Blogs from Himachal Pradesh, India, Asia - page 106

ok so i slept the entire day yesterday. which as many of you know...i can do these days. it would have been cool if i would not have slept through my friend tseyang coming by TWICE and ringing the doorbell and knocking on the door to take me through the orientation for volunteertibet. i felt like a heel. but she left me a nice note saying that it must have been a tiring day (truth) and that we will just do it tomorrow..she really is very nice. so i got up early today and had breakfast at the hotel... it was ok...peanut butter toast on tibetan brown bread and coffee EEk. and a plain pancake which was heavy on the egg. but welcomed none the less. so i went on the tour with Tseyang and saw ... read more

Got a train to Shimla today. Nearly missed it cause i overslept and then found out the bloody women from the hotel had only put me on a waiting list for a seat! Indian trains are pretty good though. They serve complimentary meals and tea every hour and i only paid 2 pounds for a 10 hour train journey!Got on the 'Toy Train' up to Shimla which was not much bigger than the train that goes round Llyn Padarn! It took 6 hours to wind its way up the foothills of the Himalaya. Shimla was nice, compared to Delhi anyway. The guy from the hotel offered to show me round the hills. He was nice but a bit intense saying how i was his best friend and that god brought us together! Went up in to ... read more

What I have learnd in India .... all in eleven days! Right hand - left hand ... let's eat! The emphasis put on eating with the correct hand, i.e. the right one because the left one is used for cleansing unmentionables, is not adhered to very closely....in fact I ate with a muslim and he did not even wash his hands before he delved into his dinner. When at the house of a muslim we had tea and buns and these buns were torn into by everybody in the room with both hands. Maybe very orthodox muslims do better....have not met any of them yet. ...WM... green texas garbage trucks ... come&get it! The garbage everywhere is garbage in public areas. The houses in India are all behind a tall fence with a gate. Behind that ... read more

It took me a while to get off to sleep last night, due to the racket being generated by the group that seems to have occupied every other room on the floor. Until about 1AM, they were running up and down the corridor, shouting, singing, and slamming doors. Some of them still seemed to be under the impression that my room was part of their booking, so I had numerous rings of the bell and knocks on the door. In a complete break with tradition, and inspired by the surroundings, I decided to adopt a policy of tolerance, so I switched on the TV and found myself watching "Freaky Friday", which didn't quite fit with my understanding of karmic payback. Due to the limited space available in my backpack, I decided to post home some bits ... read more

The hotel put up some Christmas decorations, which seem to have more of a Hawaiian theme than anything else, with assorted fake flowers in orange and pink, though there are a couple of Christmas trees to keep with (English) tradition. One of the employees, presumably the one who drew the short straw, was cavorting around the square in a Father Christmas outfit, with a very un-Father Christmas-like advert for the Asian Plaza on his chest. I was hoping to see the argumentative monks from Namgyal Monastery doing their stuff in the temple courtyard this afternoon, as seen on Michael Palin's Himalaya series, but either I went at the wrong time or they only do it in the summer, as I didn't see even a vaguely irritated monk, let alone one using punches and kicks to emphasise ... read more