Bomb in Delhi

Location: Pokhara, Nepal
Local Time: Monday, Oct 31, 2005 - 7:40pm

In case someone heard, there was a bomb in Delhi. I am no where near there. Just to clear that up.

Okay, I'm back. Three day retreat at the meditation center here in Pokhara. It was great. Yoga, meditation and Buddhist dharma.

At the end of three days, (we finished at noon on Monday) 8 of us went out to the movies. I saw a Bollywood movie. Salaam-Namaste. So cheesy you just have to laugh. It was hilarious. Highly recommended.

Technical Note

Hi Everyone,

I have re-enabled comments, for new posts at least, using word verification. You don't have to have an account to comment, but you do have to read the word embedded in a wierd looking picture and type that in to prove you are human.

It makes sense, trust me. We'll see how this works.

Going with the flow

Location: Pokhara, Nepal
Local Time: Thursday, Oct 27, 2005 - 5:34pm

Well, after a hot shower, easy access to e-mail, good food and a movie last night, we've decided to postpone our trek indefinately. Tempted into sloth by the excesses of a consumer society.

On a high note we've added another person to our little group. Shelby is a yoga teacher and journalist from California. She came to Nepal through China and Tibet. She'll be leaving to Thailand in a couple of weeks, and from there going on to South Africa, her true destination. Likes Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, ice cream and Indian sweets.

We found the local Buddhist center here in Pokhara and the three of us are going off for a 3 day retreat starting tomorrow afternoon. I might or might not get in another post before then. If not, see you all in three days.

This morning as I was sitting on my butt, swilling very (very) fresh fruit juice and filling in my travel journal, a woman approached stopped in front of my table which was right beside the road.

She is Tibetan. A quick overview for those of you who don't know, China invaded Tibet in 1950 and quickly populated it with Chinese, making Tibetans second class citizens in their own country. Many Tibetans fled their homeland. Some even made it to Canada. Most fled over the mountains to Nepal or India. Here in Nepal this woman doesn't even have citizenship. Her children are not entitled to state funded education, and she is restricted from certain work by her lack of citizenship.

According to Buddhism, we are extremely fortunate to have been born into this life human. Even better to be a human born in Canada.

Snowed Out

Location: Pokhara, Nepal
Local Time: Wednesday, Oct 26, 2005 - 5:20pm

Well, maybe no one will be reading this since I said I wouldn't be posting anything new for a few weeks, but here it is anyway.

Yesterday Seth and I caught a bus to Besisahar at 6:30am. Well, the bus was suppose to be at 6:30, but they waited until 7 to get more passengers. The ride took until about noon, then we started walking.

The first part of the walk was a rough, but drivable road. We crossed several shallow rivers that flow over the road, walked up and down hills, passed rice fields on each side of the road, passed through several little villages of 20 - 30 people. We also crossed a couple of suspension bridges that were crossing the main river. However, these bridges are pedestrian only, so the drivable road stopped at the first bridge. After that, though the road was marked on the map as the main road, we are really talking about a footpath, 5 feet wide.

Trains of donkeys are used to transport goods up to the villages and houses after the first bridge. We passed several such trains going in each direction.

There is normally one man, possibly with a young boy as his assistant, in charge of 5 - 10 donkeys. Going up river the donkeys are packed with goods, coming back the pack saddles are empty. The man walks along behind the train with a stick that he uses to prod any laggards, but mostly the donkeys amble along at an even pace, proceeding in single file.

They wear bells around their necks, so a train of donkeys actually makes music as they move.

Around 4:30 we walked through a place called Ngadi. It has about 6 little hotels. No single hotel is as large as an average house in Canada. For those of you who know what Scott's house looks like, that is about the size of 4 hotels.

We continued on, hoping to make the next stop, but after about half an hour we met some people coming back who told us that the next stop was an hour walk further on (it was nearly sunset by this time) and it was full. You see, the problem was, about 4 days down the road, the pass was snowed in. And had been snowed in for several days. The people we had been passing all day were not finishing the circuit having started from the other side, they were all returning because they didn't want to wait any more.

So, we turned around and went back to Ngadi for the night. We chatted with the other people who were there for the night, and decided that we weren't really keen on being snowed in 4 days up the trail, so the next morning, we headed back to Pokhara.

Now we are back to the land of plentiful internet connections (hence this post) and we'll decide what trek to try next.

Lost in the Himalayas

Location: Pokhara, Nepal
Local Time: Monday, Oct 24, 2005 - 9:49pm

We rented motorcycles today and spent the day riding around Pokhara. It was wild. The bikes are small around here, anything from 100cc - 200cc displacements can be found. I had a 180cc bike, and it worked really nice. We spent the first half of the day riding the winding 1.5 lane mountain 'highway' that goes south out of Pokhara. Then we turned around and came back and went up to Sangkok, a local high point that allows a nearly 360 view of the valley where Pokhara is located, and a nice view of the nearby 8000m peaks. That is, the view is nice when it isn't clouded in as it was today.

Still, the ride was wild. The last 10km was on some of the roughest rocky dirt road I have ever ridden on. Normally it seems that people park their bikes and walk up some stairs that takes about 30min to get to the peak. It took nearly that long to ride the bikes up the switch back rocky road, but it was a great ride. I only dumped it once.

On the way back down, I picked up a couple of school kids and gave them a ride for a couple of km.

The motorcycle as the family vehicle. You often see a 125cc bike which holds 4 people. Two parents, two kids. Only the operator has a helmet.

It is perfectly legal and expected to pass anywhere, any time there is space. The invisible 3rd lane (right in the middle of the road, between the two passing vehicles) is in constant use. The military checkpoints are not too frequent, we only went through 2 or 3 today, and usually they just wave motorcycles through.

You ride on the left side of the road here. I almost got run over by a taxi in the morning when I pulled out into the road. Later I made an incorrect turn and ended up on the wrong side of a divided road. Fortunately the divider wasn't to hard to get over.

Most importantly, since you ride the left side of the road, your hand nearest oncoming traffic is your right hand. For those of you who don't ride, that hand operates your throttle on a bike, which means you can't give a friendly wave to oncoming motorcyclists as is the custom in Canada.

That is just wierd.

On a sad note, this will probably be my last post for about 3 weeks. I'm going trekking. Everyone comes to Nepal to trek, so this is quite ordinary. I'm doing the Annapurna Circuit, which takes 16 - 18 days to complete. So, wish me luck. Getting airlifted out costs $1000 USD / hour, so if I need to be rescued, my vacation will come to a crashing and nearly immediate halt. Hopefully that doesn't happen.

Pokhara

Location: Pokhara, Nepal
Local Time: Sunday, Oct 23, 2005

Well, I'm here in Pokhara. About a 6 or 7 hour bus ride from Kathmandu. This is a much bigger tourist place than Kathmandu, more trekkers here. Streets are wider, buildings are not as tall.

We left Kathmandu at about 7am this morning. The bus ride was actually quite comfortable. I had a seat all to myself, I didn't have to share with anyone. I read for a while, and watched the scenery for a while. Lovely mountains around here. Very steep. The vegatation is quite jungle like. This is not a very cold climate from what I can tell.

In order to do farming on the hillsides (most of the available land is hillside) the hillsides are terraced. Each terrace looks about 5 - 10 feet wide and the next one up the hillside is about 5 - 10 feet taller. Some houses were quite a ways up very steep hills. A quick trip down to the store would be mildly difficult.

We stopped about half way and I got a plate of noodles from a woman on the side of the road. Wow, that was good. I rushed a little because I was worried the bus would leave without me. The noodles were there on a big plate, and when I said I wanted a plate, she fired up the gas stove, poored a little oil in the wok, fried up a few vegetables and added a pile of noodles. Very nice.

I had a shave. I went to a barber shop and paid (50 Rs ~ $1 CND) for the guy to shave me. After you get over the initial fear of having some stranger put a razer sharp blade (quite literally) to your neck, this is very nice. I wanted to get the hot towel treatment before the shave, but apparently that isn't done here.

Death and Impermanence

Location: Kathmandu, Nepal
Local Time: Saturday, Oct 22, 2005 - 5:30pm

Well, I went to a teaching today, at the Himalyan Buddhist Meditation Center. I got to hear a nun speak about death and impermanence in the Buddhist tradition.

Basically (very basically, these are topics for a lifetime of study) death in the Buddhist tradition means reincarnation in another form, most of the time. If we lead a good life, the next form will be human, unless we did something bad in a previous life.

Some meditators practice their whole lives for the moment of their death, preparing so that they can use the moment of death to learn even more, and possibly affect how they will be incarnated next.

Impermanence is the recognition that most things around us, food, friendships, wealth, even our own bodies, are non-permanent, transient things. Our attachment to transient things causes our suffering as, inevitably, these things change or our friends and family die, or we die.

So, not even in Buddhism can we take it with us when we die.

Everyone is lost in Kathmandu

Location: Kathmandu, Nepal
Local Time: Thursday, Oct 20, 2005 - 1:30pm

Early afternoon is a bad time to use the internet cafes in Kathmandu. I am pretty sure I am sharing a poor phone line with about 20 other people. And the browsers keep crashing. So, I am composing this in Notepad, to copy and paste into the browser in desperate hope of successfully posting to my blog.

It is raining today. How disappointing. I could have stayed in Vancouver to see the rain.

Seth and I woke early to go to the Himalayan Buddhist Meditation Center, which in the guidebook is near the clock tower. We asked the rickshaw driver if he knew where it was. He said yes, so we got a price (50 Rs ~ $1 CND) and climbed in. He pedalled away. However, within 5 minutes he was busy asking directions of people on the street. He had no idea where it was. Sometimes it seems like a waste of time to ask if the drivers (taxis, autorickshaws or rickshaws) know where a place is. They almost invariably say yes, and often have no idea.

This guy was actually pedalling us north when the meditation center was south. Eventually we got within visual distance of the clock tower, which was suppose to be near the meditation center, so we paid the guy off and started walking. The street on the map in the Lonely Planet guide had no meditation center.

There was a lady there in the street. We asked her, but she didn't know either. She invited us to tea though, so we went into her house, borrowed her phone and phoned the number in the guide. No answer. Her husband was able to tell us that it use to be in a large building near by, but it had moved. Oh well. We'll ask around and try again tomorrow. There are hour long meditations each day from 8 - 9.

Up the mountain to the monastery

Location: Kathmandu, Nepal
Local Time: Thursday, Oct 20, 2005

After Pashupathinath, we kept walking, going to Bodhnath, a nearby town with a significant Tibetan population. We visited the stupa there. Afterwards a light lunch, then a timeout in the internet cafe downstairs to wait for the rain to pass.

Something that continually strikes me as odd is the Buddhist monks we keep seeing. They have bags, knapsacks. They are not always wearing plain sandels. They have money, and they use the internet for MSN and e-mail. I see them riding around in taxis. Somehow this all seems very worldly.

Next, we kept walking, on to the Kopan monastery. This is a large Buddhist monastery located on the top of a hill. Other than the classrooms of children chanting, it is quite peaceful, and has a nearly 360 view of the surrounding area.

We started walking home, but it was dark, and beginning to rain before we had gone more than an hour. When the rain soaked through my hair and started dripping down my face (I hate that) we got a taxi and rode back to the hotel.

Traveling Buddy

Oh, by the way, Seth, my current traveling buddy, is from Toronto, has been in India for 5 months already (his visa ran out, so he came to Nepal), likes to walk places even if they are far off. His blog is here:

http://www.888seth.com/

And he has a picture of me.

Tourism?

Location: Around Kathmandu, Nepal
Local Time: Wednesday, Oct 19, 2005 - 3:20pm

Today, Seth and I set out to walk to the other monkey temple in the area, in the opposite direction as yesterday. It is our thought that some long daily walks will be good preparation for the trek we want to make.

The second monkey temple, Pashupatinath, is located beside the Basmati river, and there are burning ghats along the river. For those who don't know, these are the sites where dead bodies are burned on pyres before the remains are thrown in the river.

Many things to think about, but most of all, I wonder about this.

What makes the 50 - 60 tourists think it is appropriate to stand across the river and photograph a funeral as if it was one of the local sites?

Technical Note

I am disabling the comments. If you want to comment, please send me an e-mail, I love hearing from everyone.

The comment feature is heavily abused as a way of creating links to random sites as a way of boosting the external site's Google rating.

Lost in Kathmandu

Location: Kathmandu, Nepal
Local Time: Tuesday, Oct 18, 2005 - 6:55pm

The first half of the day was a slow start. Writing in my journal, and filling in the last few days while sitting on the patio looking out over fields of green grass behind the hotel, which yes is in the middle of Kathmandu. Not sure how all that green open space got there, but it is nice.

Around me I can see people emerging onto the roof tops of their buildings, starting their days.

Andre, the student from Germany, is leaving today. He has to be back in Delhi on Monday, so he is eager to visit Pokhara before he goes back.

At about 9:30 Seth and I went to the Pumpernickle Cafe for breakfast. Patrick shows up as we finish and we rent bikes from a place Patrick heard about from a French fellow he had breakfast with.

I give my plane ticket as security for the bikes. I guess, if we lose the bikes, I'll just have to stay here. Hotels are $3/day, so I could be here for a while. I could certainly think of a lot of things to do here. Armed with a laptop, I could program whatever wild idea I could come up with. With living costs here, I could spend a long time on it.

Armed with bicycles, we launch ourselves into the chaotic traffic of Kathmandu. Horns are a required safety feature. Nepali people are more restrained with their use of the horn. In Delhi they honk nearly constantly. Here they honk specifically to warn you they are behind and want to pass.

We ride off randomly but within a half hour we end up back at Durbar Square where we were yesterday. I mailed off a couple of post cards, we drink a few chai teas in the square. Then, we are off again. I haven't spent this much time on a bicycle in many years. We are up into the hills, then off that way. In search of the Monkey Temple, it must be around somewhere. We ask one person, take that road, straight all the way there. Sometime later we ask another person. Oh, take that road, straight all the way there.

We end up in a much busier area of Nepal, with at least 2 lanes of traffic in each direction, but it is hard to tell. There are no lines on the road, at all, and the concept of a lane is so fluid here. When motorcyle passes between a car and a five ton truck and a bicycle rides on the far left, is that 2, 3 or 4 lanes? Anything goes, just don't get hit.

On the way back, after dropping off the bikes, we stopped at a little (very little) restaurant, little more than a food stand on the side of the road, and had momos, basically a dough wrapped around some stuffing (pork in this case) and steam cooked. They are fabulous. Tibetan food I'm told.

We did find the monkey temple. There are lots of monkeys up there.

First Day in Kathmandu

Location: Kathmandu, Nepal
Local Time: Monday, Oct 17, 2005 - 7:00pm

This place is awesome. People should just fly into Kathmandu directly. Skip India.

We were six when we arrived here, the six of us who met on the train Saturday night. The Israeli husband and wife, Jay and Serina, parted from us this morning in front of the bakery. They said they knew where they wanted to go next and the rest of us are just bumming around with no plans.

So, Seth (Canadian from Toronto), Patrick (older gentleman from Belgium), Andre (university student from Germany) and I bought some baked goods (they chowed down on donuts, I went for croisants and cheese bread) and went upstairs to the patio on the roof and had some chai tea. Very popular drink over in this area. Good stuff.

My stomach had been bothering me a little for the last two days so I hadn't eaten except a couple cookies. However, with fresh bread in front of me, naturally I chowed down. Hmm, bread.

Next, we hit a bank machine and then a cybercafe (where I made the previous entry) before going to a hotel.

In India, there are guys always following you, trying to talk to you so they can con you out of something. Here, everyone is much more relaxed. In India, the rickshaw drivers drive in front of you to get your attention. Here, nice and polite. You can actually say no to them (most of the time) and it means something. The streets are not so filthy as Delhi, and the people much more friendly and helpful.

We got hotel rooms in the Shambala Hotel and started walking. Patrick took a nap, so it was Seth, Andre and I. We found a rooftop restaurant for lunch. I tried banana lassi. Very good. Like a smoothie, but richer, more yogurt flavour. I hear mango lassi is even better.

Next, Seth and I went looking for treking tours while Andre, not feeling well, went back to the hotel. I was also not feeling well, but I persevered, hoping walking would get rid of my upset stomach and cramps. Nope.

In the street we ran into a friend of Seth's, Sam. They had travelled together a couple of times in India and now by accident, found each other in Nepal. Sam said not to bother with guides and organized treks. He says, the word from other travelers is the trails are well marked and frequently travelled by other trekkers. Guides are not necessary.

Following the advice of the guidebook, we went looking for bulletin boards with notices of people looking for treking buddies, but we didn't have much luck there. The bulletin boards don't seem all that useful.

At the Fire and Ice cafe, we stopped for a rest and something to drink. I had a soda tonic, because I vaguely remember hearing somewhere that it settles you stomach. It did, it was wonderful. I felt so much better after that.

Next we went walking, heading for Durbar square, an older part of the town populated with pagodas. We ran into Patrick by accident and he came with us.

I can not describe to you the feeling of wandering through these streets. The red brick buildings stretch up 3 or 4 floors on each side of the 1.5 lane streets. Cars, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians all work through these flooded streets, a swirling, ever changing flow of chaos that somehow works.

The horn, ever present in Delhi, is used much less freqently here, and the pace of everything is not so frantic. I actually feel that I can take a moment to examine the merchanise that crowds both sides of the streets, without being immediately attacked by the over eager vendors.

I'm not much for shopping, but this place is so amazing I want to buy things, I want to go shopping. Such fabulous stuff, so colorful, such variety. What incredable cultural opportunities are destroyed by Walmart and the Bay.

In an open square south of Durbar Square, a vendor demonstrates a Nepoli game of tigers and goats, a game of strategy and forethought.

We enjoy an exceptional cup of chai tea, and I buy some post cards. What a strange feeling to know I have no where to go, and all the time in the world to get there.

Most important of all, remember, soda tonic settles an upset stomach.

Arrived in Kathmandu

Location: Kathmandu, Nepal
Local Time: Monday, Oct 17, 2005 - 8:00am

Well, to cover it quickly, I'm here in Kathmandu in Nepal. As it turns out, they will give you a 60 day visa at the border, so I wasted 3 days in Delhi. However, no big deal. As it turns out, I met 5 people on the train from Delhi to Gorakhpur who were also going to Kathmandu and we shared taxis and buses so it was good.

I left Delhi Saturday night and rode the train through the night. I got a second class sleeper ticket which gets me a padded platform to sleep on for the night, no blanket or pillow. However, all those years of sleeping on the floor with a brick to hold my head up paid off and I slept better than I have since I arrived in India.

I spent a couple hours in the morning staring out the window at the fields before we arrived at Gorakhpur. The six of us shared a taxi from there to Sunauli where we walked across the border and found a bus going to Kathmandu. We rode the bus over night. It was a 14 hour bus ride, and shared a seat in the very front, right next to the engine. At about 6:30am we made it to Kathmandu, took a taxi into the center of the city and relaxed with some chai tea and bread from a bakery. Mmm, bread.

Those are the basic details of the journey that lasted from Saturday evening to Monday morning. Hard to describe all the impressions, it will take me a while to sort it out.

The taxi we negotiated for in Sunauli, we paid 100Rs each (the six of us) after negotiating that it would only be us. Normally the driver gets 500 to take a load of people. Well, the driver went half a block and rounded up 4 more people to stuff in the taxi for the 3 hour ride to Sunauli. The driver was so crowded in the front seat that he tied his door closed so it wouldn't pop open. As he was doing that, Seth commented, 'Safety first' provoking much laughter.

For the bus ride from Sunauli, Serina, an Israeli woman in our group, was very specific in her questions to the bus driver, she wanted to see the bus we were taking, the seats we would be in, when exactly it was leaving, when exactly it would arrive. After we boarded the bus, I saw why. Despite all her questions and precautions (which I thought excessive) I ended up sharing a seat with another guy for 14 hours. So, I was hanging over the edge, trying to sleep, no place to put my feet for 14 hours. Another few trips like that and I will be able sleep sitting straight up and down. Currently I have to nod my head forward before I can sleep.

5 hours into the bus ride, we stopped to eat, and a couple of guys climbed up on the roof, rearranged the luggage, and layed up there to sleep for the rest of the trip.

Well, at least I didn't have to stand for 14 hours. That would have been difficult.

Getting out of Delhi

Location: Delhi, India
Local Time: Saturday, Oct 15, 2005 - 1:24pm

Yesterday morning (Friday) I went straight to the Nepal embassy, as it was just open after a 3 day holiday. I was worried they would not give me a visa until Monday and I'd be stuck here all weekend, but passports given on Friday are returned, with a visa by 4pm. So, I killed a few hours at the National Museum (nice exhibition on weapons and armour including a sword/pistol and a spear/pistol), returned to get my passport with 60 day visa in it and I was off for a train ticket. The soonest train was the next day, tonight. So, I'm hanging out for the day around Delhi, then I'm catching a train at 8pm. I'll ride all night, and sleep on the train, saving the cost of a hotel room. A suggestion I recieved from veteran India travellers I know. I plan to spend tomorrow night on the bus to Katmandu. It is actually half the price of a hotel room to ride the train for 12 hours.

The visa I got is not what I expected it to be. It is 60 days total. That's it. I thought I could come out then go back in and get another 60 days, but no. I have to exit Nepal, travel to an embassy such as the one in Delhi (2 days away from the border), apply for another visa, then go back. They sure don't want you hanging around Nepal to long.

News: Spanish Spoken Here

Location: Delhi, India
Local Time: Saturday, Oct 15, 2005 - 12:00pm

Okay, I was born in Canada, lived there all my life, (except those brief excursions later in life to far away countries). I have spoken English as my primary language all my life, and as my ONLY language until a couple years ago. I still don't understand what these people are saying to me here. They give me prices, numbers, and I'm off by hundreds. I swear the guy yesterday at the trainstation said 870Rs. But no, 317Rs was the actual price. He even said it to me one number at a time, eight - seven - zero. Or at least that is what I heard.

And some guy came to my hotel room last night at midnight. He buzzed and woke me up and I swear he was saying that there was room in my room for a couple more men. Of course, maybe I was still just half asleep. Eventually he could see I had no idea what he was trying to say and he left.

At least when I don't understand someone speaking Spanish to me I have a handy excuse.

I had two conversations in Spanish yesterday, and that is not the first time I've heard the language since I arrived. I did not know there would be so much of it here. The first conversation was an older gentleman at the YMCA in the restaurant. I did not get a chance to ask him where he was from.

The second was with a couple of girls in the trainstation when we were waiting for tickets. They were from Spain and had just arrived the night before. I didn't actually get their names. When we were introducing ourselves, my name reminded them of a food in Spain and suddenly we were talking about things to eat. Apparently there is a dish, St. Jacob.

They highly recommended I visit Spain. Like that wasn't on my list of things to do.

A Shininess?

Location: Delhi, India
Local Time: Friday, Oct 14, 2005 - 7:27am

I don't know if I had a particular shininess the first day, or if it was because it was Sunday, or maybe there was a full moon or something, but people on the street bother me a lot less than they did on that first day. Maybe it was my attempts to actually answer their questions that spurred them on. Only two underwear salesmen stepped in front of me offering their wares during a several hour walk yesterday.

The constant clamor of horns, the autorickshaw drivers who pull off the street and stop directly in front of you to ask if you need a ride, the underwear salesmen, the guy puking out the bus window, it all seems kind of normal.

Vehicles in India often have the words 'Please Horn' painted on the rear, sometimes on the bumper. I assume it means beep to let them know you are there. Unlike those stickers on the back of the buses in Vancouver which request other drivers to give way, people actual do horn. So, walking down the road is a noisy experience.

Okay, I'm ready to leave Delhi now. As soon as I can get a Nepali visa, I'm outta here.

Wheeling Around Delhi.

Location: Delhi, India
Local Time: Wednesday, Oct 12, 2005 - 7:09am

I'm still suffering the jet lag. I've been up since 1am. I must be doing something wrong.

Yes, as I was warned before I left Canada, no hot water here for morning showers. At the time I thought it would be a bit of a trial, but I did not consider that room temperature would be 29C in the middle of the night, and that a 'cold' shower in India is still a whole lot warmer than ANY lake in BC. I was probably getting too soft with the copious amounts of hot water in Canada anyway.

I went to the Nepal embassy for a visa yesterday, but they are closed for 3 days due to some holiday. (The holiday was written in Nepali, which is not the same letter system used for English.) I'll go back on Friday. I know I can get a shorter visa into Nepal at the border, but I would like a 60 day visa. Katmandu sounds like a very interesting place.

I rode around in an autorickshaw. For those who don't know, that is a three wheeled vehicle, about 6 or 7 feet from tip to tail, with seating for two back behind the driver.

Wow, that is cool. We almost got creamed by an SUV once, but other than that it was fairly uneventful. My driver was fairly conservative. He always maintained at least a 6 inch following distance, and there was never less than 2 inches between my knee (autorickshaws have no doors) and the vehicle beside me. And the way he cruised down the middle of a mostly empty street, straddling the dotted white line so he has quick and easy turning access to either side of the road, very efficient.

I visited the National Museum. Big place. I didn't get to see it all. The exhibit I really wanted to see was the manuscript exhibit, to see how the written materials were constructed, but it was closed off for restoration. I'll try to take another look in a couple of months when I pass through Delhi on the way out of the country.

After that I went to the Crafts Museum where there are exhibitions of people making the things they are going to sell. One fellow showed me how he makes stone bowls using a hand powered lathe. It was very impressive, but really, do I need to pack a couple of rocks around in my backpack for the next year? However, I did get a journal to write in. Today I'll find a glue stick for putting in all those odd bits of paper (tickets, recites, etc) and I'll be set.

Okay, time for a cuppa tea.

Bargaining

Location: Delhi, India
Local Time: Tuesday, Oct 11, 2005 - 10:00am

Before I came to India, many people warned me to bargain. I heard the same thing before I went to Mexico. I've been told that I should be able to get many things for half the initial asking price.

I just find it very difficult to bargain when the initial asking price is a dollar. I'm suppose to argue with a street vendor over some pocket change? Oh, well, give me time. I'll probably figure it out.

Irma showed me the Delhi trainstation yesterday. She had to buy a ticket, so we shared an autorickshaw and she showed me where to buy the tourist tickets. The trains in India have a quota of tickets set aside for purchase by tourists. After that we parted ways. She was going to stand in line for a ticket to Rajasthan and I went walking in Paharganj. Think of an Canadian alley, a couple kilometers long, about a lane and a half wide, crowded with street vendors, shops, pedestrians, rickshaws, autorickshaws, taxies, cars, motorcycles and cows.

There are way more tourists there than in my part of town.

Walking the Streets of Delhi

Location: Delhi, India
Local Time: Monday, Oct 10, 2005 - 10:00am

I didn't feel the earthquake. Don't know anything about it. Just thought I'd get that out of the way since a couple people have asked already.

I went walking in the center of New Delhi yesterday. It seems that Delhi is composed of 7 old cities. I am in New Delhi which is one of the 7cities.

As it happens, yesterday was Sunday, though I thought it was Saturday until at least half way through. So most of the shops and so forth were all closed during my walk. I was looking for a place to cash some travellers cheques, but no luck. Today I will go to the bank across the street.

The street vendors here are much more persistant than in Mexico. I have had people walk with me for 3-4 blocks talking the whole time a mile a minute about how I should come check out their shop, it is just around the corner, I don't have to buy anything, just a quick look, they have many wonderful things, etc. Saying no just encourages them. Saying anything just encourages them. Saying nothing, and stepping around them when they get in the way, seems to cut the following distance down to a single block. It goes against my Canadian good manners but actually speaking to them does not make a point. No matter how many nos you say out loud, they don't get it.

I had an experience with one of those scams that I was frequently warned about before arriving here. I was walking down the street and a fellow started walking beside me. He offered to sell me post cards or something but I didn't even say anything, so he started talking to me, where are you from, first time in India, etc. Naturally I answered. Since I was out walking, exploring, I didn't know where I was or where I was going, and that kind of thing is pretty obvious. The fellow walking beside me starts telling me about a tourist information place where I can get a free map, I don't have to buy anything. I don't know what made me say yes, I already had a map in my guide book, but I agreed, and he took me back the way I had come. We crossed the street and then went into some back alleys. I almost turned around and went out at this point as the alleyways were looking pretty dodgy, but my 'guide' was persistent and told me this was a very old part of town, from when the British were there and the tourist place is just around the corner.

So, I followed. He points out the tourist information center to me, and I go in, leaving my 'guide' behind. His job was done, he got me there. From what I understand, such people get a little payment for each person they can get to the building.

I'm directed into an office where I ask about the map. I have heard about similar experiences from friends who came to India, and read about them in my guide book so I'm really suspicious now. When the fellow leaves the office to get the map, I step out into the corridor and wait there, prepared to leave.

When he gets back with the map, he casually talks to me, asking where I want to go next. I mentioned Dharamsala, and the next thing I know I'm back in the office waiting while they check on bus availability to Dharamsala.

The fellow behind the desk phones someone and speaks another language, possibly Hindi. I hear the word Dharamsala. Then he says something about calling back in English and hangs up. As we are sitting waiting, he starts telling me that the bus to Dharamsala takes 14 hours, and there is another, better route.

Using the map of India in front of him, he draws a big hook that goes north from Delhi into Kashmir, then back south again to Dharamsala. Now I'm very suspicious. My guide book says:

"Although technically open to visitors, the Kashmir Valley, for all it's undeniable beauty, remains a war zone we strongly recommend you steer clear of - hence the absence of a chapter on the region in this book."

The incense in the room is giving me a headache, but I know I'm not going to Kashmir.

The fellow behind the desk continues to talk to me, telling me how this is a better trip, and he sent an Italian couple up there not long ago. He even gets a photo album out and starts showing me photos, telling me how nice it is up there, how the hiking up there is much better than around Dharamsala. Then he begins to tell me that the road to Dharamsala is probably closed, he heard somewhere that it is closed.

When I show no response, he phones his friend again, this time speaking English, asking about bus times, and checking the road condition. He asks several times if the road is open, because he has heard it is closed. Finally he hangs up and says the bus with space still available is 3 days from now and I should book the ticket now, implying that he can do that for me.

Another common scheme in India is for people to say they can book bus or train tickets for you, take your money and give you a fake or unconfirmed ticket in exchange, so I'm feeling even more suspicious now. So, I say I have a friend who will meet me in Dharamsala and I have to check with my friend when we are going. He persists, telling me that there is only that one day available, and maybe it won't be available for long, and I should book now. I repeat I have to talk to my friend, stand up and leave.

Maybe he was on the level, but I don't think so.

Arrival

Location: Delhi, India
Local Time: Sunday, Oct 9, 2005 - 9:00am

I'm here, in Delhi. It has a strange smell to it.

The flight to Singapore was long, but not bad. Singapore Airlines has individual TVs for each passenger, so I watched 3-4 movies. I was going to watch the CSI episodes they had there, but I'd seen them both. Probably the episodes on the way home will be new to me.

In Singapore, I took the bus to the hotel the airline arranged for me, and slept. It was a very nice hotel. I woke up in the morning, had tea, checked out, and walked around in the rain, because it was raining. Found a little roofed structure in the Fort Canning Park and sat there for about an hour, napping for about half an hour in sitting position. I was a little jet lagged.

The rain stopped at some time during my nap, so I walked around Singapore for a while. Seems like a nice place. I found the theatres which are apparently known locally as the durians, after the fruit.

The flight from Singapore to Delhi was 5 hours long. I slept almost the whole way, which was alright with me. I didn't want to be tired when I arrived in Delhi as that would make it more difficult to deal with any problems that might arise. As it turns out, there were no problems.

I arrived in Delhi at 10:00pm at night. Between customs and waiting for my bag to arrive it was 11:00 before I got out of the airport. At the desk for prepaid taxies, a woman came up to me. Her name is Irma and she's from Holland. She shared a taxi with me to the YMCA where she stays each time she comes to India. She comes here 6 months of each year for the last 10 years she says. She travels a bit, but she mostly she studies Sanscrit in Varanassi.

I didn't have a reservation at the YMCA, but they had a room available, so I checked in, and tried to sleep. I didn't sleep very much. I'm still jet lagged. I'm going to try to stay up until at least 9 tonight without naps, and then I should sleep well tonight.