Dharmshala pics

Sorry, I've been bad with posts over the past week or two. Will make up for it soon. I'm leaving McLeod Ganj / Dharmshala tomorrow to go to Srinigar, the capital of Kashmir. Here are some pics from the last two weeks in Dharmshala in the meantime.

C.

CP and the DL

OK so, the actual truth of the matter is that I don't care what any of you think about anything. The poll on the right is now closed and I'm not going to be taking it into account when I decide what to do. That's how much I value your opinions.

I'm in a place called McLeod Ganj, in the Dharmasala area of Himalchal Pradesh. This is where the Dalai Lama lives in exile from Tibet. Fortunately he's not here at the moment, he's off giggling his way around California giving lectures and being peaceful. I say fortunately because apparantly the place becomes a hell-hole of DL spotters when he is here, so it's all quiet and peaceful now. Click here for info on the Tibetan Government in Exile.

I've been taking it easy for the past few days here, hiking around in the forests and mountains and doing some yoga and other peaceful shit. It's a lovely little place altogether. Last night I had three beers and was flat on my ear, and today I feel like an elephant is waltzing in my head.

Here are some pics from the rest of my tour around Rajesthan. As I mentioned, my camera kicked the bucket, so I have almost no photos of my ten days in Delhi. However, I've bought myself a new super dooper, snazzy little Panasonic with a 10x optical zoom. It's cool cos i don't like sticking my camera in people's faces (hence the lack of people pics), so now I can hide behind trees and subtly click away MI5-style. If you behave yourselves, I might put up some of my photos from Dharmashala over the next few days, but only if you're good!

Signing off from amongst the Tibetan exiles,

His holiness, the 1st (and only) CP

Flying mangos

See the post before this one to understand what to vote on in the poll to the right >>>

I've booked myself onto a train tomorrow to Chandigar, in the north of the state of Punjab. From there I'll start a three week tour of the North West: Chandigar - Shimla - Jammu - Srinigar - Leh - Manali - Dharmasala and back to Delhi for a wedding which I've been invited to on the 6th of May.

I'm looking forward to getting out of the city and up to the mountains again. I'm gonna do a lot more walking and a lot less eating so that I can get back to my usual ripped physique.

Delhi was nice, but I stayed in the gora ("whitey") epicentre of Paharganj. Not that that's so bad, and actually it was a particularly nice part of Delhi, with lots of street life and action. It is crazy walking down the street here though. You get assaulted from all sides by people trying to sell you anything (and I mean any piece of shit is sellable here): "Ekskuse mee sirrrr, yuwanna mangooo" or else they shout SirSirSirSirSir, until you look and then they demonstrate their wares quickly, be it firing up a little helicopter into the sky or having some kind of flashy, clicky, gimmicky piece of Taiwanese crap that they animate... so then your options are to ignore them or to engage with them. I fuckin' ignore almost everyone... Every now and then I drill out a "Nai chahir baia" (no thanks dude) and stroll on.

Delhi is quite a nice city actually. I know this sounds weird, cos we all have our preconceptions of a place like this, but it's actually quite clean and green, especially South Delhi, the newer part of the city. Aptly named New Delhi, it was the part of the city founded by the Brits when the capital of India was moved from Calcutta to Delhi back in the early days of the Raj. And the old city has its charms as well. I was hanging out with some Danes last week and we went to the Jamme Mashid mosque to hear the evening call to prayer bay out over the roofs of the old city.

Now can we all bow our heads please and observe a minutes silence. My camera.... has died! Boo-hoo-hoo, waaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh... This camera was so brilliant. It was red (not pink, red!) and jumped through hoops for me. It's beeen buried in snow in the patagonian winter, has survived a dunking in the caribbean and the sand of the Thar desert. I bought my Casio Exilim before I went to South America over four years ago, and I said to myself at the time that I would be happy if it survived five months of that trip. It outdid itself, surviving my whole South America tour, and the intervening years, with only two cheap repairs. The only consolotion that can come from such a tragic event, is that it owed me absolutely nothing! Unfortunately, I now have to scrape some hard currency together now from my flea infested travel budget to purchase a replacement. (On that note, if anyone has any suggestions as to camera makes and models, then comment here).

So my next update should see me hangin' off the side of Mount Everest or sumfin' like that... wish me luck.

Ur man headin' for da hills...

Ye ol' plan of attack

For once, I've got a cash injection from the Irish government... Seen as I worked for six months of 2008 and my tax deductions were based on working for 12 months, I'm due a fairly substantial chunk of taxback, which has now been confirmed to me... Yee-frickin'-haw!

The following is definite: I'm going to stay in India until June 22nd when my Indian Visa runs out. On that day I'll cross into Nepal, where I'll stay for at least a month.

After that, i.e. towards the end of July or exactly 12 months from when I left Ireland, I have two options. I'm going to outline them here, with their advantages and disadvantages... if I put them down in writing, then it'll help my decision making.

Both options end up with me in Melbourne, Australia, trying to find a job.

Option no. 1

Cross into Tibet, carrying on into mainland China and across into Vietnam, then travelling through South East Asia, the Malaysian peninsula and Indonesia, before hopping on a boat to Oz.

It should be noted that this may not be possible. Many people are saying that China has currently disallowed travel from the Tibetan Autonomous Region to Mainland China for foreigners. If I wanted to do this, I'd have to try my luck when I get to Nepal/Tibet, it wouldn't be guaranteed.

Pro's:

• This was the original plan, the achievement of overlanding to Istanbul to Oz,
  
• The adventure of travelling through China,
  

Con's:

• Would need to be done at speed (2-3 months max from Tibet to Oz),
  
• Could leave me in small amount of debt,
  
• May not be possible,
• Do I want to travel more now?

Option no. 2

Fly from Nepal (or India) straight down to Oz.

Pro's:

• I'd arrive in Oz with some cash in my back pocket instead of in debt,
  
• Could leave South East Asia for my return journey, maybe evening throwing in Japan and Northern Asia, bringing me back overland to Europe (just an idea)
• I kinda wouldn't mind the settled life for a bit!
  

Con's:

• Abandoning of original plan and not overlanding Asia
  
• Will miss South East Asia (again),
  

So that's the cud I'm chewing for the time being... Even having put it down like that, it seems fairly obvious that I'm particularly partial to one of the options. Feel free to comment with thoughts. I've thrown up a poll as to your choice on the right hand side, just for a laugh and to use the polling function.

L8r, C

Nocturnal Giant

Last night I had a lot to drink... I met up with my good friend Sudeep, who I had met in Goa, and we went out to a club. I was coming home at about three o'clock this morning. I was well oiled... had a rake of beers and some shots etc. etc. etc. So I'm alone, sauntering down the empty main bazaar in the Paherganj area of Delhi, it's drizzling lightly and there's not a sinner around... I turn a corner and what do I bump into...? ...... An elephant!

And it wasn't like he was being led somewhere or he had a driver, he was just loitering there all on his lonesome, pushing cardboard into his mouth with his trunk. So in my inebriated state, I started chatting away to him and then started inching past him to my hotel. But he seemed to take a liking to me and walked alongside me, and anytime I put out my hand, he'd reciprocate and give me a high-five with his trunk. By the time I got to my hotel, it was just me and him... best of buds!

So then I brought him up to my room and he fell asleep in the bed beside me... he snored like a mofo and in the morning we had bamboo leaves for breakfast!

Alright... so that last bit is a lie, but up until then it was all true. I had to say goodbye to him when we got to the hotel... it was very sad... he stopped and looked at me with his big floppy ears and his little tail flapping around his bum.

So yeah, Elephants are definitely the new favourite animal!

Tajless

So the Taj Mahal was closed... that's fairly typical. The whole compound was barricaded (as it is every Friday)... Not the best planning.

But we got to see it from the backside... which when I think about it was pretty cool in itself...

Arrived in Delhi last night. Am fucked, but we found a nice, cheap hotel in the Paharganj district and I've been doing a lot of sleeping today.

L8r amigos...

Karma Chameleon

So I’ve met up with two Danes who I had previously bumped into in Udaipur. They took a different route around Rajesthan to me, but we’ve met back up again in Jaipur. We’ve been walking around the pink city for the past few days and are leaving Jaipur (and Rajesthan) tomorrow morning.

We’ve been musing a lot about what it is that makes India so special and how it really seems to rub people up the wrong way. It’s a bizarre country. People frequently say that India requires submission… that the visitor doesn’t try to work against it, to fight it, or even to understand it, but rather that they submit themselves to it and ‘go with the flow’.

Jaipur, seen from a certain perspective, is an absolute hell-hole… it’s dirty, it’s hot and it’s loud, so loud that you can’t hear yourself think… there are people everywhere… you can’t walk two feet without being bugged to shit by rickshaw wallahs or chai wallahs or sari wallahs or people trying to sell you maps, pens, souvenirs, sight-seeing tours… there’s beggars at every street corners… people with polio with their legs wrapped up around their heads, hideously misshapen extremities, women with crying babies, dirty children who have been told to that perseverance is the key to getting that ‘ten rupees’… Then there are the people who don’t want anything from you, except to say “Hello… how are you… what country… what’s your good name?”… shake your hand and then run off giggling with their friends… which is all very nice, but becomes a bit daunting when it happens every five seconds.

At first experience all this is absolutely overwhelming and I think that it really gets to people. I think that the secret is to let it all bounce off you. Keep your smile, stay happy, make funny faces, laugh and be silly… don’t worry about anyone or anything… go where you want to go… or if you just want to stand and stay, then stand and stay… engage with people if you want, ignore them if you want… don’t worry and be happy!

Now that all sounds very nice and pleasant but it ain’t always that easy: I find myself, at intervals, getting extremely agitated… sometimes to the point where some unlucky little Injun will take the brunt of my wrath when he offers me a rickshaw ride and I break out into hysterics shouting at him in English that “I never fucking asked for a fucking rickshaw ride… I’m just walking down the fucking street and you’re bugging the fucking shit out of me… If you don’t fuck off now, I’m gonna punch you in the face you little scrawny piece of shit ”. Luckily, that doesn’t happen very often anymore. I’ve learned that when I get extremely agitated, I stand up straight, pull back my shoulders, close my eyes, breath in through my nose deep into my lungs, and breathe all my agitation out again… that may not have me singing Kumbaya, but it does take me down a notch or two.

But Jaipur is a lovely city… life happens on the streets here, as in the rest of India, and if you can learn to chill out and brush off the mobs, then you can open your eyes and see the cauldron of humanity that you find yourself in: the women haggling with the fruit seller, the kids chasing each other in and around sauntering cows, old men sitting around nipping chai from small glasses… it’s all good here!

Paradoxically, the mobs seem to recognize this state in people and actually the more relaxed you are, the more they’ll leave you alone and the more you become used to dealing with them.

So when people say that India requires submission, I think it shouldn’t be taken as a need to be subservient, but rather that one should give in to things, to offer oneself up to things, without preconditions… without imposing your version of normality onto things, without projecting your standards onto the world… I think it requires a paradigm shift, an ability to change the focus of the lens through which you look at the world … and to be open to the world.

Tomorrow morning I’m up at half five for a train to Agra… a few snapshots of the Taj Mahal later, and I’ll be jumping on a train to Delhi to arrive there tomorrow evening. Lets see if my relaxed attitude to things can survive Delhi… it’s been known to break a few hardened travelers.

Signing off for ur man in Nirvana…