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Published: July 11th 2006
ok ok , I score very few marks out of 10 for adding recent blog entries, but the good news is I'm still alive!!!! I just survived a bus journey from hell, (which really probably was very cushy by Indian standards) from Mcleod Ganj. Only problem was the aircon didn't work, so we had to open the window, but.....it was monsooning! So...it was a choice of not breathing , as the air was stifling, or spending 11 hours soaked to the skin. I spent the whole night opening and closing the window by various degrees depending on rainfall, with a soggy blanket on my shoulder! Plus, we thought we were smart geting the extra legroom seats behind the drivers cabin, but it turned out they packed the cabin full of people anyway, who were trying to sleep in any way they could, including sticking their feet out the back of the cabin into our faces.....nice!!! Better than the night journey a friend spent in the drivers cab, though, where all the Indian passengers PLUS the driver were smoking dope on the mountain roads, think I would have freaked.....
The journey had taken a dubious turn right at the beginning, when
the bus assistant refused to load our bags into the bag hold without paying a 10 rupee fare for them. Apparently he would fix them on the roof free of charge but we had to pay for the luxury of having them inside. We had paid for long-distance luxury bus tickets but it seems luggage was not included in the fare;thus a battle ensued where the western travellers would keep throwing their bags into the back and he would keep unloading them, demanding 10 rupees. Eventually he slammed the boot shut, locked it, and marched off. My friend ran back to the travel agents who indeed confirmed we DID have to pay for our bags on top, seriously annoying everybody who felt the price had been misrepresented. The joys of India, be warned.....
Now in Manali, which has the dubious distinction of being full of dope smokers, and , by any acount,the bluebottle capital of the world. I'm swatting flies off as I write......
Ooh, I've loads to tell. Delhi was definitely survival of the fittest. Roads in Purganj smelt like one public open toilet,all internet cafes semed to have porn downloads running, traffic was overwhelming, scams and
lies even more so. At the Mosque, I got chased by an Abu Hamzu- type figure waving a stick because I absent-mindedly put my shoes down on the floor ( oops!). It was sooooooo hot, it's the only place I can remember sitting down and being soaked all down the back of my trousers AND down the front of my top...and sadly it's also a place where I saw a bitch and her puppies running round scattered in the main road; one of the puppies was limping on a newly-torn off and ragged hind leg, while another was within 2 inches of being hit by a car. Very sad, and you can't save them, as you're trying to avoid being run over yourself ......
I also re-met Sophie,a fellow traveller, whom I'd met in Nepal.
Next was 5 days in Shimla ( via the hottest overnight stop ever in Chandigarh..... I omitted to book an aircon room , so I literally had to get up every half an hour for a cold shower, only problem was the shower didn't drain propery and flooded into the bedroom).... so I spent the whole night showering then on my knees mopping. I
finally gave up at 2am, grabbed a book, and read for the remaining few hours before I left at 5.30am for the bus to Shimla, only to be chased with my massive rucksack by two growling, snapping dogs, which luckily the locals chased off for me....
Shimla is an upmarket Indian hill station, a little off the main traveller route,full of rich holidaying Indians, and where both monkeys and humans think they run the show ( I put my money on the monkeys!) The monkeys, being potentially rabid, scamper across the streets, run over rooves, and scavenge out of bins/off balconies,while the humans step back and let them run amok.Hardly any white faces there,so I suddenly encountered the celebrity white woman status where you continually get stopped in the street to appear in snaps with hordes of holidaymakers . All very strange......
I also lost Sophie in Shimla, or rather never re-met her or 3 other groups I expected to run into, the place was so large, and Sophie had disappeared from email contact, and for the first time in 10 weeks felt on my own ( sob!)- not for long, though- I made very good friends with
a local ( Sajad), who took me out trekking several times, and suddenly all these white faces arrived in town, just in time for the England vs Portugal match, so they were all duly dragged down to the local big screen! My room was the cheapest yet, at 2 pounds a night with breakfast and my own zoo thrown in for good measure. There was an ominous scratching and rattling noise overhead all night- never found out if it was monkeys, rats or pigeons ( which the hotel claimed). Anyhow, at Shimla, I was really excited to receive a message from Alia, a great friend who I met in Nepal and who is travelling the world in an intriguing repeat circular loop, reviewing and changing her travel plans daily....saying her plans had changed and she was now flying back into Delhi and coming up to see me for a few days. Sooo, to cut a long story short, I luckily hitched the 11 hour ride to Dharamasala with 4 English guys I met, and thanked them for their generosity by throwing up in their car ( one good deed deserves another). Hmmm think we need a new paragraph.....
Mcleod
Ganj/Dharamasala is the home of the Tibetan government in Exile and also HH the Dalai Lama; Alia arrived the day after me and Sophie reappeared the same time too, having ben dragged off in the meantime to some remote village with no computers to join in an extended wedding celebration!Alia ( also known as mossie decoy as they always go for her- she's a very generous blood donor!) spent her time in Mcleod Ganj trying to kill me in various ways, first of all enrolling me in a 5 day 3hours/day Iyengar yoga course based 2 miles away, which we then had to powerhike to ( at some unearthly hour), before being contorted with various ropes and props into various backbends and strange positions...........
We then, for some strange reason, decided one day we were going to have a past life regression by a Tibetan astrologist, which turned more into a present-life analysis . Alia became hysterical when he told me that I would be reincarnated as a bird in my next life if I didn't produce enough good karma in this one, and now refuses to call me anything except "tweety". She has the potential to be reincarnated
as a panda, so we have agreed I can sit on a perch in her zoo enclosure!!!!!! Unfortunately the astrologist was quite bemused by our outbursts, especially when we both misheard him saying that between 35-36 I would suffer from diarrhoea ( cue lots of jokes from Alia about buying shares in toilet paper) - he was a very sweet guy, but his English was not so good which made for a funny time when he did his readings!
We were also really fortunate to be at Mcleod Ganj for HH 14th Dalai Lamas birthday celebrations, and although we didnt see him, we did see his dog ( henceforth known as the DLD), which was pretty exciting (lol!). There was loads of coming and going at his house, but sadly he was not well so couldn't make an appearance . Alia muttered something about baking him a cake and jumping out of it but never proceeded with the master plan!
At MG, I also suffered the indignity of being moved on by a cow/bull/bovine creature with horns. There I was trying ( and failing miserably) to find my way between 2 crowded opposing rows of stationary cars when
I felt something prod me in the backside, and turned round to see........this creature with its head down and it's horns firmly embedded! Luckily no lingering bruises, but Oh!the shame of moving slower than a cow......!!!!
I now have full Indian dress ( commands more respect from the women), so to complemnt it, Alia and I decided to bindify each other every day . Bindis are the jewels placed on the forehead of Indian women, and the ones we use are just stick- on; The classic bedtime comment from Alia came as I emerged with my washbag from the bathroom,when she casually enquired 'So did you wash round your Bindi??!'..........
Also saw loads of films about Tibet in Mcleod Ganj- it's probably the place with the freest (?) spech about Tibet in the world. Sad to leave yesterday, although the Monkey commando teams are out in greater force there than Shimla ( attracted to the various mounds of fruit peel which Alia left in the outside bin...a full retreat back into the room on more than one occasion occurred when they were spotted swinging their way along our balcony), and there's also hordes of street dogs which have
apparently appeared in the last 3 months ( since Alia last did a loop round there )and howl all night long....
That's about it- left yesterday, sent Alia packing off to Pakistan,or wherever she's off to as she's probably changed her intinerary again, now just myself and Sophie again, but hoping to hook up again with some others in Leh in a few days....
Still sorry about the lack of postcards, it just never seems to happen, or I can never find stamps , a post office , a pen or a brain...... ( all vital tools in the art of postcarding!!)
Hopefully next blog from Leh at a lofty 3,500 metres altitude- yep heading back into the mountains .......... xxx
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Quinnthefinn
Teresia Quinn
This is much better than postcards.
Sooo glad to see a lifesign - Paul and I were beginning to wonder... Knew you'd be ok, a braver person than you we've seldom met! I think I'd prefer the mountains than the heat, even here in WsM we had around 30C the other week which made it difficult to sleep!We're off to Finland in a couple of weeks for the summer, and I can get to an internet cafe quite easily every now and again from the island, to follow your adventures. Do take care, although I know you do, with those rabid animals, used to be one of the bigger scares in Africa. The monkeys sound rather nasty, I did not like the baboons in Africa, nor the 'apes' on Gibraltar, one of whom attacked Anja last Easter. Still haven't found another dentist... I haven't tried too hard, although I should as our 6 month check is due...Scott had his GCSEs and is now hoping for at least 5 C's to get him into 6th form in Churchill in Sept. Results not out until we get back from Finland in the end of August.You wouldn't believe how he's grown the last 6 months, much taller than I now. Love Tess xx