Agra and we're done

Ok so what, it's been how many months since i got back from India? But i hadn't finished this and i really wanted to eventually. So here we go. So Justina left me but really I left Justina as i caught the afternoon train to Agra from Delhi. It was a nice train ride and i just looked out the window and checked out the smokestack scenery. Of course some Indian guys came up and sat beside me and asked what country i was from. I offered some gum and an ear speaker and the time went by. It was a weird feeling being by myself and i realize how good i had it to have arrived in India meeting Justina at the airport who took me in and showed me the ropes. I owe her for that one. I was now(of course because i'm travelling alone) meeting many people who were just arriving and wow, i see how crazy it would be. Anyways, i met this couple from Slovenia(first slovenian person i believe that i had met) at the hotel and we agreed to meet at the taj and take a rickshaw around the next day. well the next day apparently they had left for a different hotel so i said aight i guess it's just me. Well then i met this guy and girl, older of course(another type of people i seem to meet travelling). I mistake this lady for being american, oops, she's from toronto. Oh well. 6am Taj time. wow now ok it is pretty amazing when you first see it and an hour later i realizedwhy i got up at 5:30am to get there. hordes of people started coming. many tour groups. i thought they always got up early. Well i go and get some lunch with the canadian teahcer and this english guy who has been almost everywhere in teh world. Already she is getting a little bit on my nerves and it was funny to think that if Justina was here, i wouldn't be with these people, well maybe the guy but not the girl. But hey, what could i care, that's what so good about travelling by yourself sometimes. Well we grabbed a rickshaw and headed to the fort which was cool and then to the baby taj, just going down in spectacularity by the place. So by this time it's pretty much time for me to get back to the train station so that i can catch a train back to delhi. Well of course i got stucked into going to this crazy expensive store by the driver so he could get some commission. Another thing that wouldn't have happened if Justina was there. But i thought, hey i had time, why not. Boy oh boy could i not afford what was in there. I mean it was increadible stuff, not one of those stores that has all the same stuff as the market but more expensive, but this stuff was pretty neat. these huge decorated porcelain, rugs, lots of things in gold. hey not a bad way to spend 20min. Well then he took me to the train station. well he tried to to much more but i didn't let him. So jumped on the train for unreserved ticket. I thought it was going to be crazy as you see some places, but hey i got a seat and was fine. met this group of 6 young kids (well they were 19 but i think i can call 19 year olds young kids now) they had done a bunch of volunteering and were now on the move. Ahh Scandanvians, just so friendly. well into delhi and got the hotel again, did some last minute shopping and yup, gotta get teh taxi at 5am. Well many hours later and many movies later i was back in vancouver and my trip of 4.5 months were over. well it was awesome and i hope to do something similar agian someday and i hope that everyone gets a chance to see what they want to see and go where they want to go. This world is a special place.

Goa

Aaah well haven't written on here in a while. If you were here too you wouldn't have written anything either. The beach here is quite nice, i mean real nice, not just India nice. There are many restaurants to eat at, and so many activities which include: floating around on floaties, swimming, reading on the porch, reading in the sun on the lounge chairs, playing paddle ball, going for walks, playing chess with a guy from the hotel, eating food, buying stuff, internet and did i mention swimming. Well i know kinda scary but it's true, been living the life here and there is nothing to complain about here. a few weeks (well less than that) and its home time. Tomorrow is going to be our biggest day yet. we will be renting a scooter and driving the 2 hours to the Anjuna market and back. it could take us all day and it's pretty much guarunteed to be dangerous. It is real India afterall. well wish us luck.

Rishikesh

our place is the one on the right on the river with all the construction going on

Well we have now spent 5 nights in the yoga capital of the Universe, yes the Universe. I guess many of the people here are so entwined with themselves and the world around them, they can claim this. I'm not so convinced, but i'll take their word for it for now until a more suitable place is found. Rishikesh is a town that is spread out into many different smaller areas along the Ganges river. We thought we would try out this whole ashram yoga thing and walked over to the Swarg Ashram area to check it out. Now we got there a little late as the bus took all day, literally, 2 buses etc... So we got into one that was recommended in the book and didn't really like the vibe of the dude at the counter from the start. My shoulder has been bothering me as of late and i wasn't sure how much yoga i would be able to do. So we had the idea of trying out for a few days and if we didn't like it then go get a room at a hotel. (As all yoga classes and meals are included in the price). But the dude wasn't having any of that and wanted full payment for at least 3 nights. So we weren't having that and we got a room in a less than decent hotel. We woke up the next day to try and find further accommodation. We went back to the same place to try it for 3 nights but now the guy says that it's full (we weren't sure if it was true or that he was pissed off at us). So we walked to a couple of other places but they all had a really religious feel to them, which Justina and I really aren't into. So then after lunch we went to check out another one of the areas a couple of km's up the river from the Swarg Ashram, called Laxman Jhula. We knew right from the start that this was where we wanted to be. More for the foreigners looking for zen than Swarg Ashram which was for the Indians looking for zen. And hey, let's face it, different people have different views of what would help them in their zen searching. We found a very nice chill ashram called Sant Sewa with pay as you go yoga for beginners morning and night and not all the crazy rules that many of the other places had (ie no soap or no chess playing). So this is were we hung out for the next 4 nights and 5 days. We took a couple of yoga classes, had long meals, read and went for walks. The yoga was advertised for beginners but we soon found out that the Indian teachers had a different view of what beginner meant than some teachers back home. On our first day he had us doing the one leg balancing squat and the lotus or half lotus pose with a lean all the way back to the ground, both quite impossible for Justina and I. The second class he had us try the wheel pose and the swan pose, 2 more impossible ones than he even stumbled slightly when he was showing us. I think beginner for me means that it's ridiculously easy for you but i guess i'm wrong. Well it was an experience at least and as one guy said, you will leave having gained something. We enjoyed much of the good food here with the surrounding Israelis. (Would you feel a little weird if you were surrounded by Canadians or with all people from wherever your from at some restaurant in Rishikesh India? and not only the restaurant but the stores, the internet places. I myself would be freaked out but the Israelis don't seem to mind, they even like it.) Last night we walked back to the Swarg Ashram as although not where we wanted to stay, it has a really neat vibe to it. We encountered one of the sun going down/ceremony to the Ganges/ something we don't even know about, going on in front of the Ashram that we had first looked at. Lot's to do with fire and chants and the river and offerings and many other things that i don't understand but it was really cool to see nonetheless. Today we checked out of our hotel and are going to pass the day until catching our night bus ride out of here. take care everyone, and remember, Om sweet Om.

Shimla

Ok so after another crummy overnight bus ride where neither of us got any sleep at all, we arrive in Shimla.(later to be named Shitla by us) Now this town was described as a nice typical hill station and the capital of honeymoons. Now again we are puzzled by India and Indians. Why anyone would want to come here for there honeymoon is beyound me. Really. We arrive in this town that is polluted due to the crappy buses and encircling mountains with the sewage drains running down most of the sides of the stairs you climb and the streets you walk down. I think that our mood didn't help but it's the same starting view that all the Indians get as well. So here is where the touts come in. No we don't need help, don't follow us, stop right there and don't move until i say so and then walk away. But no, no is never no to an Indian. He will follow until the end as we saw. So we walk up to the top of the hill and over to the YMCA because that must be a good option(and they don't give commisions). but as we have seen in India, YMCA doesn't mean cheap but still good, it actually means expensive and not as good. It's really weird really. How there you can get a crummy room with no bathroom for 400Rps but somewhere else get a slightly better room with a bathroom for 300Rps. So we continued walking and checked another hotel that was full. So we set the bags down and i was going to go to another hotel up the hill but the old man tout beat me there and so i wasn't prepared to pay extra because i had a walking companion. So i said i was going back down the hill. I return to where Justina is and thinking that he maybe is gone, i start back up the stairs in this cat and mouse game. Now there were 2 ways up the hill, i had the stairs between the houses way and the tout was on the trail going around way. The tout came back down and was asking the other touts if they had seen me which they said they hadn't. So as I was turning around the coner of the first stairs, i see the man start into a run. The kind of old man run where he has to kinda rev the engine before starting. Well i wasn't going to loose this race. I sprint up the stairs to where it meets the trail, seeing him just turn the corner. I get into the hotel a good 10 seconds and secure an acceptable room for the right price. My first race in India and i won, although he was an old man, but still probably even more determined than me. So Shimla maybe once was nice but now is no more. The room we stayed at really wasn't that good, and you were that into even taking a shower in the bathroom. We slept most of the first day and then went out to walk around. There are a few streets around the "hill" that were nice with the colonial country england style housing and the shops and many people doing exactly the same as us, just walking around. So this is the only picture that i really have of the place of the main square and so the only one you will get. We bought some books, walked up to the temple dedicated to the monkey god at the top of the hill and just strolled around. There just really wasn't much to the place that's all. So after 2 nights there we new that it was time to leave and so we got on another bus, yes, i know. But this one was all day, and we arrived in Rishikesh at around 6:30pm, saying that it will be our very last bus ride in this journey. Well it turns out that me might have to catch one to Delhi but at least it won't be a local bus.

Macleod Ganj

So we woke up to a very neat place. There are trees here and the views are quite remarkable and there are really cool little shops and cafes' all over the tiny streets. It is the home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in Exile. It is also a little bit of Tibet in Nepal with it's hygiene standards and friendly people. Although you do get reminded still that you are in India as well. But we didn't plan too much, just enjoyed our surrounding and general vibe of the place. There are many Tibetan crafts, clothes and fabrics around, and is just amazing what a difference the people can make in a place. We went to the many tiny cafes and "retaurants" tucked away in little corners and just walked around the area. went to the Tibetan museum where the atrocities of the Chinese in Tibet are chronicled. It is amazing how these people can still have such a positive view on things after everything that has been done to them. Truly amazing. We also did the pilgrimage circuit around the Dalai Lama's residence. The path was adorned with prayer flags and tablets and prayer wheels. We went to a movie in one of the movie "theatres" which were really cute little places where seats from old buses where lined up in front of a large screen TV and a new release was shown with the whole camcorder in the movie theatre in full effect. It's funny, kinda like wathcing an old western movie how's the screen is scratchy. But as with most places you can't stay forever and at some point you need to leave and get on another crappy bus, which is exactly what we had to do. I have had some comments about me being a little grumpy but that's just what the bus rides here do to you. And it could be tolerable, until those things about India come into play and sometimes it becomes too much. (ie. the drunk guys on the bus or the touts following you when you get off the bus even though you tell them specifically not to follow you many times). But that is the reality with travelling and i don't mean to sound grumpy because it takes a lot to bring us down but just so little get us back up again. Off to Shimla, the honeymoon capital of India and former summer residence of the british raj.

Delhi-Amritsar

So we are now in Macleod Ganj after leaving the Thailand paradise/scam for India once more. It was quite the journey. When we went to pick up our plane tickets, we were informed that the plane had been delayed and instead of leaving at 3:45am, it was going to leave at 5:45am. Sweet! So we kept the room for the night but really only got one hour sleep before getting in our taxi at 3am. We arrived in Delhi in the morning and began to tackle India once more. We were able to secure the last 2 tourists seats on the train to Amritsar and headed to the train station. Now all that i had heard about Delhi was that it was stinky and gross and busy and stinky. Well after all the build up it actually wasn't that bad, although I learned that the big part of the grossness was the fact that there were cows everywhere but this time they had all disapeared. So we walked down the Main bazaar street got some food and a new bag and headed to the train station for our 4:30pm train. Now this was the Shantabdi express, one of the few "luxury express" trains that this country have and the lowest class is pretty much first class A/C seating with full meals and all. We were being served some kind of food, snakcs, soup, meals, fairly frequently and the ride went by quite fast. We arrived in Amritsar in the dark and tried to start walking the direction that we thought would lead us to a guest house. But soon we were informed by a rickshaw that we were actually going in the complete opposite direction. So we hope on the rickshaw and return to the guest house area near the station and fight off the many touts on the empty streets before we found a guest house to our liking and price range.
The day, as we hadn't slept for 2 days, that's exactly what we did, sleeping until pretty much 4pm in the evening. We got up and decided to head to the Golden Temple area to check it out at least. We got some food, which proved to be quite difficult and went to the regional tourist office inside the complex. Here we were lectured on why we wouldn't spend the night in the free dorms and eat the free food. Well we must be rich he claimed, that would be the only reason. Yes, i'm a freaking millionaire, that's why i splurged for the $5 each room.
The next day we got up, had some breakfast and headed to temple. Now this is again a trully remarkable complex, with lots of gold and marble and expensive things. And so many people who are very dedicated. The line up to get into the temple was ridiculously long, it probably would have taken 3 hours to get through, at least. So we strolled around the edge and fought off the many people who wanted to take pictures with us. That night we had told to meet a rickshaw driver to take us to Attari for the changing of the guards ceremony, but after waiting for 15min, we joined a shared taxi instead because we didn't want to miss the show. (We learned later that he had waited for 2 hours, but i made it clear to him that we were in clear view in the meeting area and we are the ones that should be found, we are white remember?) Anyways, this "ceremony" was pretty much a big Indian pep rally with chants of "Hindustan!" and other lound cheers. There was also impromtu dacing to Bollywood hits (what would an Indian pep rally be without it). Now i didn't really see what was going on at the actually border because the Indians couldn't keep still for even 2 minutes and would jump again, all trying to see. The guards would come over and tell people to sit but the Indians just can't help themselves and stand up one minute later.
After getting back to Amritsar, we checked out this free eating hall and the chapati machine that makes the thousands of chapatis needed. It was a constant flow of people coming in, eating, leaving and then a new group would enter. Quite the system.
The next day we began our wonderful journey to Macleod Ganj-Dharamsala on the bus. First a 4 hour bus ride to Pathenkot and then another 4-5 hour bus ride to Dharamsala. To top it all off, i had paid for my breakfast and then had to leave it because the bus was leaving and just before we get to Dharamsala a group of drunk Indians get on and made fun of the whiteys for a good while, even while Justina was sick on the bus. I should have yelled at them and gotten really mad but I was really tired and just wanted to get there. But i still should have yelled at them. I need to work on that. Well we got to Macleod Ganj by taxi and soon found a very nice room at a hostel up a large flight of stairs. I went to get some dinner and left Justina in bed as she was sick. Then, you guessed it, we slept.

Fighting crime in the kok

Ok so as the cops here don't really do anything and just sit on their buts collecting slush money we decided to take things into our own hands and fight some crime. the deal was that on our bus ride from Suratthani to Bangkok there were dudes in the luggage compartment going through peoples bags, stealing things. This is fairly common here but we let our guard down just enough to get taken advantage of. so instead of checking our bags right when we got off the bus like our spidey sense was telling us to do, we continued on to the guest house before discovering what had happened. There are many excuses you can think of, it was 5am, we were tired, but really we should have been more carefull and we could have done something right then and there. But alas that's not how things panned out. So we had been talking with this NZ/Can couple and saw them in the morning in a frantic as well. they had discovered what had happened before going to sleep and had started all the processes when things are stolen from you. They had taken $200US cash off us and the souvenir money that we had had on us from Burma, Singapore and NZ, along with $50 worth in Indian rupees. They are very dumb, i mean they took maybe 40 cents worth of useless Burmese money, pretty much the thing we are most pissed off about. The NZ/Can couple had $50US stolen but they had found there back up cash card and had somehow had drained all $3000 out of the account. so we were pissed off but they were really stressed out. so we went to cancel the credit card that they had taken from Justinas pack and then started the process of cops/finding the company. We went the cop station that is close by and they told us that only the tourist police can help us. We found out later that they only reason for this is they are the only ones who can speak english. Well that was very far away and we hadn't figured out the bus company name for sure or had no evidence of the bus plates or anything. so we went to the place that sold us the boat tickets but were informed that it wasn't them and only had buses of certain colour etc... But they were quite concerned and told us to go to where the buses will be leaving for Suratthani at 6pm and maybe you will spot the bus. ok then we will do that. Tried to get some beers but they don't sell beer t 7-11 between 2-5pm. why? i have no idea. anyways the day rolls on, we grab a few beers and head over to where all the buses pick up the tourists. We spend our time warning the various people but aren't very positive on the chances of seeing our bus again. Just as we were about to give up, here it comes rolling along. I recognised the dude and pointed to him as he pulls up to pick up more tourists. So of course in hindsight we should have gone and got a cop right away but we were a)so surprised that the bus actually came and b)all focused on getting photos of the workers and the bus. We warned all the people getting on the bus, some of which took there bags back and on board with them. Then by the time we try and get the cops, the bus has started to drive off. We should have just stood right in front of the bus to not let it move but the driver was threatening us with a pole and all the workers were all freaked out and on they mobiles, probably telling the people that the operation is off for the night. But they knew that they were in trouble/guilty and that's why they were so mad. So Nadine is on the back of the scooter with the cop as they chase after the bus and Shawn and I go up to these worker to talk to them. I ask them what company they work for and such, Shawn takes a photo of them and they freak out. the one guy goes after Shawn, he throws me the camera and they tussle a bit. the other guy was trying to pry his friend away and then changes tactics and clocks shawn right in the head. So shawn walks/runs off, i follow him, still in awe of what just happened and the dudes are still walking after us mad as hell. We then meet up with Justina and head to the police station where Nadine comes back and let's us know that they couldn't find the bus. So a tourist cop comes and we get all the photos printed out. We then have to take a taxi for 30min to the actual tourist police office where we can get our police report translated into thai, pretty much the only thing they do. Of course in the end, the cops will do very little. We would have to go back to Suratthani to those cops for them to do something and the Tourist police might send some people undercover later but that's about it. Even though we have all these photos they are still useless. They were more concerned about the violence than about the robbery. The one cop was asking us over and over again why we didn't arrest the attacker and beat him up. Well isn't that what you guys should do as cops? Sweet. Well theres the story of fighting crime in Bangkok. Although there is no chance of ever getting some money back, i hope that they can maybe do something to that company and maybe they will be freaked out for a while so that they don't steal from more unsuspecting tourists. And it sure gave us wake up call that's for sure. I will always be checking my bag when i get off the bus, it doesn't matter where you are.

ok, well again it's been a long time but we are now in Bangkok and getting ready to fly to Delhi in a few days. Our time on Koh Phagnan was quite enjoyable and let us relax and do whatever we please. But of course when things like that goes on, time goes by very fast. We stayed in a little beach bungalo which was just what we were looking for and got right in to the island life style. Went through a couple of books and tried not to stress out too much. It's tough to know what to write about when so little was accomplished. But we took some scooter rides which were always interesting. the whole thing with the foot brake is kinda tough, especially when your bike sucks and can't get up many hills so when it doesn't quite make it you really need to brake and put your feet down. But then of course the whole foot brake thing really complicates things like that. We tried to get to Haad Rin one day, the location of the full moon party but were seriously thwarted by the hilly terrain and our weakness in bike. But one thing that was sweet was that i got to make use of my waterproof camera! was excited and it is very fun but the visibility where we were snorkling just wasn't quite good enough so you really couldn't quite get those photos that they advertise on the pentax website. but the photos show it all. That's really about all i can think of, still a little slow from all the lounging around. I know, it sounds tough but someone'd got to do it.