yak yak yak... ladakh!

ju-leh from the land of broken moon....

that's welcome/hello/goodbye/goodnight/any other greeting one can think of to the non-ladakhi speaking folk out there.

we are currently in nothern india in a little town called leh. it's approximately 3500 metres above sea level and we are constantly being reminded of this as we gasp for breath after walking up the slightest of inclines.... it's pretty sad how out of shape i feel.

we got here this past sunday and spent the ENTIRE first day in bed sleeping as our hotel manager who abducted us from the airport was very adamant that we do nothing but that. it was really hard to say no but somehow we all managed to sleep for about 24 hours straight. it was fantastic. the only time we got up was to go find dinner and buy warm clothes cos it was damn cold! mini and i bought toques! in india! who knew? oh and dinner, don't even get me started on how fantastic the food here is, we found this cool garden restaurant that has avocadoes on the menu! i don't think anyone back home (minus sarah and a few others) knows how much we love our guac and anything else containing these lovely mushy green veggies but take our word that we were in seventh heaven over the discovery, and vowed not to eat anywhere else during our week in leh. we suceeded and the staff knew us by name and our orders by heart by the end of it.

by the second day we were feeling slightly more acclimatised and managed to venture out to see the local markets and hilltop castle and gompa (monestary). now, i don't know why but in a place that is already so high up, why do they need to put all the coolests sights up on the top of reallllly high and steep mountains so that all the visitors are forced to die several times over just to get up to see them. fair enough, the views from the top are spectacular and the gompas are worth the climb, but still... mountain goats we are not and many a "picture stop" was taken in order to catch our collective breaths without lookin like it was necessary. (a pretty see-through facade i'm sure)

angelee and joanna arrived the next day and the rest of our week was spent exploring the surrounding countryside, gompas, watching military convoys, picking up hitchhiking monks who look the the dalai lama, getting chauffered around by tashi, our fantastic ladakhi driver whom joanna may or may not have had a huge crush on, eating avocadoes (and in eugene's case drinking avocado lassis.... :S), and shopping to our hearts content in the tibetan markets all over town. i think we went a wee bit overboard.. there is officially no more room in my backpack.. it's time to purge/mail stuff home. ((slight prob mom and dad... what address should/can i send stuff to?)) unfortunately we did not get the opportunity to ride yaks around the glacier lake that bordered tibet , so that will have to wait for my next trip to leh. we've all promised to return again as tehre was just not enough time to see all the amazingly desolate landscape and culture in one week.

oh and for all y'all haters out there who are worried that i'm in kashmir: i am and i'm not. leh is a city in ladakh. ladakh is a region in eastern jammu and kashmir state, right next to the border with tibet. kashmir is also a region in that state but it is much further west on the border of pakistan. we are completely safe in leh. there are more tourists here than we've seen in the rest of india combined, so put your minds at rest, all is well and my life is not in peril. my bank account however....

anyhoo from here we will fly back to delhi and head up to amritsar for a day or so to see the golden temple and watch some border ballet... so until then, ju-leh.

"...i'm building a beautiful statue, to make sure that no one forgets you..."

this is a very short post that will no longer be accompanied by pictures as i originally planned. aparently this internet cafe doesn't allow photo downloads so that will be left to another time. either way thought it time for another quick update, so here we go:

since the last time i wrote we've travelled to agra (on the most luxurious train ride to date, and also the most expensive) from varanasi. we originally had booked some lovely overnighter second class grubby ol' sleeper fan train but then that got cancelled and mr khan our lovely driver/briber got us on this posh a/c car for the low low price of 25oo rupees... (our reg train was supposedy around 350) we were too tired and hot to protest and there was really no other choice if we wanted to arrive on time so grudgingly we got on and tried really hard not to enjoy all the amenities the train provided us. free food, clean sheets, coooooooooool clean air and a slightly more secure car where one is less likely to have all their stuff stolen from underfoot.

needless to say we actually arrived in agra on time (for once) made it to our hotel, met up with angelee, megan and joanna and headed off the next day to the taj!

and it was all one expects and more.... quite overwhelming really. and covered in tourists. it wasn't until the second day taht we went back at 6 am that it wasn't swarming with people. so of course we did all the touristy things like pinching the taj and glamour shots. (for pics head over to diana or eugene's blogs... i believe they have pics up already) . we looked decidedly less than glamours due to the copious amounts of sweat the heat accumulated upon us. but oh well! it was fantastic nonetheless! we also spent some time at the red fort nearby but of course the taj was the main feature.

oh, and yes, for those of you who care, i did listen to sam roberts while sitting in the shade admiring the lovely white marble... it was fantastic(ally cheesy).

anyhoo there wasn't much more to do in agra besides sweat and eat (oooh and find a cool mall to buy reaaaaalllly tacky shirts to replace some of dee's wardrobe that was lost in pondicherry) so we are now off to delhi for our flight out to....

kashmir! yeah that's right.... read the next post more to come from leh.

pictures.... soooo many pictures.

These are the photos to correspond with the preceding blog. read first then pics... or whatever you so choose....

Mamallapuram:

diana w. krishna's butterball, holding it up like it ain't no thang...

right here should be some pictures of me pushing the butterball off it's perch, me and the matramandir, and the layout of auroville.... but i managed to delete them off the computer and i'm too damn lazy to upload it again. if you wish to see them head on over to diana or eugene's blogs and they should have one up... otherwise next time i blog i'll add)))

Pondicherry:

heinrich et moi in our lovely air-cooled cycle rickshaw... i felt a bit odd at first being chauffered around with all our bags by our man but then was able to justify it with, he gets to keep all the money (it ain't going to gas) and it's environmentally friendly. so there.

this is dee looking extremely pleased with herself after changing the opening time from the stated to the actual... with a bic pen. t.i.i. (this is india)

Chennai to Kolkata: us finally boarding our 5-hour late flight... various states of relief slash utter boredom.

Kolkata: Mcdonalds. 'nuff said.

happiness is but a chicken maharaja mac combo meal away.... :)

see above.

this is as close as we got to the queen vic memorial.... see the foreboding clouds? yeah. they dumped rain on us. and it freaking hurt... so that killed our touristy desires for teh day.


Varanasi:

our first night, oddly hyper after zero sleep and non-functioning a/c. diana and eugene model their latest hairdos (my creations) in the form of a human totem pole. mini somehow is less convinced about coming to vancouver now...

the next morning around 4:30 am....

ghats @ 5:15.... very peaceful
colourful building....
the very festive streets of varanasi come alive around 5:30 pm as people head down to the ghats to watch the priests perform the evening puja (worship of the ganga)

however, we didn't quite make it down on time as we got waylaid and ended up spending most of the evening watching cremations at the burning ghats.... the dude in blue led us down the most sketchy alleys in the old part of town that, had we decided to run away from him, we would have surely gotten lost... or eaten by cows.

(no pics of the cremations.... bad karma)

finally caught the tail end of the evening puja ceremony.
this was our CRAZZZZY cycle-rickshaw dude. he was the wiriest little man you'd ever meet, and tough as nails... however, we thought he was going to die as he cycled the three of us (mini, dee and i) back to our hotel.
sunrise the next day

more sunrise shots (anywhere between 4:45 am to 5:20)


early birds at the dasawamedha ghats.
more sunrise.
diana exhausted at 7 am.... and completely relaxed on our new friend Bablu, the priest's mat.
Bablu instilling some wisdom in our silly western minds....

Sarnath: cool buddhist enclave just outside of Varanasi, where Buddha gave his first sermon after gaining enlightenment.

dee and i sitting under a tree donated to a local temple by the Dalai Lama... it was very peaceful and actually the first time we sat on a lovely plush lawn in a long damn time

monks-in-training from the temple (and the first time any of us had seen female monks... ) also a bird flying through the shot. kinda blends in with the road/buildings)

another monk hanging out/enlightening himself by a big ol' bell, near the grandbaby bodhi tree of the one which buddha sermonized under.


big ol' shiny buddha in a tibetan temple... lots of bling.


these following dudes are supposed to represent something about the north south east and west... i can't remember what exactly but i knew at one time....

lots of lil' buddhas... keeping the big buddha company i suppose.


on the way back to varanasi we came across our favourite billboard to date... enjoy.


Muslim Quarter: our lovely rickshaw chauffer mr. Khan took us to see the silk production areas in Varanasi... and then to the emporium where we spent waaaaaaaaaayyyy too much money. but everythin was sooo purdy we just couldn't resist.


handlooming the silk....

handpunching the holes the go in the handloom machine to make the patterns....


this is how raw silk looks like before it's bleached in vats of boiling water. it's a shitty shitty job.


our entourage... very persistent about getting their photos taken.

and finally us deciding on what to buy... spoiled for choice.

More evening Puja ceremonies... Bablu doing his thing.

Canada day: Bablu blessing us... i do not have any idea what he had us recite in hindi and i know at least half the words i repeated sounded nothing like what he said... regardless i hope it had some effect...

the experience was quite amazing despite the fact none of us are in any way religious nor spiritual

diana expressing her patriotism.

me at the washing ghats w. the locals' sarees being hung out to dry

we went to a local temple to see this guru who'd walked to Varanasi from somewehre very far away (as you can see i was totally paying attention) but he was a nowshow. so being the lucky tourists the priests decided to let us try on this massive garland of flowers from an earlier ceremony, weighing about 15 kilos... and shoved some kid into the picture to make it that much more special. awe... she looks cute/petrified and i'm just a sweaty mess. fantastic!

more evening puja.
canadian flag sweat rag. Exremely useful...

this would be my hubby, rinki, who sold flowers and stole hearts along the ghats. i'm not entirely sure when we got married but one day she just started introducing myself as her husband. it stuck.

Bablu's niece, Khajil.... quite possibley the cutest child on the face of the planet. if you wanna see her mad dance moves head on over to dee's blog. she's got a fantastic vid that i believe will be posted in the near future.

Bablu's nephew Suresh, both these kids are basically his responsibility during the day (suresh's dad is a wee bit "loose" according to the locals and just wanders the streets/local bars...quite sad.)
and thus ends Varanasi... our fave city to date.

I'd go back in a heartbeat just to hang out with the folks we've met and experience the daily rituals. I've yet to bathe in the Ganga and don't think there's enough money in the world that could get me to do so.... despite watching everyone else cannon balling, drinking and floating around in it to their hearts content. they have guts and hides of steel...

Anyhoo here's a preview of things to come... can you guess where i am now?

lots of writing, if you're lazy come back later for pictures.

yeah... i got nothing. i've been too damn lazy to post anything for the past litte while... my apols.

anyway a lot has happened since last i wrote so lets get down to business, shall we?

i guess i should start in mamallapuram, the city we travelled to after our week in Ooty. We spent a day or so there, checking out the temples and carvings and attempting to push Krishna's Butterball off its precarious ledge: we failed. we also attempted to go see this big crocodile farm outside of town, so rented mopeds and drovea good 45 mins to find out that it was closed every monday, ad our bribing skills were not good enough to get ourselves inside... damnit.

from there we moved on to Pondicherry (aka Puducherry) which was absolutely fabulous. a former french colony, the city was clean and the streets were open and great for wandering around. AND we discovered it was also a tiny little enclave that would serve us beef! i'm not usually the most ravenous of carnivores, but when the opportunity for steak arises after a month of veg veg veg, you can be damn sure i'll jump for it.

besides the food the city was cool, there's a huge ashram community so everywhere you go people are praying to the two founders: sri aurobindo and the mother (some french lady, mira alfassa) we even rented scooters and went out to auroville one day, this idyllic commune set up by the two in the late 60's and early 70s. it's nice to know that there's a place i can go to if i fail to make it in the normal capitalist system. as krista mused, even though the town feels a wee bit cultish, i'm sure we could find peace and happyness living out our days in some a/c straw hut making dolls out of sticks, or in my case, mounds of dirt, and praying to the big crystal in the matmandir. (oh yeah, that would be the massive golden orb in the centre of the town.)

in any case, no one invited us to join and the issue of what sort of citizenship one would need to live there seems a bit hazy (the mother insists that you belong to no one nation and the commune belongs to the entire world.... which i'm not sure complies with indian regulations) so for now i think we'll take our chances in the real world.

anyway after a few days of relaxation in Pondy we travelled back to Chennai (madras) and flew to Kolkata. our flight being massively delayed due to monsoons in Mumbai (on the other side of india... dunno how that affected our plane) we finally got into Dum Dum around 1 am and to our prebooked hostel around 2 after THE scariest taxi ride to date. our driver was all of 12, had anotehr friend in the front seat and drove as though he wanted to hit all the obstacles/potholes/stray dogs on or off the road at about 80 km/hour through the still fairly busy streets of the city.

anyway, kolkata was damn hot, and we may or may not have spend most of our time in the one mcdonalds, or air conditioned malls watching movies like ocean's 13 or fantastic four two, or attempting to replace the clothing krista and diana lost when the laundry guy in our hotel in Pondichery chucked out their clothes thinking it was garbage. we did manage to go see the kali temple, brave the metro and see where mother teresa used to work, but that's about it. to be fair we did attempt to do some sightseeing but the silly monsoon had other plans, we ran for cover/ a mall as soon as it was too painful to withstand the showers.

after a few days there, we travelled onwards to Varanasi and have managed to stay here every since. we'd only planned two or three days here originally but by some turn of events have managed to stay here nearly a week. on our second day we were taken in by one of the main priests, bablu, who performs the evening puja cermony on the ghats (steps to the river) each evening, and through him we've met some very interesting characters. he took us to see a movie in hindi yesterday (fantastically cheesy, i highly recommend goign out and renting one) and in turn we treated him, his niece and nephew to their first mcdonalds experience. it was magical. :P i don't even know where to begin talking about varanasi as we've done so much, and yet not that much at all.... the pictures will hopefully explain.

from here we're off to agra tomorrow morning. we originally had planned to go see the "saucy temples" of kajuraho (a kama sutra in stone) but delayed trains and cancelled buses have prevented us from doing so.

so come back later/tomorrow for pictures. i promise to have them up in the next 24 hours

you guys wanna try some of my 'wow magic'?

hello again from the land of heat and humidity... we've left ooty and endured the worst bus ride to date: 15.5 hours on a video coach which means blaring hindi/tamil/kannada movies as well as exploding tires and smoking brakes. fantastic!

we're missing ooty already (i've noticed this has become a theme whenver we leave a place) but i think this time there is a legit reason: the lovely cool climes of the nilgiri hills is veeeerrrry similar to a cool day back home compared the temp of 36 degrees here in mamallapuram. also, we had a sweet sweet satelite tv for the past week with english tv shows, educational nat geo/discovery channel programs, and brad pitt movies that we watched to our hearts' content... oh and while watching copious amounts of tv we were inundated with the same ten random indian commercials repeated over and over again. my post title refers to a potato chip commercial which promises magical results when you use them to scoop up your curry or masala... needless to say, very little of what we did consisted of 'roughing it' or 'backpacking' so now that we're back to real world, it's all a bit foreign. hahaha.... however, we do have the ocean and beaches nearby so that should hopefully even it all out. we're here for a couple days, then down to pondicherry

oh and i figure since i haven't put up picture's since hampi y'all are due for some visuals... soo here's my one picture from Mysore:

the purdy palace... it housed some of the saddest lookin' elephants and emaciated camels i've ever seen (needless to say we didn't go for the rides they were offering) but we did get ourselves a guide who was very knowledgeable about the castle's history, and a little bit senile. i think he told us the same rehearsed line about the castle's cannons not being for war, but only for celebrations about 3 or 4 times? hahaha, he was super cute though and showed us all the gold and ivory inlay around the place and little details like hanging elephants that we probably would have never noticed ourselves....

the view from the top: 4 hours of windy roads, 36 hairbend turns and not enough leg room = 2500 metres above sea level at kalhatty falls ( a few km outside of ooty) and a temperate rainforest climate... note the random mixture of scraggly pine, eucalyptus and laurel... with the odd palm tree to remind you you're in a tropical country.

this would be our autorickshaw ride into town, with the flowing brown river that nearly swept us off the road. only the combined weight of the three of us, plus massive backpacks prevented such from happening.

this is ms. krista in our hotel room enjoying my knee high socks that kept her legs all nice n' warm.

and here is the surrounding countryside, political slogans being written on roadside barriers,tea estates and rolling hills... everything's gone green.

ooh and then we went on a lovely chauffered ride from ooty to conoor to see the sites, like sims park (wherein we ran around like a buncha idiots and acted like children. as can be seen in the following pictures)

this would be the day we went horseback riding at fernhills palace, diana's first time on a horse, and eugene's second. krista and meghan being the seasoned professionals, go t the stubborn, willfull horses... and diana's well.... he was obedient... and just plain vicious. he liked eugene's horse but had a tendency to try to maul mine whenever they came withing 10 feet of each other...

this would be the tractor roadblock that bottomed out in the 4 feet of mud that was our trail.

and this is what happened that evening as everyone was verrrrry stiff from the 3 hour ride, our saddles were pretty hard and provided very little padding for our poor spines, and the trotting didn't go over so well with those who didn't know how to post... to quote the first timer "my inner thighs are actually bruised and swollen." so captain cracker (aka. eugene w. his towel as a cape) came to the rescue by walking on peoples backs...

ooh, we found henna tubes in the local grocery stores and kindof went overboard henna-ing every surface possible. here krista demonstrates the best method for designing on your own foot.

the day after we had our lovely pony ride, everyone was feeling a wee bit stiff so i wandered off to explore, and ended up hiking up to the highest point in the nilgiri's, dodabetta peak. after getting off the local bus, i walked up the 3 km road to the top, much to the amusement and concern of the locals who kept stopping and trying to reason with the crazy white girl that the uphill walk was too much for me (which was true, but i stubbornly refused any rides on their comfy looking scooters or roomy jeeps, dangit) as such my sense of accomplishment, or lack of oxygen (it was about 3100 metres) made the views that much purdier...

oh and just in case you were thinking of using your love to burn down a forest, don't.

in ooty, and the rest of the country most animals are left to fend for themselves when it comes to food. most animals go the easy route and scavenge for garbage on the ground, but not goats. oh no, they're quite creative and will eat just about anything they can reach: some of my personal faves include dashboard shrines in autorickshaws, and movie posters on walls...

cows, however, are a different story, and if someone doesn't feed them, they'll just wander on into your house and steal whatever's lyin' around.

speaking of cows: sheer bliss exhibited upon the discovery of faux-laughing cow cheese (no refrigeration necessary) Happy Cow. yummy and functional on long journey bus rides when the rest stop canteens scare even the locals...

and this is our joy and delight in stopping 1.5 hours into our marathon bus ride when our tire blew up and brakes caught on fire. the upside: no music for 45 mins.

this is diana's quick pic of our least favourite bathroom to date: an indian squat urinal for ladies. at the rest stop where our bus broke down. needless to say we went the prissy white girl route and waited for the one stall to free up.