India #1

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Trip Start Sep 25, 2006 Trip End Dec 24, 2006

  Rishikesh, India
Sunday, November 19, 2006

After 9 months of bar work in Cambodia, it was time to hang up the scooter keys, put down the pint glass and get my backpack out again. Shiran was also game for some travel so we headed to Bangkok and booked 2 tickets to India. It has been 2 months now and definitely unlike any trip I have ever been on.

We arrived in Delhi on Sept. 26 after a one-night layover in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which was such an interesting city and also my first time in a Muslim country. Arriving in downtown Delhi is like stepping into an oven. It is hot. And, so crowded. We saw a few of the sights like India Gate and the National Gallery but our main focus was to find an old motorcycle. We spent what felt like eons in the motor district of Delhi with greasy food and greasier mechanics. As with most things in India, what should have been a straightforward process was not. What we did learn was that these guys get very rich off of foreigners. After a few failed attempts, we found our beloved bike - a 1994 Royal Enfield bullet, 350 cc.

Shiran had to go home to Sri Lanka for a few weeks, so I checked into an ashram in Delhi with hopes of doing a bit of yoga (isn't that why people come to India?). The tapasya and gurus were a bit too much for me, plus I had been in Delhi more that a month and was at risk of becoming an ex-pat. I bid my 100 million fellow Delhi-ites farewell and hopped on an overnight train to the town of Pushkar, southwest of Delhi. It's a dusty little town with monkeys and camels. Very charming. I was there for the Hindu holiday, Divali, and spent it with a French girl that I met at my guesthouse and her Indian friend's family. The family was so friendly and generous - what a special experience. They dressed us up in sari, painted our hands (mehta) and fed us a delicious meal. After a week of R&R in Pushkar, I took a night bus back to Delhi to meet Shiran and pick up our bike.

Finally! Five weeks after arriving in India, we are ready to hit the road. We wanted to see some mountains so we headed up the Ganga River to the province of Uttaranchal. Our first stop was Rishikesh, aka self-proclamed yoga capital of the world. This town is too spiritual for itself. Meditation, crystal therapy, reiki, yoga, ayurvedic treatments, the list goes on. It is also home to the "Beatles Ashram" where the 4 came to write a few of the songs from the White Album. The town has an interesting mix of travellers, too: groups of women on one week retreats; young Israelis who just finished military service and come to smoke charas and do nothing; old dudes with long beards that probably arrived with the Beatles caravan and never left. Plus, the hundreds of pilgrims who travel from all over India to visit the Ganga and temples.

From new age Rishikesh, we headed north, still following the turquoise hued Ganga. We spent a few nights in tiny little towns along the way where the locals sit around in the tea shops and wait for something to happen, or a couple of foreigners to pull up on a bike. Eventually, we made it to Josimath, with hopes of doing some trekking before the trails close for the season. Josimath is 2000M above sea level with snowy Himalayan peaks in the background - beautiful. But, COLD. I need to add a disclaimer here as I am Canadian and should be used to the cold. No indoor heating, hot water or wood stove. Nothing but a few blankets. We were determined to see snowfall so we went out and bought winter jackets and drank more hot tea. There was no trekking to be had so we got on the bike again and farther north to a town near the Tibet border, Badrinath. It is 3000M above sea level and the most incredible mountains I have ever seen. We saw the Dunagiri (7066 m.) and Nanda Devi (7816 m.) peaks that really make you feel tiny in their grandeur. Also, Shiran got to see his first snow fall. The funniest things about Badrinath was that there was no food! The only thing to eat was dal and chapati. We hung out with the locals around oil barrel fire pits and tried to stay warm. Our favorite place yet.

After a few weeks in the rugged north, we headed back to Rishikesh to defrost, get the bike tuned up and have a decent meal. Next stop is the province of Punjab near the Pakistani border where we plan on meeting up with some people that we met while in Bangladesh. It is so nice to travel by bike, and the old bike has been good to us so far. The small towns we've seen and people we've met have been the best part of the trip. I know this much: I'll be back to India.
One more month and then back to sunny Cambodia to work the high season on Serendipity beach.

Farewell - Namaste.
Kate


What we've learned in India so far:
1. You have to eat like a maniac. Most of the food is strict vegetarian so you have to eat like it's Thanksgiving dinner at every meal.
2. Just because the locals drink the tap water doesn't mean we can.
3. They all know each other. There are over a billion people in this country but sure enough, this guy in Delhi knows so-and-and so in Rishikesh who has a friend in Josimath....I thought PEI was the only place like that.

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Me dressed in sari for Divali

My first dip in the holy Ganga