After resting for so many days in McLeod Ganj, we decided it was time to move on and see some of India. We took the easy way and rented a jeep with a driver, to do the 200km 5 hours journey (yes... that's India) to Amritsar. Amritsar is the holiest city for the Sikh, the guys with the funny thing on their head (just kidding, they are nice people!) and the main site is the golden temple. We arrived in the evening and decided to go to Laurence road, which is the modern part of town - relatively speaking of course. [View Full Entry]

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A bit of history or guide book stuff: About 55 years ago communist China took over Tibet, and ever since China is working to destroy the independent Tibetan culture. On the way they killed many Tibetans, and in 1959 the Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lamah, decided to go in exile and try to fight for freedom from outside Tibet. India gave the him and his group political asylum, and more than that, they let them fight for their freedom (in peaceful measures only) from their new home. McLeod Ganj is the center of that Tibetan community in exile. The Dalai Lamah [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday we went to a movie. It was the best cinema in McLeod - the Movie Den. It looks more or less like a bus, just a bit more spacious, and even air conditioned, so no complaints about that. The quality wasn’t so great, but ok, you can manage. We watched “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, which is a really stupid movie… very good choice for this vacation here. But the highlights of the movie were the subtitles! Somebody made them by listening probably, or maybe they even have a speech recognition software? Who knows. The result was really funny! It [View Full Entry]

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Is there some cosmic hole here, throwing you back to Israel once you step out of this bus that took you to McLeod Ganj? Wherever you go in McLeod you see Israelis, you hear Hebrew. The merchants in the shops and in the market will say some words in Hebrew as soon as they hear us talking Hebrew. Some restaurants offer menus in Hebrew. There are many adds in Hebrew in the streets, advertising courses or restaurants. And if in McLeod you feel that maybe 50% of the tourists are Israeli, it gets worse when you go to the villages of [View Full Entry]

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So far I was happy not to suffer in India, but I did hope it would improve at some point. Well, we chose to start our Indian time in McLeod Ganj because people said it was "easier", and they were right. McLeod Ganj is a small town, maybe just a big village, in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh. Located in the mountains slopes, above a big valley, it offers magnificent views. It is also the home of a big Tibetan community, lead by the Dalai Lamah himself. They live here since they ran away from the occupied Tibet in 1959. [View Full Entry]

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(My dear non-Israeli readers: A night train to Cairo is a famous Israeli song, hence Cairo is the first place that comes to mind when I think of night trains!) Before you board a train, you have to go to the train station. Don't even think of "Gare du Nord" (Paris/Brussels/Tel-Aviv, wherever), there's no resemblance. Imagine thousands of people sitting there, "waiting for Godot"? I have no idea. They look very serene - "Indian shanti"? Around them, the hustle and bustle is unbelievable. People are moving around, carrying parcels - all sizes all shapes. The trains list is long, trains going [View Full Entry]

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I took 3 weeks rest in Israel in the middle of my travels. It was great to see my family, my friends (apologies to those I haven't met, time was so short eventually :-) And on Tuesday morning I boarded El-Al plane again, this time with my sisters Daphna and Hadas, flying to Mumbai, India. The flight was ok, but I was terrified of India. Most of all I was terrified of the smell I heard about. And so we landed in Mumbai and I took a deep breath, and - nothing. Really, nothing really bad. Yes, sometimes you pass in [View Full Entry]

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I left home on February 7th. It was 28 weeks ago. I spent 11 weeks in New Zealand, 16 in Australia (and 1 week in Hong Kong and on the way). I had amazing time. I already wrote a poetic summary of my New Zealand experience. Australia was VERY different. The experience was a lot more diversified. The Aussie landscape is not as beautiful as in NZ, but it has its highlights. The outback - impressive for being so vast, lots and lots of nothing. Uluru (Ayers Rock) is again impressive for the size and location. Karijini national park in WA [View Full Entry]

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The way home was very long. I boarded Cathay Pacific flight at 7:35AM Sydney time, which was just past midnight at home. After 9.5 hours I landed in Hong Kong, where I spent the next 7 hours. I had a good noodles soup there, some internet, some wandering in the shops, lots of waiting. And then 11.5 hours on El-Al flight to Tel-Aviv, landing here at 4:25AM. Luckily, after not seeing Israelis the whole week in Sydney (except Hila but that was planned), I met one on the shuttle to the airport, and we spent all that time together, until he [View Full Entry]

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When I woke up this morning I still didn’t know it would be my last day. I read my book and I had breakfast and at 9AM I called El-Al to check if I can get an earlier flight than next week. The only available one was tomorrow. Then I called Cathay Pacific and after waiting maybe 15 minutes on the line I found out that they have availability as well. So, yes, I booked those two flights and suddenly I realized: this was my last day in Sydney, in Australia and Down Under, in the Southern Hemisphere! So in this [View Full Entry]

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