Me and my monkey

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Forget an intro, lets jump right in:

The last time I left you all, I was heading up into the mountains... so at first, Wojcieck (the Polish guy I've been travelling with) and I had thought to use a guide. It was very cheap, only $30 per person per day, and that included all your gear as well as someone to carry it up for you. Then we started thinking... if it only costs 30 bucks, how much will they really do? So instead of the guide, we bought a map for a dollar and walked up ourselves. It was an 11km hike, with an altitude change of 1100 meters, no easy deal, but the view from the top was spectacular. I tried to take some pictures that could catch the feeling of the place, but eventually I found out it was impossible to do so. Imagine a perfectly green field pierced with large boulders and outcroppings of rock, with only a few tents and other very basic structures. If you stood at the right spot, you could look around for almost 270 degrees and see nothing but air; no other mountains, no buildings, no towns, cities, or valleys, just sky. The next day we took a quick hike up to the snow line, which was fairly uneventful, but I can now say that I have eaten Himalayan snow. In the end, we each only spent about $25 for two days on top of a mountain, including food, tent, sleeping bag, water, and all the goat crap you could stand. Did I mention there were goats? Damn, there were a lot of goats.

The next day we followed a group of goat herders back down the mountain and headed back to the guest house to get the rest of our stuff that we had left there. We ran into Rosa and Elena again, the two Spanish girls, and found out that they were heading to Rishikesh, the same place Wojcieck and I were going. They, however, were smart enough to buy bus tickets on a private bus, while we had saved the 200 rupees ($5) and bought tickets on the state bus. I don't think I'll ever make that mistake again. We spent 17 hours in a sardine tin with wheels. To make matters worse, I had requested a window seat because I would be traveling overnight, and the only window seat available was in the very last row, next to the back door... So here's a rundown of my evening, night, and morning: a 20 year old school bus, with no suspension and squealing, questionable brakes, speeding up and down the switchbacks at 40 mph, stopping every few miles to let someone off, with the door slamming and the ticket-taker blowing a whistle about 3 feet away from me, and my overly friendly neighbor in the next seat nodding off with his head on my shoulder, which wouldnt have been so bad, except for the fact that the incessant bouncing (which was amplified by the fact that we had taken seats in the back row of the bus) caused his head to hit my shoulder about 37 times per second. Somehow he managed to stay asleep, but as you can probably guess, I didnt sleep a bit. But I learned two very important lessons from this experience: first and primarily- dont ever sit at the back of the bus when you want to sleep; and secondly, pay for a private bus on overnight routes.

From there we spent a day each in Mussoorie and Rishikesh, which were fairly uneventful. We walked around a bit, spent a lot of time in cafes talking and reading and practicing my Spanish, and bought bananas to give to the babas, who are basically people who have given up everything material and beg by choice. Not my favorite group of people, but we had a good time trying to talk to them in exchange for bananas. We also tried to find the place where the Beatles visited Maharishi Yogi in 1967, but no luck. However, we did get to see a bit of the inspiration for the White Album (which was written largely in Rishikesh) in the monkeys that regularly patrol the streets, which were an influence for the wonderfully titled song "Everybody's got something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey."

After that little excursion, I took an overnight bus back to Delhi (private bus this time!) to see Dan who had flown in from Kabul. All in all, my time with the Delhi Mooney's has been great; it's been far too long since I've seen them and I have greatly enjoyed being one of the family for a few days. Getting out of the hostels and into a home for a while is wonderful- good food, people to talk to, a break from all the hustling of travel. I even got some video game time with Phillip and Patrick, which was greatly needed after almost 6 months (gasp!) of non-college life.

A few thoughts on India thus far:
It's great to be in a country where strangers approach you to shake your hand and ask to take a picture with you. I tell them I'm from the United States, and they respond "Ooooooooh good country!" Today at the Red Fort in Delhi, I was approached by three different groups of people in about 10 minutes who wanted to shake my hand or take a picture. At first I couldn't figure out if they were laughing at the curly-haired foreigner or what, but after a lengthy conversation with one guy about the American political system, I realized he was truly interested. This guy seemed pretty well-educated, so I tried playing the Bobby Jindal card, but I suppose in a country of 1.2 billion people I'd have to get pretty lucky to find someone who has heard of him.

One of the slightly humorous contradictions I have noticed since arriving here: the dress of the people is fairly conservative: pretty much everyone wears pants even in the intense heat, and women in particular are fairly well-covered. Nevertheless, I have seen people using the street as a toilet with no attempt to hide themselves, and a road-side shower is not out of the question. I'm not here to criticize, only to observe and enjoy... if there is any one way that I have changed as a result of this trip, it's that nothing surprises me anymore. Cow in the road? Go around it. Bridge not finished? Walk across. No seats left on the bus? Sit in the aisle. No seat in the aisle? Sit on the roof! In short, the phrase "Surely they wouldn't do that!" has left my vocabulary. They would, and they just did. And stop calling me Shirley.

So enough of the commentary and corny jokes... tomorrow I will head into Delhi for some sight-seeing, then on to Agra, Varanasi, and finally Mumbai with maybe one other stop in between. Today, being the 19th of May, marks the one month left point. My flight from London to New Orleans looms in the nearing future. Grrrrr. I'm not ready to go back to reality yet.

I also want to give a quick congrats to everyone who graduated recently. For the rest of you, keep on truckin.




Oh and one more thing... CP3 MVP!

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Photos

tent
thats our tent

half-way cafe
the little building at the bottom is a place we stopped to eat on the way up

snow line
this is looking up the mountain... we saw the clouds rolling down the mountain face and decided to get back to the camp

red dot
that little red speck you see is me standing on the edge of the world

me + goats
this guy wanted to take a picture of me and him with his goats

A+
this is one of my favorite pictures so far

travelers
Elena and Wojceick

sunset
bathing in the Ganga

for jason
el mono!

bridge
one of the huge pedestrian bridges in rishikesh

sunset
from our guesthouse window

Comments

[Ms. Donna]

Monkeys & busses & snow.. oh my!,
Gorgeous pics - fabulous stories - and I love your long hair. Missing you.

[Poppy]

Been there & done that
Mickel, Once a long time ago, I raced my Cal-30 across the Gulf to Mexico, over 550 miles. My boat was the smallest in a fleet of 40+ yachts, the race was 4 days of hell, after which the race committe declared no boats under 35' would be eligible. This race was one of the greatest adventures in my very adventuresome life. After reading your blog, grandson, my small experience cannot hold a candle to what you are doing and seeing on a daily basis all around the world. Keep on trucking, I'm looking forward to hearing about your next adventure, and when I meet you in Rome, we'll go into a bar and I'll raise a glass and toast you. Gpa

[Sarah]

surely, you must be joking...
sounds amazing...looks amazing...so much of me can't even believe you're doing this. now we have written proof you're becoming dad, surely not? do me a favor - when you get to london, if you visit abbey road, walk across it barefoot. i got to cross it, but cars were lined up waiting for us to cross. enjoy it- trips like this only happen once....but of course, you'll probably do it again NEXT summer, too? :)

[Pat Veters]

You are redefining the phrase " roughing it "
I have enjoyed reading your blog immensely and it makes me wish that I had at least done the Peace Corp with Susie after law school . Unfortunately my wife'e outstanding student loans and frugal nature , ie we had no money , convinced me otherwise. On the good news front your recent experience with goats in India makes you the obvious candidate to replace Thomas Colosino as Fr. Benny's " chicken feed " boy in Saltillo this summer ; Thomas will be relieved. Also you , more than anyone else , will appreciate the luxurious bus ride from NO to Saltillo in our air-conditioned bus with non-stop DVD viewing ! Be safe , have fun and keep the great stories coming in .

[Mr Matt]

I like the spur of the moment moves to do the more interesting things. Seems to have paid off nicely. Keep us up to speed on smells of the area and foods you eat. Those comments have been great. I think that one goat was winking at the camera or was that the Spanish girl.