sammysamsamsblogspot

Sammy Sam Sam’s final blog

2009-08-10T06:13:00.000-07:00

So, when I left you last I was in Spiti valley. 2 five-hour buses and a ten-hour bus in quick succession left my head spinning and my body back in Shimla. In the 2 months since I had last been in the former Raj capital I had travelled around the 2000km Himalayan circuit as far west as Srinigar, as far north as Kargil, Ladakh and as far east as Kaza and Tabo.

Shimla couldn’t have been more different from my last visit. The monsoon had arrived in northern India so Shimla was hot wet and very humid. The city spent half of the day covered in cloud and the other half-day it rained. I ended up stating in the very impressive and very awesome YMCA, which was a total; throw back to the Raj era. There were two full-size snooker tables, a smoking roam, quaint bed rooms and an excellent dining room.

1) Snooker in the YMCA. Shimla.

So for three day I enjoyed the delights of fine cuisine and excellent coffee.

After three day of reading and relaxing I took another 10-hour local bus (ugggggg) to Rishikesh. The end was now in sight- Rishikesh would be the last stop before heading to Delhi and London.

2) A shimlonian institution- The Indian Coffee house.

Rishikesh.

It is just possible that you may have heard of Rishikesh before. Its biggest claim to fame was in the late 60s when The Beatles rocked up at Maharishi Mahest Yogi’s ashram. George, John and Paul stayed in Rishikesh for several months but Ringo left after just one week (apparently because there wasn’t enough meat served!)

Since then Rishikest has styled itself as the ‘yoga capital of the world’. It was for this reason that I imagined that Rishikesh would be a calm, chilled, relaxed place before hitting the mayhem of Delhi. However, after my 10-hour overnight bus ride I was shocked to find that I was very wrong. As I arrived into town I found the town crammed with men dressed in orange robes- it was manic. There was a Hindu festival with approximately 10,000 pilgrims in Rishikesh. In addition to this the town was also hot, wet, smelly, busy and sweaty- my first impression was… disappointment.

3) The spiritual side of Rishikesh.

It was only after I had had a nap in a hotel room that I remembered that I was back in BAD OLD INDIA!

In the space of 4 day’s I had travelled

From majority Buddhist to majority Hindu

From cool altitude air to smoggy, sweaty heat

From mountain desert to lush, wet, greenery.

From cleanliness to dirtiness.

and from laid back attitudes to in your face

It was a huge culture shock. In an effort to get over the shock and get used to ‘real’ India I hid away in the relative tranquillity and calm of the high bank; I met some fantastic people and together we took a collective decision to avoid the chaos of the masses and instead to have some good banter and chill out! So what we did instead was to do… very little except seek refuge I some awesomely cool waterfalls. I also followed the lead of the 10,000,000 pilgrims who come to Rishikesh every year and had a swim in India’s holiest river- the Ganges.

4) Swimming in the Ganges with Rowan, Sophie, Nick and Daniel.

After 3 days of relaxation I took my last journey on Indian public transport- a 5 hour train back to Delhi and what a train it was! It was fully air-conditioned – to the point that it was actually cold. I was also served two meals in the space of 5 hours! After 3 months of overcrowded public busses this was awesome- super style!

Delhi

Not much to say about Delhi. I was only there for 8 hours from about midnight to 8am when I left for the airport. I can honestly say that it may have been the worst 8 hours of my whole travelling experience- I stayed in a horrible hotel and had a horrible breakfast and got ripped off – god, I HATE DELHI!

That’s pretty much it for my adventures.

All that is left to say is that while you have been busy reading this blog I have had some of the most interesting experiences of my life. It hasn’t always been fun, it hasn’t always been easy and I haven’t always enjoyed it but fro the most part I have had a great time, I’ve met some amazing people, done some extra ordinary things and overall loved it. In India everything is an adventure, whether it be going to the shops to buy a loaf of bread or taking, 15-hour bus journey, doing a 5 day trek of paragliding in the Himalayas. Life is so colourful; the people are so vivacious and everything is so interesting and so different.

When all said and done the only real question I have to ask myself is- will I do it again?

You better believe it.

Keep your eyes open for sammysamsamssecondblogspot.blogspot.com!

5) My original plan of where I thought I would go (see first blog)

6) My actual route!

------------------------------------End of Bloggage-------------------------------

H.H.D.L- at last.

2009-07-21T23:24:00.000-07:00

Leaving Leh

After spending 5 weeks in Ladakh and having such fun adventures it was very hard for me to leave. Although part of me knew it was time to leave; it was very difficult leaving behind so many friends. I felt like I had seen Leh at a special time- when I arrived in Ladakh the tourist season was only just starting and over the weeks I had spent there I watched the city wake up and grow from a small village with a handful of tourists into a vast tourist metropolis. I had not only seen the number of tourists multiply, I also watched Leh acquire a seasonal workforce of waiters, chefs, cleaners, craftsmen, businessmen and even beggars- all of whom were in Leh to make tourist dollars.

Walking to the bus station at 4am on the morning of my departure got slightly choked up; walking past all of my favorite spots I knew I had witnessed a special place at a special time!

At the same time I knew that it was time to find pastures anew... I was Spiti bound!

Journey back from the edge of the earth.

I took a different route and a different mode of transport back from Leh- I was going directly south from Leh to a town about 17 hours away called Keylong… by local bus! The journey was... bumpy, squashed, and loooooooooooooooooong- but I knew what I was letting myself in for when I bought the ticket!

The only thing to keep me entertained as the hours ticked by were the road signs (I must admit that the last sentence does sound rather strange- but hear me out)

The road builders of Ladakh were poetic comedians with a message... some examples-

1) Love thy neighbor- but not while driving.

2) Reach for the stars even if you have to stand on a cactus.

3) This is a road not a runway- drive slow.

4) Darling I love you but not so fast.

5) Be slow of my curves.

6) Speed and safety never meet.

7) Better to be Mr late the a late Mr.

8) The road is hilly, don't drive silly.

9) A cat has 9 lives but not one who drives.

10) Shortcuts can take your life.

11) Drive fast to test our recovery services.

All 100% genuine! and - well they made me laugh!

One other highlight on the road back from Leh was...

10km out of Keylong and 16 hours into the journey (just when I started to believe the never-ending journey might possibly end) the engine cut out- the driver seemed as perplexed as anyone. He, like the rest of us was tired and hungry and sick of bloody mountains! So, eventually after 20mins the engine starts again and we drive 1 Km before the engine dies again. This happens 3 or 4 times before the driver announces that we were out of petrol. God knows how a bus that runs every day manages to run out of petrol- so anyway, we had to 40mins for another bus to some and pick us up and finally finally finally get to Keylong and to bed! It was both vintage and typical of India!

2 days and lots of buses later I arrived in Spiti valley!

His Holiness the Dalai Lama- H.H.D.L

Spiti is Ladakh’s younger brother, like ladakh, Spiti is a mountain desert on the Indo-Chinese boarder with a strong Buddhist tradition.

I discovered when I was trekking (in ladakh) that H.H.D.L. was going to be in the Spiti valley so naturally I decided to go along to take a look. How many chances does one get to go to see the Dalai Lama anyway?!

Kaza

I arrived in Kara 3 days before H.H.D.L. did (and one day before the place exploded with hundreds of pilgrims). The town is usually pretty quiet and remote but while H.H.D.L was there the population of the town swelled by about 500%!

To kill time while waiting for the holy one’s (!!!) arrival I got a bike a cycled around some interesting places (monasteries, neighboring towns, you know the usual!) anyhoo, when H.H.D.L eventually arrived the atmosphere in town was electric. He arrived by chopper and the townspeople and well-wishers lined the streets, donning their most fabulous traditional dress to greet H.H.D.L. and have a bit of a party at the same time!

The teachings.

H.H.D.L came to Spiti to give teachings to the local people and to consecrate the brand new gompa. I decided I would see what all of the full was about.

I rocked up bright and early on the day of the teachings and chilled out for a couple of hours to listen to what H.H.D.L. had to saw. Unfortunately, he spoke in Tibetan so I couldn’t actually understand anything he said thus I was not converted to Buddhism. Instead, I just watched- which in itself was a great experience. I couldn’t help but like him- the man has a chuckle like a Tibetan father Christmas- it‘s ace!

Overall, It was certainly a privilege to see him at such close quarters but, one day was enough for me- I came, I saw, I left. I needed a break from the overcrowded kaza.

Dhanker- peace at last.

In a one hour bus journey I went from a town with 10,000 people in it to one with 87 people in- It was great. I walked up to a lake with some people I met and then took about 200,000,000 pictures of a stunningly beautiful old town and monastery.

I stayed in a homestay for a night before going to…

Tabo

Like Kaza I arrived just before the Dalai Lama so I got to see the town in relative peace before the hordes arrived. It’s a stunningly beautiful town but there is not too much to do in town apart from a) play lots of chess, b) admire the scenery and c) chew the fat with Spiti’s own Rastafarian- angel.

After 2 days of lazing around H.H.D.L. arrived and so did the crowds. On the morning he gave his first teaching I decided to pop into the monastery for a quick look, it was much less crowded than in Kaza and H.H.D.L. actually walked about a meter away from me (also, I think he might have smiled at me, or possibly he was smiling at the person next to me, she was much better looking than me!)

That’s all for now folks- just one week to go now. On next week’s episode I will be taking lots and lots and lots of busses and getting really really really hot and sweaty.

Jah. Peace.

One last trick

2009-07-16T04:10:00.000-07:00

I mean... one last trek

After 3 days of (uneventful) rest in Leh I was ready for another adventure- with Ben (the legend) still being around this 'adventure' was bound to be a trek! so here goes... my brife report on the Marka Valley trek!

An outline-It is... Ladakh's mopst popular trek.

It takes... 1 day's walk and one mountain pass (of 4900meters) to get into the valley and one day walk and 1 pass (5260 meters) to get out of the valley.

Day 1

Route: Leh- Spitok (bus) then Spitok- Rombak (8hrs)

Lowlight: I got ill from dehydration (from the day before) so from morning through the 8 hour trek I felt like death! I had diahroeah, a fever, a headach, stomache ache etc etc etc. It was horrendus!

Highlight: Getting to the home stay, drinking mint tea and sleeping for 11 hours straight (I was in bed at 8.30)

Notes: Met a Belgium guy called Anthony who walked with us all day.

1) me and ben the legend... the scenery was... something like this

Day 2

Route:Rombak- Shingu (6 hours) over 1 pass 4900 meters

Lowlight: Bad weather- It was cloudy and cold especially going over the pass.

Highlight: When we got to the homestay there was a little crew of people and we played cards well into the night.

Notes: none

Day 3

Route: Shingu- Chaluk (7 hours)

Lowlight: got blisters (bloody nike court force trainers - who would wear them to go trekking anyway!)

Highlight: There was no one in at the home stay so we stayed with a local guy called Tashy- who was an absoloute character. It was like reliving the angmo story. He was so hospitable, so kind and despite his lack of english he was incredibly funny!

2) Mr Tashy!

Notes: Tashy told us the reason that the village was empty was because there was an important rimposhe (monk) passsing through the valley!

Day 4

Route:Chaluk to Hanker

Highlight: We found the monk... and his 650 followers! About half was thugh the day we saw a line of what looked like red ants- it turns out theat they were all monks and the monk was quite an important dude! He had an entorage of monks from all over the world, there were over 250 ponies and they had been walking for 5weeks! It was quite a sight

Lowlight: We walked with with the monks all day and when we eventually got to out destination an Australian woman came up (fom the monk crew) to us and told us that we were not really invited to take part in the festivities because we had "not got explicit permission from His Holiness". she was a bit of a snotty b***h to be honest. She was probably annoyed that she has had to pay hundreds of dollars to walk with " His Holyness" and we had found him (accidently) for free. To be honest we didn't really mind because we came to walk not hang around some monk dude but it was a bit unfriendly.

3) a (long) line of monks, which at first looked like red ants

Notes: We met an Israli guy who walked the rest of the way with us!

Day 5

Route: Hanker to Nimaling

Highlight:Was the most beautiful day of trekking, we climbed for most of the day passing several lakes, some live stock but not a single humal being. When we got to Nimaling there was no homestay but a number of tents for us to stay in. The person who ran the tents was bust seeing the lama so we stayed for free!

Lowlight: We camped at 4700 meters which was high enough to be incredibly cold one the sun set and I had a wee bit of altitude sickness.

4) a sunset at 4,700 meters!

Day 6 Route: Nimaling to Sham Sundo

Highlight: we climbed over the 5260 pass- the views were predictaly amazing and the scence of acomplishment was tremendous. We then walked down hill for the rest of the day (yeah) to a wonderful hoimestay... perfect.

5) we did it... the top of the world!

Lowlight: None... all days should be like this one!

Day 7

Route: Shamsundo- Hemis (2 hours) and Hemis to Leh (bus)

Highlight: after the 2 hour walk we were greated by a stunning monestry (the finesst in ladakh) and a puja (prayer time for the monks). There was a great atmosphere around the place, the anticipation of the arrival of the monk (who was ending his trek in Hemis) was palpable!. From Hemis it was back to Leh for a shower and some good food!

Notes: Me and Ben had been dreaming of good food (especially our favourite chicken tika) and a beer for the last 2 days of the trek. The food in the homestays was very basic and neither me nor ben had had a beer since our arrival in Ladakh (5 weeks for me and over 2 months for ben). We felt it was time to break the thurst. However, when we got to Leh we found out that it was a dry day which meant no chicken and no beer. Bloody tipical!

Note: I'll repete it again- not a single drop of alcohol had passed my lips in over a month. Anyone who knows me, Stella can Sam, will know how suprising that is! Also, we has chicken and beer the following day- it was goooooooooooooooood!

6) Puja

I know i'm really sorry... last post I promised to tell you all about me and the most famous Tibetan alive. But... you'll just have to tune in next week to read about my experience with H.H.D.L!

The good the bad and the avarage

2009-07-07T07:07:00.000-07:00

The good the bad and the avarage

For the next adventure- back to SECMOL!

After the relaxation in Leh we were off again (by we, I mean me and 3 of the remaining SECMOL volunteers- Kristen, Garett and Ben). This time we were not going to the secmol campus, instead we were off on holiday with the perminant students. Secmols regular purpose (by thet I mean apart from running the summer camp) is to house and support 60 perminant students through their important exams. This being the end of the year all of the students were leaving the SECMOL campus for bigger and better things. So, to celebrate they were going on holiday for 4 days to the Nubra valley.

(important background information)
While we had been trekking in the Sham valley the SECMOL had been sitting around not doing a whole lot. Additionally, the SECMOL campus had been taken over by 100 meditation students on a silent valpassna retrete. The secmol stundets had had to be uber quiet- that is untuil we got on the bus. The munute we got out of earshot from the campus the ladaki music started pumping, the drums started banging and the kids started throwing shapes!
(end of important background information)

Day 1-The average
The Nubra trip is the story of the good the bad and the average...
So, it begins- in every average day there are good bits and bad bits, high points and low points. The high point of day one was actually the highest... motorable road in the world. Kardong La at 5602meters (18,380feet) is pretty dam high.

1) The high point

However, the low point was spending 4 hours waiting at the bottom of the pass for the road to open. In addition to this the other lows of the day were- maggi instant noodles as the only source of nourisment, running a fever, 12 hour of ladaki music and getting stuck in a river (the getting stuck in the river was actually quite funny looking back on it)!

2) The low point of day 1- Stuck in a river after a 10 hour bus ride.

Day 2- the good
We camped under the stars on the first night and awoke to a beautiful day... and camels! All of the kids piled onto the bus on a massive bus mission which (fortunatly) we were not allowed to join in with (as foreigners we were prevented from entering the 'boarder area', which is very close to Nubra valley). Instead, we went walking on sand dunes which, incidently make very good slides! Then we ate momos (dumplings) mmmmmmmmm
When the kids returned the amp was plugged in and the ladaki music started pumping again! suprise suprise!
3) Sand dune slides.
4) Mine and Kristen's best zombie impression.

Day 3 the (very) bad
During my time in India I have taken many epic 14 hour bus trips usually however I have a destination in mind- it may be a different city or a different state or a place of interest, never before have I sat on a bus for 14 hours not knowing where I was going, on a bus driving to ... nowhere in particular. On day 3 in nubra I did exactly this! It seemed like we were driving for the sake of driving. We had no idea where we were going, why we were going there or what this is to do there (where ever there is). To make things worse the ladaki music pumped out at full volume (of cource). And the road, wasn't a road, it was just stones. at one point we had to get out and basically build the road! (a picture will hopefully be posted soon)

We eventually got to our destination (sic) which was a (pretty average) monestery; the day turned into a complete farse when we were taken to a mountain (well we are in himalayers after all) and told that there was a Buddha embossed into the rock face. Sorry Buddha (if your up there) but i didn't see you- perhapse it's because i'm a non beliver!

The only plus point of the day- we were told by a monk in the monestry that we were, almost certainly, the only foreigners to have ever visited the site of the monestry. We were technically not allowed to enter the boarder area. We were just 30km from the disputed Pakistan boarder and the worlds highest battle ground (India and Pakisthan are currentl fighting over the Siachen glacier). Although interesting, at the time I found this to be of small consolation.

The day ended at 10.30 when we eventaully pulled into a town and stayed in the community centre. Apparantly dinner wasn't served until 2.30am, by then I was in the land of nod- glad that the 20th June 2009 was over.
I think I can justifiably call it- the most pointless day of my life so far!

Day 4- the Average
We were (suprise suprise) back on the bus at 8am, more ladaki music, the kids who had danced the night away were full of energy, while us foreigners looked like death warmed up! At least today we broke up the long bus journey with some interesting sites- hot springs, interesting gompas (monestries) before heading back over the pass to leh where a hot shower, traveller food and warm bed awaited us!

5) Back over kardong La

I'm not going to lie... I was not sad to wave the SECMOL bus behind for some peace and quiet- I think I had enough ladaki music to last a life time!

On the next episode of Sammysamsam- sam does one last trek, sam leaves Leh (sob sob sob) but sam meets a very very famous Tibetan- in fact sam meets the most famous Tibetan man alive! Tune in next week!

love and love

Shamtastic Trekking

2009-07-01T02:02:00.000-07:00

Some pics from the Sham valley.Day 1- A lak of black Ladaki yaks!

Day 1- the final of 3 passes!

Day 2- the crew- (left to right) Marc, Ben (the legend), Moi, Garett and Kristen.

Day 2- On the way to Tar (with Angmo)- The most stunning scenery with fields of flowering barley.

Day 3- Angmo and her wonderful grandmother!
Day 4- leaving Angmo's house in Tar

Day 4- In between one 4,000 meter pass and another- "Anyone for a chocolate bar?" mmmmmmm

Day 4- Ipchi la pass, ladakh, India 4,470 meters- Just did it!

This picture is going straight to Nike! Who needs hiking boods anyway, non when you've got blue and yellow Nike court force trainers on (and Yak wool socks)!

Day 5- Words of wisdom as we approached Alchi

Day 5- We walked for 4 days for this???

Original 11th century paintings in Alchi.

SECMOL Sham-bles

2009-06-22T05:42:00.000-07:00

SECMOL- The birds and the bees

The second half of secmol went pretty smothly and uneventfully, we continued with ore daily routine of conversation classes, helping out and excercise We also found the SECMOL video library- which was a bonus. As mentioned in the last blog we also held sex education classes for all of the kids. Although standing up in front of 50 boys explaining the birds and the bees if not my idea of fun, the kids were great and somehow me, Garrett and Ben struggled through 3 sessions of sex ed in which we explained all of the basics and answered all of their questions (as bizzare as some of them were). we also did the classic condom banana demonstration- all in the name of safe sex. The loved it!

Slowly the summer camp drew to an end, on the second to last day we all piled onto 2 buses and went for a Ladaki picnic. Equipped with a generator, an amp and some huge speakers, we... I mean the kids showed Ladakh how to rock! there was dancing, dancing and more dancing!
1) Picnics, cricket and cows

Before the camp did finally ended there was a disco, a leaving ceremony and floods of tears (from the campers)- when the time finally come to get on the bus some of the kids were totally inconsolable- i get the feeling they all had a good time! personally, I had mixed feelings about leaving. On one hand SECMOL had become my home and my family for 2 weeks and I loved it but, on the other hand I was getting itchy feet and after 14 days of curry, rice and skew (boiled dough) I was looking forward to some good (proper) traveller food! As a final parting gift to the camp all of us volunteers sang the Bill Withers classic, lean on me- which is a classic here along with the vengaboys (random!)
2) group photoooooooooooo! the Campers
Leh
For 2 nights. our purpose-
1) prepare for trekking
2) eat good food
great success- enough said. Ohhhh and we also found time to cycle to Thikse monastery- which was fun.

3) Thiksy monestry

4) Bikes- I told you we cycled there
The great SECMOL Sham valley experience.
firstly, an introduction to an important person- Ben: volunteered at secmol for the full month (both of the summer camps) Also, he is a French scout thus he is addicted to trekking. It is therefore to Bens credit that all 5 of the remaining SECMOL volunteers found themselves trekking for 5 days from Likir to Alchi. Thus began the great SECMOL Sham trekking experience.

Due to popular demand bullet point format is back...
Day1
Bought snacks
Had a big momo (dumpling) lunch
Bus to Likir (3hrs)
Found a homestay (spare room in a house)
5 people in 3 beds (uber cosy)

Day 2
Saw likir monestry
Biiiig buddha
Walked- up down up down up down
3 valleys, 3 mountain passes, 3 villages
Another home stay
Storytelling and bed (at 9.30- rocking)

Day 3
Wakie wakie rise and shine at 6.30
Walking (obv)
Up down up down
2 passes
Guess what lakadi rock is cool
Felt like walking on the moon (sometimes)
And the rest of the time- felt like walking on mars.
Was stunnning

Story of Angmo- (breaking of bullet points momentarily- it's worth it)
Half way through day 3 we got to a road and were asked to accompany little Angmo, an 8 year old Ladaki girl to here village which, incidental was the same village were were headed to for the night. It soon became clear that she was leading up instead of us leading her so our 8 year old guide lead us through some of the most stunning scenery I have ever seen. We walked along a river which flowed through a deep gorge. The valley was narrow and lush, the flowers were in bloom- after 3 days of mountain desert the greenery was a welcome change!

We stopped after an hour and Angmo dropped of supplies for an old man who lived in a one house village. It was so stunning that i decided I wanted to retire to that village, it was so small it didn't even have a name! after a mandatory cup of chai and biscuits were were once again being let by Angmo. The gorge got narrower and deeper and even more stunning- as we got closer to Angmo's village (Tar) she, in here limited English kept saying party. True to her work when we arrived in Tar there was a party in full swing, the 15 villagers were pumping the music loud and throwing some shapes. although we never fully understood why there was a party in progress we had no problems with joining it! Eventually we were taken to Angmo's house and invited by her and her grandmother to stay the night (which was lucky because there were very few other options). we were fed non stop with apricots, almonds, coke, barley, rice and curry until we were fit to burst, then slept like babies.

Angmo and her grandmother were great company and although the language barrier was a slight issue I have not laughed so hard for a long time! When it was eventually time to leave we had to discuss the issue of re numeration- what with all the feeding and the partying, the bargaining process had never taken place. In all honestly we had a struggle on our hands- in normal bargaining situations we would seek to lower the asking price to a reasonable rate however, in this situation, as unbelievable as it may sound the reverse occured. Angmo's grandmother asked for such a small amount of money that we felt bad. We eventually gave here 3 times what she asked for and it was still almost nothing!

Back to Bullets

Day 4
tough day
2 passes- highest of the trek
1st 4470 meters- very steep climb for 2 hours.
Highest i've every been- apart from in a aeroplane
Treversed the valley
It snowed!
2nd pass 4150m
descended to another home stay
nothing compared to Angmo's house but was fine
sleeeeep

Day 5
Short(ish) walk to Alchi
hot day
a monastery- oldest in Ladakh
original paintings from the 11th century.
nice (non rice and dalh) supper
end of trek- slight anti climax
I wanted more!

5) A monk- on the phone!

Pics of trekking will appear soon- I have not uploaded them yet!

I hope you have enjoyed this episode of sammy sams blog spot! If you have and suggestions or complaints then please don't hesitate to email me at chipsndrink@gmail.com.

On the next episode- sam returns to SECMOL for "the good the bad and the average"

Lots of love

some pics

2009-06-16T03:13:00.000-07:00

Some pictures to go with my last blog (in reverse order)

1) Sports day at SECMOL-the rice sack race.

2) Disco time at SECMOL

3) ummmmm-Ladakh. enough said
2) journey to the edge of the earth- the road from Srinigar to Leh

3) A floating market on Dal lake (5am!!)
4) Who's that?! on a houseboat!

2009-06-08T00:22:00.000-07:00

Srinigar.
Firstly, a small history and geography lesson, Srinigar is the capital of Jammu and Kashmere (JandK) is in the far north- eastern corner of India. It is because of this geographic position that Kasmere’s past is so…messy. Unfortunately, the state of Kasmere is sandwiched between India and Pakistan both of whom lay claim to the state. Because of this (and partly due to the Kashmere’s own desire for independence from both India and Pakistan), Kasmere was the catalysis for 2 wars in the 1980’s and 1990’s. It was during one of these wars that the world came closest to nuclear war, and Bill Clintion described the city of Srinigar as the most dangerous place on earth.

Secondly, how I ended up in Srinigar.
Well I was very keen to get up to Leh, to work on the SECMOL summer camps, (they only last for a month and I was already 1 week late). There is a road from Srinigar to Leh which I knew for sure was open. So, I decided to brave, I had been told by reliable sources that srinigar was relatively safe and secure. So off I went. I took a 13 hour overnight local bus to Jammu, and then an 8 hour jeep from Jammu to Srinigar. It was a tough, but breaking journey, but the people that I met along the way were so nice, on the posh deluxe busses everyone pretty much keeps to themselves but on the local busses there was so much more character, to make up for the lack of comfort and I got bought breakfast by an Indian guy!

Anyway, as we approached Srinigar the first thing that struck me, and slightly scared me was the sheer number of police and soldiers; the road from Jammu was being patrolled by solders constantly and as we approached Srinigar the army seemed to have taken control of all the hotels, parks, open spaces etc. I was slightly nervous.

My nerves were heightened even more when I got to my hotel (which was a houseboat- I’ll explain later) as I met a guy called George, a photo journalist who was rushing out to take pictures of a riot…. Oh!

The Houseboats- until the wars and fighting, Kashmere was a prime holiday destination for tourist and Indians alike, on the road from Jammu I passed numerous signs welcoming visitors to “paradise on earth” (The were all slightly dated). Srinigar’s main attraction and the reason visitors flocked to the city for was the lake- Dal Lake is a huge lake right in the middle of town and it is lined with rows and rows of houseboats, I think (or was told that) they were originally build by the British as a way of bypassing the law preventing foreigners from owning land in India. Unfortunate, the houseboats on the lake have not been full of tourists for a long time, for many years Kashmere was totally cut off from tourists, but things are changing slowly. The lack of tourists has had 2 profound effects firstly, it is very cheep and there is lots of choice but secondly everyone wants the business tourists bring so the hassle is very bad.

My experience of srinigar.
It is a city of 2 halves…
1) The lake, as I have mentioned is superbly beautiful, the house boats are well made comfortable, serene and an awesome experience HOWEVER as I have mentioned the hassle is very very bad. Although the houseboats have beautiful verandas which look out onto the lake actually sitting on them brings constant hassle from souvenir sellers, and hawkers. I went with a girl I met to a floating vegetable market which was great apart from the fact that we were surrounded by souvenir seller so we couldn’t actually see that many vegs, and there is no way of disappearing when on a boat.
2) The other part of the city is the old town, on the face of it the old town is like any other Indian city- full of cows, cars, pollution, people, horns, and the rest of it. But on closed inspection and after I had got over the initial shock I realized that the people were by far the friendliest people I had met in India. In every shop people would call me over, offer me tea, talk to me, give me food and in return they asked for… well… nothing. Usually you get used to people slipping in what they want out of you- whether it be buying from their shop, give them money, do their tour or what ever it is. In Kashmere then were not that bothered- I guess they didn’t rely on the tourist trade so they were just interested in me and esperically of what I thought of Kashmere.

Therefore overall, my experience was undecided, unsure, and slightly confused. I met some really really nice people however I also met some unpleasant people. The people by the lake spoiled the city, the prime tourist attraction left me most disappointed slightly sad and a bit uneasy.

Footnote:
I mentioned George my photo journalist friend. Once his returned from the “riot” he explained to me that every Friday after prayer the city’s Muslim youths get together and throw stones at the police, I never fully understood why they did it or what they hoped to achieve but apparently it’s a tradition. The rest of the week is peaceful, just stay in your hotel on Friday (unless you’re a Muslim youth or a photo journalist)

Oh- Also I had my birthday in Srinigar, thank you for all the birthday messages and stuff!

Journey to the edge of the earth.
After recovering from my 23 hour marathon to get to Srinigar I embarked on another one to get to Leh. 14 hours in a shared jeep, from 7 in the morning until 9 pm. It was another bum-breaker. However, it was also one of the most amazing and intence journeys I have ever taken. It felt like a journey to the edge of the earth. It went like this…
Stage one: the first 100Km as we left Srinigar the scenery was lush and green- there was lots of vegetation, we followed a stream which had glaciers falling into it, there was vegetation, animals, the road was made from tarmac and it was all lar-di-dar.
Stage 2: Then very suddenly we started climbing up and over a pass, the greenery gave way to snow and ice, the road was more like a stream (or snow melt) and the ride was bumpy, we had to get out and push at one point and we were stopped at the top to let an army convoy pass (as about 200 trucks passed one Indian holidaymaker saluted every single truck… how patriotic!).
Stage 3: the next 300Km was pure desolation, in felt like we were driving on the moon, we passed valley after valley- each one was totally different from the last, the shape and color of the rocks made each vally more stunning. For hour apon hour we climbed then descended, sometimes the road was good sometimes it was bad, sometime there were villages sometimes not. All there was to do was look at the scenery, contemplate the beauty and listen to my ipod. It was a monumental journey.

As we arrived into Leh, we hit a straight flat road, I had forgotton they existed, by this time I was tired, drained and sore but at the same time I felt exhilarated, the journey was like none I had ever done before it was so incredible stunning that I was almost sad to leave it all behind- but hey, I was in Leh, Ladakh. The promised land, it was my final destination, at least for a while, after so many night on busses and trains (9on busses and 3 on trains at the last count) it would be nice to stay in one place for a while.

Leh.
First thing I did- bed.
The next morning I woke up bring and early, I went for a morning stroll, to get my bearings, I had been looking forward to getting to Leh for a while, so you can imagine my disappointment when I realized that on the surface of it, Leh was just another backpacker town with 3,000,000 travel agents, souvenir shops hotels and German bakeries. Whatsmore ¾ of the town was still closed because the season hasn’t really started. To make matters worse, after my energetic start, the attitude suddenly caught up with me- At 3,500 meters (aprox 12,000 feet) Leh is high- very high. The altitude sickness hit me suddenly, I was walking down a road happily when suddenly my head started spinning and my feet refused to move, I felt nauseous and I desperately needed to sit down.

After my rough start I did start to appreciate Leh, after all what other tourist town backs onto the Himalayas, all I needed to do was look up and spin around to get a stunning panoramic view of snowcapped peaks and a mountain desert (and to get dizzy again!).

Secmol.
After a day of acclimatization and recovery I regained my strength: ready to face kids, work and SECMOL!

Secmol was one of the main reasons I came to India, after working at Karuna in London I wanted to spend a little time seeing how development projects works in reality.

Secmol in practice-

I was picked up in Leh by Becky, the volunteer coordinator and driven to the campus in Phey, about 18km out of Leh. I was given lunch and then shown around. The campus is made up of 4 main buildings,

The main building is where I am staying along with the 95 summer campers; it also had a main hall, a computer room, a library, and a main office. The building is heated through a mixture of solar power and traditional insulation.

The dining room and kitchen, there is a solar power cooker (which doesn’t seem to be used very much!) But, it is always busy with students and the cooks making vast quantities of foot for the 170odd people.

The Toilet and shower block, the toilets and traditional Ladaki dry toilets, vaguely like festival toilets, but bearable. The showers are solar powered- so hot water is only available when the sun is out, in the middle of the day.

The dorms- The look a little like prison cells and they are where the regular students live. Again- insulated with a mixture of traditional wisdom and modern solar science.

When I arrived the place was in full swing, between mid-May and mid-June Secmol run 2 summer camps (15days each) where children from across Ladakh come together to learn, have fun, and take a bit of a holiday, all of the students have just finished their 10th standard exams (GCSEs) but none of them yet know their results so it’s a nice way for them to learn, meet people, have new experiences and have fun in a really relaxed way.

Generally the camps are run really really well, all of the kids seem really happy, they learn Ladaki history, arts and crafts and practice their English skills (none of which they get to do a school). As well as the campers there are 50 permanent students who live on campus all year round, they come from villages where the education system is failing, they live on campus and go to school in Leh (where the schools are a little better). They get study and life support while living on campus. The perminant students help to run the campler, they organize most of the extra curricular activities as well as do their duties (cooking, gardening, cleaning etc). The permanent are great, their English skills a very advancedand considerably better than most of the campers, they also seem older and wiser than the campers (most of whom are their age). It seems as if they benefit greatly from the Secmol experience and they are certainly attached to the place.

The other volunteers
The volunteers who I have met here have been fantastic, there were 5 others when I arrived and 2 more have since arrived. Our only obligation is to take Engligh conversation classes for 3 hours in the afternoon. Apart from that we are pretty much left to our own devices; we can participate as much or as little as we like. So far my daily routine involves- helping in the kitchen in the mornings, followed by a Ladaki lesson, then playing chess/ cards until lunch, doing conversation classes with the campers after lunch, followed by a jog in the early afternoon, then dinner and finally chess and biscuits before bed. Oh- and reading in between times.

I guess that’s all for now- in the next blog… Sam becomes a ladaki sex education teacher- I kid you not. That should make interesting reading!

Love you all x x x

2009-05-24T05:15:00.000-07:00

Sammy sam sam blog number 4...

Unforseen adventures!

Manail.
God it seems like such a long time ago that I arrived in Manali. The town is pretty far north in India within the state of Himishal Pradesh. I got the bus with the two English girls I had met in Dharamasala (and Rajisthan)- Rhian and Kim. We arrived at about 5 in the morning and it was bloody freezing, the first thing we did was find a room and sleeeeeeeeeep. The day was pretty much a wash out! The main purpose of me being in Manali was to get a bus to Leh (about 20 hours north). On arrival I was told that the road was still snowbound and in all likely hood would remain so for the next two weeks. Which was annoying because I had hoped to be in Leh by mid-May. I would have to wait it out and see what happened.

Picture 1 - A view od Manail drom my hotel room.

In the mean time I would have to occupy myself - day two in Manali was thus was rather more adventurous than day 1. To be honest there isn't really that much to do in Manali. The only form of activily (apart from chilllllling) is adrenaline filled adventure sports, in the winter it's India's premier ski resort (not really that advanced by European standards) and in the summer there is paragliding, zorbing, mountain biking, rafting, climbing etc etc etc. So I (and a girl I had met called Lucy) decided to get involved. We headed off to get a bit of paragliding in- it was a very strange experience and it of course had a bit of an India twist. Firstly, we had to climb up the mountain that we were going to fly down from, and then the 'pilot' realised he had forgotten to bring the correct paraglide - I was fully confident... not! however when we actually took of the experience was very tranquil, it wasn't as adrenaline filled as I thought it would be in fact it was very serene, a bit like flying. My pilot also threw in a free zorb ride for me and lucy... zorbing- think washing machine with person inside it. amusing?!

Pic 2: A self portrait!
Apart from that there really is little to say about Manali, I did nothing. I spent four nights there waiting for the road to open and then got bored. I actually found myself missing the dirt, grime and squallor of 'real' India- Manali was simply to easy- the food was too good, there were too many tourists, I was to clean etc. I decided to take the plunge back into India... real India.

With two weeks on my hands I decided to head south again to an Intriguing city called Chandigarth! Another over night bus and back to the heat of the plains.

Chandigarth.
Described in the guide book as 'Indias cleanest and greenest city' Chandigaeth was built in the 1950's by a french architect as the new capital of Punjab. My personal view is that Chandigath is the strangest city I have ever been to (certainly in India). It was partly because I had had no sleep and had been dumped of the bus 30Km out of town at 4.30am but my day in Changidarth seemed like a surreal dream.

It is certainly clean and green. There are wide boulevards with bougainvillea growing everywhere, big air conditioned shopping malls, brand new buses, a car free city centre and none of the chaos normally associated with India cities; at the same time, just from walking aroung the place the city seemed strange for some unidentifiable reason. I guess the best way to describe it is artificial, it had not evolved into a city it had been purpose build, and it was evident for example, the whole city was gridded off (like in US cities) into squares which were called 'sectors'. It had a specially created city centre (and sub-city centre) - must admit I simple couldn't get my head around it, It lack colour, it lacked character, it lacked India. It looked and felt like a warped neo-fascist version of LA. Totally weird.
Pic 3: Chandigarth- and all of it's sectors!
I went to Chardigarth on an impulse, I didn't actually know what I was going to do when I got there, what I ended up doing was leaving my bag in left luggage and walking around in a strange daze for about 6 hour (partially to do with the lack of sleep). when I did come around I found Chandigarth's main attraction- The rock garden. Created by a random man with to much time on his hands the rock garden fits right in with Chandigarth's strangeness. It's main totally out or waste and rubbish, and it is basically a maze of waterfalls interspersed with a zoo of moulded animals (rubbish description, sorry, see photos). The Lonely planet describes it as- akin to stepping through Alice in wonderland's looking glass. Spot on! I have to hand it to the man, they were really really cool gardens. I had a great snooze there as well!
pic 4: some od the 'zoo' in the rock gardens.
After some breakfast I headed out of town to some Mougul gardens (which were wholly unimpressive) I had a nice sleep on the bus though! On my arrival back in the city I think I was just a bit overwhelmed by the city, I couldn't take any more or the weirdness, so, since I hadn't yet checked into a hotel I jumped on a bus and headed back to the hill station of Shimla.

Shimla.
Shimla is the capital of Himishal Pradesh and once upon a time it was the summer capital of the whole of India. The British Raj moved the instruments of government up to Shimla every year when Calcutta got too hot! The city reminded me of a quaint English town like Bath or York. It was absolutely full of tourists (no foreigners, all Indian tourists). Also, it was full to the brim with Georgian and Victorian architecture, fashionable shops, beautiful views of the hills and ice cream licking holiday makers! I must say, I absolutely loved Shimla, the whole atmosphere of the town was fantastic, the people were so friendly and (best of all) there was no traffic in the main bazaar.

My top 10 favourite things about Shimla...
1) The shopping- I spend vast amounts of rupees (very few pounds) buying a chess board, a watch- which broke within 3 hours (I did get a replacement which still works now after almost a week), a knock off jumper, statues of Hindu gods and a wallet to name but a few things.
2) The history- I took a trip to Visigal Lodge the headquarters of the former Raj. I saw the table where the agreement for partition was signed. All very interesting.
3) The food- There was the best street food in India, I didn;t eat in a restaurant the whole time I was there. Also, there were the best ice creams ever (From Baskins and Robbins)
4) The weather - perfect, except for the hail stones as I left.
5) The lack of tourist- I got bored of backpacker chat in Manali
6) The awesomeness of the locals- so friendly, even the touts who found me the cheapest hotel room in town!
7) Real coffee, in an Italian coffee chain called barista Pic 5: Real coffee!
8) The atmosphere- No traffic, No hassle, no worries
9) the old school arcades- ever wondered where all the old pacman machines are. They're in Shimla
10) The funnier haircut in the world- A guy who looked about 105 year old snipping wildly at my hair, and it actually looked alright in the end (ish). It did only cost 50p!
Pic A slice of history- The table (and chairs) from which Mr Jinna and Mr Nehru decided where the India- Pakisthan boarder would be!

So there we go, top marks to Shimla, the problem was that I had run out of thing to do and the road to Leh still wasn't open. I didn't really know what to do or where to go. I checked out of my hotel on the morning of my 4th day in Shimla, I was going somewhere, I just didn;t know where!

In the end, after much deliberation (I actually made friends with the guy in the bus enquiry booth because I asked him so many questions about the buses) I decided to make the 23 hour mission to the slightly unstable Srinigar, Kashmere.

In the next blog find out why made the decision to go to Srinagar, what the place described as 'the most dangerous place in the world' (Bill Clinton, 1998) was like and whether I finally made it to Leh!

Laters Folks!

pictures... pictures... pictures

2009-05-23T08:05:00.000-07:00

1) A seik worshipper at the golden temple at Amritar

2) One of the goose stepping guards at the Attari boarder crossing ceremony.

3) A tranquil spot in Triund, DharamasalaThats all folks

2009-05-17T00:34:00.000-07:00

Sammysamsam's third blog - By Sam Lloyd

Well well well... lots has happened since I last filled in this bad boy!

Best place to start is from the beginning - Amritsar!

It was amazing, stunning breathtaking! The golden temple is the most holy place for Sikhs in the world, it is quite literally a temple made with 750Kg of gold. As you all saw from the photo on the last blog it is surrounded by a lake and there are thousands of devotees who come from all over the world to bath in the holy water. Leaving aside the beauty of the temple itself, I thought the nicest thing about the temple was the atmosphere- every person who enters the temple (Sikh or non seek, Indian or non Indian, rich or poor etc) is offered a bed and food for free. Also, every person who enters the temple is expected to contribute to the running of the temple so all meals are cooked by volunteers, same with the cleaning, serving, etc etc. This created a really really nice atmosphere, every person who entered the temple complex contributes something to the space, therefore everyone has a sense of care and pride in the place (not always the case in the rest of India).

I stayed there for 2 nights, on the first night I actually stayed in a hotel (Purely to watch Arsenal to lost to Manchester United in the Champions League, bad times!) And the second night I stated in the temple complex. I got involved in the work side of things by folding turbans for a hour- which was fun!

Apart from the golden temple there is very little to do in Amritsar... that is apart from the Attari boarder crossing. This may sound a little strange- most boarder crossings are pretty drab places nothing more that dull looking boarder officials, simple a place to get a passport stamp. In India things are slightly different. The Attari boarder crossing is the only boarder between India and Pakistan. for those of you who don;t know (and without getting into a history lesson) India and Pakistan totally hate each other, with a passion. The guards at the boarder have a particularly interesting way of venting their hatred and relieving their tensions at the end of each day... basically if goes like this...

1) On the India side of the boarder some where in the region of 2,000 people arrive every single evening.

2) When they get to the boarder they take a seat on the grandstand, buy some popcorn and make themselves comfortable.

3) the atmosphere grows as the local MC begins the chanting- "long live India" "long live India".

4) At 6.30 sharp the 10 boarder guard goose step, stop and march around the place for 15 minutes eying up their Pakistani counterparts.

5) the crowd gets very excited (still chanting (oh and flay waving))

6) the gates between the two countries is flung open and the commanding officers shake hands and the flags are lowered. The gate are then shut and everyone goes home happy.

1) The boarder guards at Attari.

I have no idea if you will get what I mean, but it is some sight. And the Indian, they love it. For me it was just one of those funny sights you get to see in India, but I got the feeling that for Indian this way a real way to show off their country and be patriotic! it was really really cool.

Anyhoo onwards- to Dharamasala.

Best know for... being the home of the Tibetan government in exile (and one of the only places you still see free Tibet t shirts). Yep it is the home to the Dalai Lama!

And with it cool, no even cold weather. When I arrived I had a blanket on my bed, that night I found out why, it was chilly! I had traveled up in the bus with an American guy and when we arrived we almost though we had arrived into a new country. It was somehow more refined that the India we had just left, the place seemed cleaner and more relaxed, there was no hassle,. no hussle, no rickshaws, no "come look my shop" almost peace and quite.

2) Prayer flags overlooking Mclead Gang.

I didn't do a whole lot while I stayed in town, apart from sample Tibetan food, wonder around town and take in the superb views. After a few nights and a touch of illness (from a bloody pizza) I moved from the relative hustle and bustle of Dharamasala to Bhagsu, a sleep village 20 minutes walk away - even more R and R. The one think of notability I did wile in town (apart from play chess, eat and drink) was walk up a mountain. 4 hours walk from Bhagsu is Triund, it's a pretty popular trail, lots of people walk it on most days, it quite steep, but not dangerous... that is until I attempted it!

I went up with my American friend and two English girls, we had hail stones, rain, thunder and lightning, a dramatic drop in temperature, we lost the path ended up scaling up a waterfall, almost dieing or giving up but when we got to the top... it was worth every minute, every drop of sweat! It was beautiful. The view of the Himalayas was amazing (pictures don't do it justice but I shall add some anyway). We went to warm ourselves up in a conveniently placed chai shop and wrapped ourselves up in blankets. After chatting to the chai owner we were invited to sleep up at the top of the mountain in his little chai shop, an invitation which I accepted almost immediately.

3) A rainbow after the storm in Triund.

The man was a legend, he some how managed to produce the best curry I have so far had in my whole time in India! We then went out to look at the starts and saw the moon rise from behind the mountains. It was an incredible site! The sky was so clear the stars so bright and the moon almost orange, it almost looked like the sun, really weird.

4) The chai shop and home for the night, Triund.

In the morning I scaled down the mountain (on the path (most of the time)) and got a bus to Manali, where hopefully I would be able to get another bus to Leh, Ladakh! (see footnote)

On the next episode of sammysamsam's blog spot we find out how and why the road to Leh was closed when sammysamsam arrived in Manali. But what will he do?

Find out next week

Thanks for reading
____________
footnote 1
For those of you who don't know I am heading up to Leh in Ladakh to do some voluntary work for a school called SECMOL. The road between Manali and Leh is snow bound for 6months of the year, depending on the snow the road usually opens about mid may-early June. One of the passes on the road (up at 5,000 meters) is still too snowy, so no busses are running up to Leh yet. The Indian army is apparantly working 24/7 to clear the roads\. Everyone has a different opinion as to when it will be open but no one knows for sure.

Sammy sam's second India blog: Rajisthan

2009-05-06T10:12:00.000-07:00

Sammy sam's second India blog (hopefully the electricity won't cut out this time)

State: Rajisthan (the land of kings)

Udaipur
When I left you last I was heading on a overnight train to Udaipur! The first thing that hit me when I arrived in Udaipur was not how beautiful the city was or how picturesque the lake was but how bloody hot the place was. I didn't think it could get hotter than Ahmedebad, I was wrong. I spent my whole first day sitting in a rooftop restaurant dieing of the heat. I couldn't eat anything, all I could do was drink and sweat! Because of the heat it is currently low season in Rajisthan, which was really nice in some ways, there was very little hassle from the hawkers and the rickshaw drivers because they are in hibernation, (to hot to bother ripping of tourists). So that was about it for the first day.

1) A wedding in the place where the lake used to be.

On the second day I was a little more active I made it onto the streets of the city, the old town- where I was staying comprised of hundred of narrow winding alleys and streets, millions of travel agents and billions of souvenir shops. I couldn't help thinking that in high season the place must be a nightmare. Because Rajisthan is close to Delhi it attracts more tourists that the rest of India, lots of package tourists as well as the backpackers. I found my first group of package tourists in the city palace, the palace itself was amazing, it is still the official home of the maharajah and is lavish to the max. Quite a sight.

The thing that Udaipur is really famous for (Lonley planet (I mean the bible) list it as the most impressive (NUMBER 1) thing to see in India) is the lake palace hotel (see picture below). If any of you have seen the Bond film octopussy the lake palace is shown extensively. In reality, unfortunately and like many things in India it has been slightly ruined by a) rubbish in the lake and b) water wastage resulting in... well... a lack of a lake. The (former) lake is now used for many things, package tourists take elephant rides on it, boys play cricket on it and there was even a wedding precession that paraded over it, anyone expecting a lake palace will be dissapointed, it's mose of a- slightly green/ boggy palace hotel.

All in all It was a fun city, I met lots of nice people, saw the sites and then moved on, together with my to new friends -Sam and Jeff. We took a bus (straight out of hell) to Jodpur.
2) Lake place hotal
Jodpur.
3 hours of standing, and 4 hours of shaking, I felt like I had just come out of a washing machine. It was a bumpy ride but Jodpur (the blue city) looked good. It's most predominant feature was a fort which sits majestically 300 feet above the city. Me and the crew arrive and we treat ourselves to the finest food in the city. Honestly, we went to the nicest restaurant in town (and it still only cost 4pounds per head). Then it was a quick night cap and bed.

The following morning we checked out the market and then climbed the very very hot hill to the fort, we were not disappointed, the palace in the fort was in it's way as impressive as Udaipur's and the views of the city were stunning. the city is fairly small and almost every house is painted blue (I never found out why) but past the city and it's 3 palaces we saw the desert- vast and empty for mile after mile.3) The blue city

Jaisalmer
That afternoon we hit the desert (in a bus), on our way to Jaisalmer. By chance there happened to be a sand storm as we crossed the desert, we couldn't see more than 5 meters ahead of us yet the bus still zoomed along at 60mph, scary stuff, but dramatic in it's own way! me, Sam and Jeff came to a unanimous decision that we were going to the hotel listed in the rough guide as 'nice rooms overlooking the swimming pool!'. I genuinely think that is was the best decision I have ever made. It was my refuge, my special place for the 3 days I was in Jaisalmer. It was a rest from the heat- it was actually cool, I had almost forgotten what feeling cool was (not that i'm uncool)!

4) The fort at sunset.

As a city Jaisalmer wasn't all that, there was another fort etc etc, however most people go there to go on a camel safari, but it seemed like a bit of a tourist trap and to be honest nothing could get me away from the pool! So I spent 3 days there with Sam and Jeff before we headed our separate ways. I was leaving Rajisthan and heading north...
5) The coolness of the pool with Sam and Jeff

Via Bikanere.
The less said about Bikanere the better, I booked a train over night to Bikanere and then another train 36hours later to Delhi, so it was just a stopover, I arrived at the undignified hour of 4:15. Sat in the train station for 2 hours and then checked into a hotel. After a little nap I work up had breakfast and had a walk around. I discovered that Bikanere was actually hell on earth. It was the most unpleasant city on earth. Perhaps it is because they live in such a disgusting city, but the people were rude, unfriendly, dishonest and HORRIBLE. After an hour I decided I couldn't possibly spend 36 hours in such a place. so, I went to the bus stand and got the first bus to Delhi thus began 24 hour of (almost) unbroken movement.
6) the horror of Bikanere.
Delhi
I was in Delhi for about 2 hours, I made the trip on the (very posh) metro to the train station and got a train to Amritsar. In the 2 hours in Delhi I counted 7 people try to rip me off, I'm afraid to say I am not a fan, I'll work on it but so far Delhi has never been a friend of mine!

Amristar
On my 9 hour train to Amritsar I worked out that I travelled over 1,000km in 24 hours. so my average speed was more than 40km/hour. After my epic journey I was rewarded with... a bed, a shower, a tv, a temple, free food, many friendly faces and watching Arsenal get beat by Man Utd.
7) The Golden palace of Amritsar
You'll have to wait until the next blog for more on Amritsar. on the next episode of 'Sam in India' you'll read about me in Amritsar, Dharamasala, Minali and Leh!

Lots of love to you all.

And thank you for all of your messages etc. keep the emails coming, it's nice to hear from you all.

2009-04-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

2009-04-27T07:47:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

I am afraid my first blog entry is slightly shorter than I hoped, I have been sitting in an internet cafe in Ahmedebad for several hours and I was nicely typing away at the old blog when suddenly the power went out. Knowing India, I had taken precautions to ensure that I wouldn't lose any of my work- I had saved my work on the desktop, however (also knowing India) some how the computer had managed to wipe the whole document anyway. Which sucks so I can't really be asked to type everything out again. It was probably just rubbish anyway.

Basically the abridged version is as follows...

Got visa on morning of flight.
Phew!
Got on plane.
Was very scared.
Got to India.

1) Mumbai- Shopping

Spent 2 nights in Mumbai.
It is a crazy place, very very big and noisy.
Met some nice people.

2) Mumbai- Slums and washing

Went to Ahmedabad.
It is a slightly smaller place but more polluted and nosier.
Went to Gandhi's ashram... was really cool (if you've seen the film it is the place he lives before going on the salt protests).
It was 45 degrees.
That is really really really really hot.

3) Gandhi's bedroom with his hand loom.

4) The great man himself.

Got another train.
South to Junnadjh- pilgrimage site.
No travelers just me and the pilgrims.
Nice small town.
Woke up at 5am.
Climbed up 10,000 steps. It was very very very very very tiring!
I was tired.
It was very nice- views, temples, a cool breeze.

5) Worth climbing 10,000 steps ad getting horrible sunburn?

I met a monk.
He was cool- he liked me because he hadn't spoken English in 16 years.
He showed me around and ignored all the other people who had trekked up 10,000 steps (I felt bad for them).
He told me that I was probably going to hell because I was drinking bottled water which kills lots of harmless things, like germs.
I didn't mind.

6) Islamic architecture.

In essence that was where I had go up to when the power cut out so I shall continue in proper paragraph form (although I do like the bullet points). In the afternoon after the adventure up the mountain and lunch with the monk I went to Diu. In southern Gujurat, Diu is located on the coast. It is slightly detached to the rest of India; it was a ex Portuguese colony and is the only place in the state where beer is sold. It sounded like my kind of place and I had been excited about going there. Put simple- I was not disappointed. Starved of (western) company for 3 days I was pleased to find a couple had just moved into the room next to mine.

7) My hotel- San tome retiero, in Diu
8) Sand dinosaurs on a deserted beach with Gabriel- a fisherman from Alaska and Lewis from London.

In the coming days I met some really nice people, ate some really nice food, rented a really nice moped, drank some really nice been and stayed in the most beautiful hotel (on the roof of a church!). Basically, it was perfect. It is what Goa isn't (possibly what Goa used to be like, but I’m not sure). Thinking back to it I believe it may have been heaven. Go there- need I say more?!
9) I got it because it matched my t shirt, also we had a biker gang called the ~Dewie dew's

I decided that 6 days in Diu was enough, although I could have stayed a month I have got places to go and new people to meet. I'm back in Ahmedebad, I getting on a train tonight for Udaipur, Rajisthan. It's going to be hot!

Be back soon, I thing my blood is about to hit boiling point!

P.s. the tan is coming along nicely!

2009-04-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

Here it is- my first travel 'Blog' and I am sitting in my bedroom. I feel just about as far from South Asia as is Humanly possibly.

I am seeking refuge in sketching out a haphazard map of where I plan to go!

Enjoy