rickshaw, and a cycle-rickshaw driver came up behind and, for a reason i still don't understand, slapped the back window with his hand so hard it broke. so we stopped and soon there were about 5 indians passionately engaged in argument with each other. so we found another rickshaw. i never would have believed it, but you can fit 13 people, possibly more, in a rickshaw. i always feel at a loss to describe accurately the things i see in india. you have no idea how crowded 13 people to a rickshaw is. search for a picture of an indian auto-rickshaw online and you might begin to have some idea. in the west, 4 people to a rickshaw would be crowded. it's actually a pretty far drive from hardiwar to rishikesh, so i was pretty uncomfortable, mashed up against the side of the thing. in a rickshaw, there's no respect, or expectation of respect for personal space. people use your legs, arms, shoulders, whatever they can grab, as handholds as they clamber on, trying to fill some void of unused space.
i spent a while walking around, although i was pretty sure i was not in the rishikesh frequented by tourists, since i hadn't seen a single one yet and rishikesh is a very popular destination. rishikesh is right on the ganges river and is reknowned as a new-ager hangout, where ashrams (yoga/meditation retreat centers) abound. i didn't seem to be in any sort of idyllic rishikesh, i was pretty much in a TIC - a Typical Indian City. i was very tired from traveling actually, i haven't reached the point where i sleep soundly, though i do rest comfortably, on a train journey. so i found a cheap guesthouse, just 150 rupees ($3), and fell asleep, then woke up at night, went to a restaurant, and went back to bed.
this morning i was determined to find the tourist rishikesh, usually the nicer part of any place, and i ran into a german who led me right to it. i had already eaten breakfast (just 40 rupees), but we went to a place right on the beach of the ganges and talked for a bit - he ate and i just drank chai. today i am actually hoping to go to missouri, a hill station near here, smaller and more sedate, as well as less commercial, than rishikesh. from there i am hoping to move on to gangotri, the source of the ganges. these places are quite remote so they're a little difficult to get to. the german guy, whose name i didn't get, was actually extremely well traveled in this state, and recommended tiny little villages that don't even exist in my guidebook. so i may visit one of those as well.
this was a big update since it's been a while from my last entry...i'll try to update as much as i can, not too difficult since internet cafes abound in tourist areas. there's probably a bit more to see in rishikesh but since i'll be back after going to the more remote areas, i can see it then. i'm actually sortof anxious to see missourri. i've heared there's a good school there for learning hindi, and i might try to take it up for a few days to get a foothold on the language. often you will try to communicate something simple with someone who knows absolutely no english and will wish you had at least basic hindi skills.
until next time - namaste.
when i pulled into the teeming metropolis of amritsar, i got off the bus and got attacked by rickshaw-waalahs all clamoring for my business. stupidly, i didn't look up a hotel beforehand, so i stood there, while the rickshaw drivers swarmed around me, and patiently looked up the name of a cheap hotel in amritsar. actually, since i've been sick, i've had at least one bathroom emergency per day, where i suddenly need to get to a bathroom as quickly as possible, and i could feel this coming on, so i was in a hurry to get there. but the hotel i wanted was full, and i was in agony, ready to burst at any moment, the most uncomfortable feeling in the world, so i told the rickshaw driver to take me anywhere. i've never violated my own rule, that i will never put myself at the mercy of a rickshaw driver, always a bad idea, because they'll take you to wherever they get commission, some overpriced, bug-ridden place, and such was the case, but i was desperate. so we arrived at a hotel where they actually made me stand there and fill out a form and pay, despite me clearly being in distress and needing a toilet immediately. 500 rupees for a room. given, it had its own bathroom and a tv, but the place had a cockroach population that certainly made us humans a minority. but i had access to my own bathroom, plus hollywood movies on tv, so i was happy. i opened the closet where they usually keep the bedding, but an army of cockroaches had already laid claim there, so i just sighed, got out my little summer sleeping and fell asleep. a note about sleeping bags - don't bring one of those huge, heavy, voluminous, cotton things that most people take camping, that must be strapped to the outside of your pack. but do bring one of the little football-sized summer bags you can get now for really cheap. i have a lafuma bag that costs about $60, and i've used it tons of times on this trip. you will definitely use it on the train, where you lay down and sleep but where no bedding is provided (unless you travel first class, which few travelers do), and you will find tons of opportunity to use it if you employ the rock-bottom accomodation options that india has to offer.
the "must-see" stops in india often seem a bit disappointing - visually impressive but so much of the surroundings detract from the granduer of the thing itself - congestion, noise, fever-pitch commercialism. this is the case, somewhat, with the golden temple, but it is still a really amazing thing. it is a sikh temple, a religion based on the teachings of the ten gurus, the first of which is guru nanek and is the most revered. sikhs are the ones here bearing turbans...it must be somewhere specified in their teachings that it is respectful to cover one's head. most people here wear turbans or bandanas, and everyone, including me, is required to wear something over their head before entering the temple. so i pulled out my bandana, left my shoes at the very efficient and busy place that stores people's shoes for free, and walked barefoot into the shallow pool before the gate, which you must walk through, although i have no idea why. the golden temple is in the middle of a pool of water. the pool is walled by a large fortress-like structure. it's probably best that you just look at my pictures instead of me trying to describe it. there's a long line to get into the temple, which i stood in for about an hour. they only let a certain amount of people in at a time, obviously, or the place would be completely overrun. inside there are devout sikhs singing and giving services...then the pilgrims that entered with me all respond to the words of the priest at the same time...i just observe since i know very little about sikhism and certainly don't know their customs. the temple has three levels, and i explore all of them, but it seems very small inside compared to how large it looks outside. it may be that a small amount of the temple is open to visitors. one of the most amazing things is that the temple is actually made of real gold. it's possibly the most opulant place i've ever been to. that said, i couldn't escape the feeling that this was just a building, and overall i failed to be totally thrilled by it.
i left and found a rickshaw driver to take me to the india-pakistan border, where mostly indian tourists gather to watch the ceremonial border closing, which takes place near sunset everyday. indian guards sporting enormous, curled moustaches march and dance for 100 metres from the pakistan border outwards towards the crowd, then back again. the whole ordeal is echoed by the pakistanis on the other side. the indian crowd gets really worked up...there are throngs of them, and a guy on a loudspeaker shouts "HINDUSTAN!", to which the crowd responds with something that sounds like "NUMBER ONE!", though i'm not really sure. i believe "hindustan" is what indians call their own country. actually, there's this pervasive fun-loving feeling at the border. i find it exceedingly odd that something this festive exists between any two countries, but especially between two violent and nuclear-armed rivals like india and pakistan. it was at least just interesting to peer into another country from india. i've talked to several people who have traveled very extensively, maybe more than i ever will, who said that pakistan was their favorite country, with the nicest people and places. i'd definitely like to make it over someday.
when i walked back from the border my rickshaw driver was waiting there for me, and we made the long journey back through the countryside to amritsar. on this trip i was wondering how i was going to find a cheap hotel in amritsar, because i had visited a hotel there called grand, recommended by my guidebook and clean and cheap, but they had changed a lot since 2003 and now their cheapest rooms were 1000 rupees. it was a really nice place, but i was trying to do a shoestring-budget trip, and i had never paid nearly that much. but as i was coming back into the city, i figured, why not? maybe i won't stay in these kind of places every night, but for tonight, i'd treat myself. and i'm pretty glad i did. it was 1000 rupees ($20), but it was clean, spacious, had a bathroom and tv, and a nice courtyard, restaurant, and bar. i met two brothers from england who were traveling india by motorcycle, on something like their 10th visit, and we got along pretty cool. we celebrated my birthday in the bar there, even though it was early i figured i wouldn't have another chance to celebrate it, and even though i couldn't drink more than one beer because my stomach was still giving me problems.
earlier that day, i had gone to get a ticket to haridwar, because i didn't really want to stay very long in amritsar, a TIC - Typical Indian City - large, polluted, crowded, noisy, and dirty. god, getting the train ticket was a process. first i spent an hour finding where to even buy the ticket, during which i had to give a policeman 50 rupees for him to show me to the booking office. then i stood in a line, with perhaps 10 people in front of me. it took about an hour for the line to move through those 10 people. the lines in train stations, i've noticed, move inexplicably, glacierally slow. when i get to the window, i say where i want to go and i hand over the money. given, there's usually one or two catches to doing that, because nothing is simple in india, but still, i don't spend 10 minutes there. i don't understand what the locals do at the window. usually they give the guy some money, then he gives them back some money, then he hands them something, then the person in line hands all of it back, then the process repeats. i'm completely confounded by it. actually, most nicer hotels, maybe even the cheaper ones, will buy a train ticket for you, i've heard, for a fee, but i've never tried this. plus i think i'm getting a bit better about travelling around. anyway, i couldn't get a train ticket for that night, the night after i saw the golden temple and the border, so i got it for the next night. night trains are the best, because you can just sleep through the travel. on trains, in the class i get, second sleeper class, you get your own berth to lie down on. it's nice. second sleeper is the classic shoestring traveler class, i believe. there's a huge price difference between what i believe is called "third tier a/c", where you get meals and clean bedding in an air-conditioned environment, and second sleeper, where they have some fans blowing and you get a berth to lie on, but there's no meals, bedding, or air conditioning. the journey between amritsar and haridwar is pretty long, and takes about 10 hours, but it was only 190 rupees, about $4. besides, it's cool enough now in india, especially here up north, where you don't need a/c.
so i had an extra day in amritsar. i mostly just milled around in the morning, hanging out at the restaurant at the nice hotel i was in, then i tried an upscale restaurant in amritsar called "crystal," which was really nice, though the meal came to about 400 rupees (about $8), far more than i would ever pay normally. in india, it seems like 50 ($1), or less, is a cheap meal and 100 ($2), or little more, is about standard for cheap travelers. 200 ($4) is midrange, and anything beyond that is quite upscale. though it's entirely possible to pay 1000 or 2000 rupees, or more i'm sure, in india, on a meal just for yourself, depending on where you are. the patrons of crystal were mostly well-off indians and, interestingly, a lot of upper class western travelers. when you travel in india, you'll begin to notice that there are several classes of foreigners here, each employing a different traveling style. i would say there are at least three different kinds of travelers here. the first is the backpacker, the budget traveler, who tries to visit everywhere in india on one trip, which is impossible. it's a bit of a shame, since the best of india seems to lie away from the big places, the frequented places, and you have to spend a bit of time in each place to get to know it and the small places that lie around it. it seems like this kind of traveler can spend 6 months here and only here the surface, superficial india. the other is the budget traveler who goes from place to place but spends an appreciable amount of time exploring the area around each destination, or at least spending some time in each major location, so the experience is better appreciated and absorbed. the last class is the upper tier traveler, the wealthy travelers, usually older than the young backpacker crowd. i have nothing against the way they travel, actually i think it's pretty awesome, but they exist in a world apart from us, and i'm often struck by how little i see them. only when stepping into a hotel that costs 2000 or more rupees per night, even $200 dollars or more per night, or a restaurant that constitutes one of the best in town, do you see them. i'm really not trying to say that my way of exploring india is any more authentic, because it's not, i'm just more and more curious about the way these people see india, which is totally different from the way i see it. i feel like i never see them outside, only inside. i'd imagine that if you have enough money, it's probably entirely possible to be shielded from the more unsavory india, the pestilence and the crowds, and private taxis will probably carry you from hotel to restaurant, and guides will probably bear you deftly through the area's attractions. i've met alot of these people, actually...very good people, just experiencing india on a bigger budget.
at night i took a cycle rickshaw, steered by a funny driver, to a bookstore and bought a couple books for when i get bored, and for traveling on buses and trains. i got "the jungle book" by rudyard kipling, an obvious choice, and "the sun also rises," by ernest hemingway. it's funny how different stores are here than in the west. i feel like i really want to describe to you how different it is but i won't be able to. there's no door, just a cramped, open, 10 by 20 foot space where the books, all used and worn, and sitting in unkempt, vertical piles. so you crouch down and look at the title of the bottommost one, then slowly stand up until you've surveyed the entire stack. then you move on.
the cycle rickshaw driver was waiting outside for me, so we went back to the hotel. it's funny - in amritsar there are a couple of hills, and the driver can't pedal you up those, so you both get out and push the whole richshaw up, and then you get back on and sail down the other side of the hill, the wind in your face, at a speed that negates any kind of control, the familiar and casual prospect of death thrillingly near, as on all indian roads. i paid the rickshaw driver 100 rupees, an astronomical sum for a cycle rickshaw, but he made me laugh the entire time and i liked him, plus i feel sortof guilty with the rickshaw drivers. it's often some bearded 60 year old man, pedaling your young, able, mid-twenties body a considerable distance across town.
anyway, when i returned to the hotel i met "deep," an employee of the hotel who is studying hotel management. my experience with people who want to be friends with you in hotels is that they usually just want money, and get it in all sorts of devious ways while pretending to be friends, but deep was really a good guy. we made friends and hung out for the night, visiting a local temple where we crawled through artificial caves and had an orange mark painted on our foreheads by a priest. one of the reasons why i know deep is a genuinely good person is that he refused to let me pay for the rickshaw rides, and i had to fight with him in order for him to allow me to pay for dinner. we went to the golden temple a second time (there's no admission fee), at night, and i saw a totally different version of what i had already seen during the day. not only was the temple strikingly different at night, but it was so nice to be with someone, especially a local, who could appreciate it with me. when i went by myself, i was basically just checking the golden temple off my list of things to see, shrugging, and turning around, but now i was really appreciating it. plus he showed me a couple spots i had missed on my previous visit. we went to a restaurant in amritsar, which i loved because it was one of those spots, like bharat had showed me in delhi, that is clean and where the food is very good, but is obviously visited almost exclusively by locals. i love seeing places with locals. it's almost as though if you don't see a place with a local guide, you don't really see it at all. i think i'm going to employ couchsurfing more, not as a way of staying places for free, but for getting shown around.
afterwards deep dropped me at the train station, and as a testament to how stubbornly confusing and difficult india continues to be, not even deep was completely sure what car i was supposed to get on. we ran from one end of the train to the other, and asked a bunch of different people, and finally settled on a car. i laid down on my berth, got out my sleeping bag, got out my book, and basically just settled in comfortably. but, as i found out after about an hour, i wasn't in the right car. if a local can't figure out correctly what car to be in, and this was a train he had taken many, many times to get to rishikesh (where i was going), then how could i possibly figure it out? soon an indian man was tapping me and gesturing for me to come down off of the berth, and i was thinking "you can't be serious." so i got down, and started looking for the right car. i talked to the conductor, who spoke very little english, and he looked at my ticket and said "last car." so on the next stop, i got off, not knowing when the train was going to start moving again and hoping to god i would reach the last car (indian trains are extremely long) before that happened. i ran to the last car, and just before i got to it, the train started moving, so i jumped on a moving train, and into a very amused crowd of standing indians, with less space between them than most cattle when being transported, in a car that could not have been more clearly the wrong one. but the last car on the train nonetheless. so until the next stop i stood laughing with the indians at this situation, they spoke no english but would occasionally say something in hindi, and everyone would crack up laughing. i just assumed it was good-natured and laughed along. at the next stop i got off and ran around asking where S1 was (that's the designation for my car). luckily i found an indian, ravi, who had also got on the wrong car and was destined for s1, and who spoke pretty good english. he was headed for rishikesh as well. finally i had found my proper berth, and it was about midnight. i settled in and slept until haridwar, my stop, with only one mistake where i got off one stop too early on the advice of another indian traveler on the train. like i said, india is confusing, even for indians. i forget who told me this, an indian definitely, but one of the maxims i've taken away from this experience is: "india is beautiful...but difficult."
i went with ravi and his friend to rishikesh from hardiwar. we took a shared taxi. again, india is difficult. first we piled into an auto rickshaw, and a cycle-rickshaw driver came up behind and, for a reason i still don't understand, slapped the back window with his hand so hard it broke. so we stopped and soon there were about 5 indians passionately engaged in argument with each other. so we found another rickshaw. i never would have believed it, but you can fit 13 people, possibly more, in a rickshaw. i always feel at a loss to describe accurately the things i see in india. you have no idea how crowded 13 people to a rickshaw is. search for a picture of an indian auto-rickshaw online and you might begin to have some idea. in the west, 4 people to a rickshaw would be crowded. it's actually a pretty far drive from hardiwar to rishikesh, so i was pretty uncomfortable, mashed up against the side of the thing. in a rickshaw, there's no respect, or expectation of respect for personal space. people use your legs, arms, shoulders, whatever they can grab, as handholds as they clamber on, trying to fill some void of unused space.
i spent a while walking around, although i was pretty sure i was not in the rishikesh frequented by tourists, since i hadn't seen a single one yet and rishikesh is a very popular destination. rishikesh is right on the ganges river and is reknowned as a new-ager hangout, where ashrams (yoga/meditation retreat centers) abound. i didn't seem to be in any sort of idyllic rishikesh, i was pretty much in a TIC - a Typical Indian City. i was very tired from traveling actually, i haven't reached the point where i sleep soundly, though i do rest comfortably, on a train journey. so i found a cheap guesthouse, just 150 rupees ($3), and fell asleep, then woke up at night, went to a restaurant, and went back to bed.
this morning i was determined to find the tourist rishikesh, usually the nicer part of any place, and i ran into a german who led me right to it. i had already eaten breakfast (just 40 rupees), but we went to a place right on the beach of the ganges and talked for a bit - he ate and i just drank chai. today i am actually hoping to go to missouri, a hill station near here, smaller and more sedate, as well as less commercial, than rishikesh. from there i am hoping to move on to gangotri, the source of the ganges. these places are quite remote so they're a little difficult to get to. the german guy, whose name i didn't get, was actually extremely well traveled in this state, and recommended tiny little villages that don't even exist in my guidebook. so i may visit one of those as well.
this was a big update since it's been a while from my last entry...i'll try to update as much as i can, not too difficult since internet cafes abound in tourist areas. there's probably a bit more to see in rishikesh but since i'll be back after going to the more remote areas, i can see it then. i'm actually sortof anxious to see missourri. i've heared there's a good school there for learning hindi, and i might try to take it up for a few days to get a foothold on the language. often you will try to communicate something simple with someone who knows absolutely no english and will wish you had at least basic hindi skills.
until next time - namaste.
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