Danyavar India, Prem India (Thank you India, I love India) My last entry

Wow....... If I remember it correctly in hindi they say sub kul milcha (anything can happen but i am sure i spelled it wrong)


I want to thank all of you for following me on my journey and reading the blog and commenting on the pictures and stories.

This adventure has taken me places I never even dreamed about. If you asked me what i expected to feel the day i left delhi after my first day in mumbai I would have told you pure happiness. Now that I am starting to pack my bags and wrapping up some last buying for myself I feel really sad. India is an amazing place. There are few countries that you can go to where you can lie on the most beautiful tropical beaches, see some of the highest peaks in the world, see amazing cultures, eat some of the best food, two of the most beautiful buildings in the world and i will stop at that. Not only that, india has taught me a lot about myself and the world we live in. I learned that India is as far away from being a superpower as iraq was from destroying the USA with WMDs. I learned how to accept things i cannot change or that are out of my control, that I am a lot stronger than I thought and traveling alone is not only fun but the best way to do it. I learned a ton about Indian culture, i think i understand some of my indian friends a lot better. I think its fair to characterize two types of people that travel in India. There are people that swear they will never step foot back in India again, they will curse everything indian: the food, the culture, the people absolutly everything. Then there is the second class of people that I think i fall into. These are the people that keep going back to india for the rest of there lives. THey love everything about it, the adventure, the food, the people the uncertinty of everything and the beauty of rural india. It will be really hard for me to plan a trip to any other country without seriously considering going back to India. There is so much left to explore in India: the Kinnar Kailesh area, The himalayas in Uttarnachal ,trekking in Ladakh, Kashmir, Eastern Sikkim, the singahalia range treks,



My journey to delhi......


Getting back to delhi was hell. In fact it could have been worse than hell. The difference between north and south india is that in south india they may overcharge you for things but they will never rip you off like they do in north india. So after waiting 4 hours for my bus do delhi i got to know the other tourists on the bus pretty well. Most of the ten other tourists were israelis going back after about a year in India. We were all reminsicing about all the crap we put up with in our months in India and the things we missed back home. When it was time to board the bus we all could tell something was wrong. They kept calling peoples seat numbers to see if people were there and the workers were going a bit crazy. When the bus finally showed up 500 meters down the road we all grabbed our bags and walked over. IT was even more weird that the bus did not show up in the place it was supposed to, we soon found out why. They had oversold the bus and they knew that with western tourists on board we were going to put up a fight. And that we did.... So when I got on the bus there was a family of indian tourists sitting in my seat. I asked them to move but they said this was there seats. Then I went to the driver and he did not know what to do and started telling me that it was my fault and that i had to get off the bus and another was coming shortly. Its pretty easy to tell when Indians lie because they are not very good at it (this is coming from a person that has trouble lie either). All the israelis whom I made friends with in the 3 hours the bus was late told me not to get off the bus as we were all sure that this was the last bus of the night and i would be stuck in the crap hole town of bhuntar and not be able to get another bus till later the next night. I tried doing everything but you could tell the 4 bus drivers (there is at least double the amount of people necessary for any job in India) were getting pissed because they were late and they knew they had some angry western tourists. This other slovenian kid also realized he was sold a bad ticket by the bus company but he opted for 100 ruppees back and grabbed a terrible seat in the back. I don't like being ripped off by anyone, especially sleazy indian tour companies so I along with the help of some israelis put up a massive fight. I don't lose my temper very often but i tend to when someone is ripping me off or taking advantage of me. This is why I tend to lose my temper with Indians very quickly. I started dropping the 'ol m-fer and sister-effer (the worst insult in India) on them and they started getting irate. There started to be a little knocking shoulders but i made sure not to get physical as Indians don't often fight like that and I had ot remind myself I was in India even though I just went to the ATM so i had enough cash to pay bakshish and get away from the cops. The yelling got more and more heated and I woke up all of the sleeping Indians just in time for me to tell them this is why there country is so backwards and messed up and that there greed will be the reason why India will never reach its full potential. The Isrealis and later i found out many of the indians agreed and loved that I said that even though it was a total asshole comment to make but its so true. There corruption and greed (personal, corporate, government and even charities in India) is what stifles the progress and potential of what could be a world super power but never will. Then all of the sudden one of the bus drivers lost it and cocked back to punch me. Just as he was about to his friends grabbed him and the israelis sprung up behind me. It was a funny scene and I was pretty sure nothing would happen but nobody wanted to go to jail and all i wanted was the seat i paid for and to get to delhi when i planned. Its great to laugh about now but it was no way to start a 16 hour horrible bus ride.


So after the near incident one of the isrealis guys decided to offer me the seat and he would sleep on the floor. Once someone did that i realized I was not going to ever get a seat so I made a bed with the bags of an american and 3 israelis and we were off to Delhi. I was not sure I was going to make it becuase the bus driver was driving like a maniac I am sure becuase he was all worked up after what had happened. I just closed my eyes and drifted off to sleeping hoping I would not feel the bus fly off a cliff (thats one last one for you mom and grandpa). Instead i woke up to a tire blowing out as we stopped at a cafe for dinnertime at midnight. This is when many of the indians came up to me and apologized for what happened and told me that I was correct about the greed thing but that is just the way things work especially in the tourists (indian and western) areas of northern India. As 2 of the drivers went to get something to eat 2 of them tried to fall asleep in the bed that they have up in the front. I decided that if i was going to have to sleep on the floor there is no reason for them to be able to sleep on a nice bed. I remembered I had my emergency whistle in my pocket from trekking and every time one of the drivers closed my eyes i blew the whistle in there ear. They hated this so much. But there is nothing like sweet revenge. They told me I was a crazy man. This is not something I would normally do but something really hit me and it was all of the bottled up aggression from India over the second half of my trip. Its something that most travelers can relate to especially if they have been to india for long periods of time. So i got my revenge and the tire was fixed after about 2 hours of waiting. We then were off on our way around 1:30 or 2. At about 3 am our bus got searched by the police for about 45 minutes. They tore about everything as they searched for drugs or something. It was a big pain in the ass especially becuase i had to be up the whole time becuase they were walking up and down the isles making people open there bags. For some reason they didn't make me and I assume that was because i was sleeping on the floor like a dog and they felt bad enough. Then at about 4:30 i woke having to go to the bathroom really really bad. It was one of those times where you wake up and you feel like you are going to explode. So i knock on the door of the driver and ask if he can pull over. He looks back and tells me to shut up and go sit down were are not stopping till delhi. I get irrate. On every other night bus they always pull over and let you go as long as they had not stopped 10 minutes before. Damnit i paid my money and i wanted my right to pee. So i go sit down for a minute and then go screw this. I open the window this time and tell the guy whose back is to me that if they dont pull over the bus now i will just pee all over the drivers cabin through the window or i will open the door. This got there attention and they pulled over once i started unzipping my pants. Sometimes you have to be a little heavy handed with the indians. The only problem is that I did not want to leave the bus alone. I had already pissed these guys off enough so i started standing on the platform to pee of the bus. The drivers started going crazy telling me i cant do that. Luckily one of the israelis woke up and stood in the doorway area where the driver sits and told me he will not let them drive away. I could see it in there eyes they would have done it to. Anyways we ended up getting to Delhi 6 hours late and anymore time on that bus I would have lost my sanity. The first day in delhi i walked around pahar ganj checking out the stores and drinking a lot of water because it was about 40 celsius by 9 am. On the second day i arranged for a tour of delhi with one of the rickshaw drivers for 3 bucks if i visted 3 of those commission stores for ten minutes. After the second one with one more monument left i just got out of the rickshaw near the mosque and red fort in delhi and just wandered around for about 4 hours. It was great getting lost in delhi which is not so bad for a big indian city. They converted all the rickshaws and taxis to run on CNG or natural gas so the air was not as bad as mumbai or chennai. I also got hooked on fresh squeezed mango and pomegrante juices. I also went out to this really fancy restraunt my last day in delhi called veda. They also have a place in NYC called devi. the food was amazing. For 20 USD i got 2 kingfishers, a huge plate of tandoori meat with mutton and chicken, papad appetizers and a lemon kulcha ice cream with saffron which was one of the best desserts I have ever had. The only problem was i walked out of the street back into connaught place (CP) semi drunk trying to finish up buying some things for myself. You tend to buy a lot of crap you dont need when you are drunk wandering around in a foriegn country. Anyways it was a great meal and I wanted to go back and have the desert again before i left but i didn't have time. Then it was time to leave.


Its hard to leave a place like India. India messes with your head on all levels. You learn things about yourself that you never wanted to learn or never believed you could do. You also learn to accept some of the things that are out of your control. We live in such sterile and safe places where we know what to expect when we leave for the day. In India you never know what is around the next corner and thats what I miss. A lot of people have asked me what I miss the most about India and I have to say the excitement. I love being home and seeing my gf and some of my friends but life here can be a little boring and I need to get used to that. Its not bad its just different. I am thankful I do live here and I can come back to America and work, live and hopefully travel again. Its nice to escape the cows, the shit and the people but on another level I really miss those things. Before I left here I was more than a little worried. I had never left on a trip like this alone and I was not sure what would happen. What I got was the best trip I have ever taken.


Some of my favorite moments from the second half of my trip....
Watching cricket in the maiden of Kolkotta
My night out in the clubs of Kolkotta
The crappy city of Siliguri
The fried chicken momos in Kunga near chow rasta in Darjeeling
The rainstorms in Darjeeling
The lone monastary trek in Sikkim
My first glimpse of the mighty himlayas
Dzongri with all my trekking mates
The rhodedendron blooms in dzongri and scwagzni
Waking up at 4 am to see the sunrise over kanchachunga
Seeing an Asian one horned rhino
The cows in varanasi
The 18 hour train journeys without a ticket
Sitting along the ghats and watching the spiritual life of India
The Taj mahal in all of its grandeur
Sikh hospitality in Amritsar
The golden temple
Running with the flag in the border closing ceremony in Wagha
Jus the swede, Jez the brit and My new persian friend Reza all cheering for india at the border closing and then leaving the family of indians behind in our jeep because they were taking to long.
Seeing all my India friends again in Dharamsala
Living in the caves up in the himalayas
Malana in all of its weirdness, the weed fields of parbati, the tandoori chicken in kasol, shabbat dinner in the himalayas, all of the amazing and crazy israelis i met, the hot baths in manikaran, sitting on a gravel truck when it blew a tire, hitchiking from bashwani to kasol with a driver who had a death wish and played chicken with a truck along a 1,000 ft gorge, the golden eagles of schwagzni, my friend taj the kashmiri in kasol, the view from my place in kasol, alu shams tea.
The almost brawl in the bus, threatening to pee in the drivers cab of the bus if they didnt pull over.

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