blgerber
blgerber Joined: January 16th 2007
Logged in: March 22nd 2011
Logged in: March 22nd 2011
After spending some time in Minneapolis after graduating I am off to see India. It has been something I wanted to do for a long time. 2.5 months travelling and maybe even the chance to volunteer will be amazing. From what I have read online and spoke with people about India sounds crazy. My favorite quote so far is this: India is like a Picasso. Everything is there just not in the right place. I will soon see. Feel free to email me at blgerber@gmail.com with questions or suggestions. Also if you would like to be removed from my emails just let me know (no offense will be taken).
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P1012424
Let me start by saying I thought I had been through it all in India. However, nothing can prepare you for the madness that is the Manali-Leh Highway. I chose to do the drive all in one day, starting at 2 and scheduled to arrive around 7 at night. However, if you have read any of my blogs nothing is on time in India. The route begins innocent enough, climbing through Manali in the pitch black night. However, the madness starts as you ascend over the Rothang pass, which is over 12,000 feet and looms over the resort town of Manali. Our jeep reached the crest of the Rothang pass just as the sun was rising over the high himalayas. Aside from the few skidouts, the route was innocent enough. I had thought that paying a ... read more
Me with the scarf
After a bone shaking 12 hour bus ride to Manali, I realized that as much as I disliked some of the people on my study abroad, its nice having people around to talk to. Maybe that is why I was bitter at the end of my last trip through India, I spent a lot of the last days walking around by myself. While solitude is nice, so is being around fun and interesting people. I decided instead of hanging around a loud, busy hill town again (i had enough for the last 4 weeks) I booked a seat on a jeep for what should be the most beautiful ride of my life. It is a 17 hour ride that reaches over 16,000 feet and crosses some of the highest motorable passes in the world. I will ... read more
Sunset in Shimla
It has been a long time since I last wrote. Things are going well. After a long ride to Dharmasala (or Mcleod Ganj as nobody actually stays in Dharmasala) on my birthday, we were able to go out and get pure veg sushi. It was great. Being back in Mcleod Ganj is nothing amazing. It is still the same dirty, busy western flea pit that it was a year ago. There is still cow crap, beggers, fake sadhus, all that good stuff. I am actually staying in the same hotel as last time. It is a 5 minute walk from the hotel we have classes in. The first 2 nights were hell. There were some Indian tourists, young men, yelling and screaming all night. I figured I would put up with it the first night but ... read more
The forest
I couldn't figure out a creative title for this one. Therefore, for those of you that know me it's no surprise that this is something totally disgusting. The story begins like any other day, classes, a little bit of studying and then lunch with Grady (the other guy not staying in the hotel). So we get done having coffee and some south indian food and as we are walking up the stairs Grady goes oh crap, its raining again. I it has been raining for at least 3 hours every day in shimla (not normal for may/june). I find this wierd since it is hot and there are not many clouds in sight. As Grady gets to the top of the stairs, he goes OH SHIT! It's not rain, its puke. Some stupid drunk kid is ... read more
sunset at shimla
So. . . It begins almost where I started last year. I wanted to go on a crazy journy before law school, and now I am back. Stupid? Maybe, but this time its more work than play. So I am on a legal study abroad with 20 students, 5 of them Indian from NJS Kolkotta. That has been the best part of the experience. It is also neat to be with people when they first arrive in India. The first morning we went for Chai at a roadside wallah and one of the girls was mortified that some of us would drink that stuff. But I realized I was like that also my first time here. I was scared to drink and eat from dirty places but I got over that pretty quickly. The first morning ... read more
Hallway in the red fort
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 ... read more
Up at around 4,000 meters
camping..... pulga is one of the greatest places I have been in india. pulga reminded me of why i came to this great country and made me love india even more. I am pretty sure that this will be the first of many of my trips back into the himalayas. you cant help feeling the might and power that is unleashed from this place.... I want to explain the characters first: Phil: so phil is a hard working construction guy born in london (he has a very posh sounding british accent) but now lives in the spiritual south of england (i forgot the name of the town) phil is one of those guys who is very anal and has the best of everything and he doesnt like other people to mess any of his stuff ... read more
Old lady
so let me start the story like this. the parbati valley really exists in some alternate reality/universe. I think you have to really come here to understand why but let me explan a little before i go deeper into this 8 day adventure. This is a place where people come to lose there minds but find themselves, everyone is a drug dealer or can get you whatever you need (Even a 5 year old child), old men and fathers take an evening chillum while they play with there children, the average family income can reach almost 80,000 usd becuase of drug sales, nobody needs to carry a weapon even though they carry more drugs than a detroit crack house, an orthodox jew and a hindu sadhu can be seen walking down the street side by ... read more
May 3rd 2007
Why does this guy have a steel poll through his face
My last night in Amritsar was really a blast. In the morning a new group of people arrived to accompany Reza (the Iranian who I found out was Kurdish) and I. There was a Swedish guy named Jus a British guy named Jeremy but he preferred to be called Jez. I got lost around town and frustrated with Indians (something I will address later on) but all and all it was a good day. We all decided to meet up at 3 to go to the Wagha border closing ceremony with Pakistan. What a blast that was. You enter the gates and are paraded around the gates and walked right past the gates that separate Pakistan and India. You can see the black dressed paki soldiers staring back at you while taking pictures through the ... read more
taj with the sun setting
So I spent a whole day... about 10 hours hanging out at the taj mahal. I left varanasi for what was supposed to be a 12 hour train ride so I would arrive in Agra in time for the sunrise and leave around midnight for Amritsar. The problem was my train was 3 hours late so I missed the sunrise and arrived at the Taj around 10 am. The crowds had not reached there peak yet but there was a decent amount of people around. Its a pretty impressive building. It does not appear as big as you think (just like the leaning tower of pisa) but at different times of the day when the sun hits the taj just right it is brilliant. I was still feeling sick from the lassi so i decided ... read more
