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Published: June 11th 2009
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Some pilgrims hired porters to carry them up and down the mountain in baskets. Amazing because it was very steep and finished at an elevation of over 10,000ft.So, I'm writing now from the city Amritsar in the Indian state of Punjab. This city is famous for housing The Golden Temple, a shrine of the Sikh religion made out of 750kg of pure gold, its a very beautiful building! Also, this place has a dormitory where they house and feed you for free, pretty sweet!
The past week has been pretty cool, and very busy. Things seem to be about 50/50 between the hassles of riding on buses or trains, and then exploring the new destination. The hike I did in the valley of flowers was amazing, and to get there me and the Aussie who came with me had to take a twelve hour bus, hitchike 18km on a motorcycle, hike 13km into a village that can only be accessed by foot, and then find the trailhead from there! It was all worth it though, because the Valley was amazing. The area in the himilayas was very green and foresty with clean air, much different from the rest of India! The valley itself was surrounded by snowcapped mountains and had waterfalls spilling in from all the cliffs and stuff. We also spoke to a ton of Sikh
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Here we finally got to the village that serves as the trailhead for VOF. This nice guy wanted in on the pic! pilgrims who were on their way to a sacred temple in the area. They were all very eager to meet us white dudes, and many of them just gave us their addresses hoping we would stop by if we were ever around!
On a side note, most people aren't as cool as those pilgrims were. In the cities there are so many people trying to get your attention as soon as you walk out the door that it is hard to sort through those who just want to shake your hand, and the nonsense ones who want to sell you something or are just kind of people calling out. Also, whenever you are in public, almost everybody stares at you unabashed. A couple of times walking around the temple the past couple of days with the other white peeps its gotten out of hand. Especially when we are with girls, Indian people come up to us nonstop and ask to take pictures with us and stuff. With the hordes of Indian people around this can get a little stifling! Walking around a typical city street you just hear constant echoes of 'Hello sir! Hello! Wait!' and other similar variations.
On the Trail
Australians are very strange. How everything works in India is going to take a while to figure out. There are so many problems here as far as sanitation, infrastructure, poverty, education, and a ton of other areas, yet not many Indians that I have spoken to seem to regard issues like these as a big deal. Everybody is extremely focused on their respective religion, and that really seems to define everybody's lives here.
On the backpacker side, things are so unique you have to laugh. Everybody seems to teeter on this border of hating the place because of the way white people are hounded by locals in the street, and loving it because of the dynamic culture and beauty and everything. This is funny, because the country has some of the worlds most amazing structures like the Taj Mahal and Golden Temple, yet they have NO sidewalks and it is an indiscribable pain in the ass just to walk down the street in any city! Yet, the locals don't seem to even mind it. The whole country seems to thrive on the joy of shuffling large crowds of people through small spaces.
Anyway, after hiking in the Himilayas I made my
More Car Trouble
We got 4 flat tires and a severe break fluid leak on the way back to Rishikesh way out here to Amritsar via a sleeper train. It has been a lot of fun here. The dorm I'm staying at is kind of ridiculous, just a couple dozen beds in a big room, but its filled with backpackers from all over the world. Its in the Golden Temple complex, so we go and check it out at any time of day or night! Last night we went out to get some Indian desserts, walked around the temple late, yadayadayada, I'm really tired today. Tomorrow me and a Canadian dude and English girl are going to take the bus to Dharmsala, where the exiled Dali Lama and all of the Tibetan refugees live. More soon!
- to check out the pictures www.beaumurphy.smugmug.com
- website www.beaumurphy.com
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I bet a lot of the things you do, see, experience, out there is just indescribable.. keep updating!!