http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/blgerber/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from blgerber en-us Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:58:46 +0000 Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:58:46 +0000 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 ManaliLeh 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 bla http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Jammu-and-Kashmir/Leh/blog-297566.html 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 ar http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Himachal-Pradesh/Manali/blog-292814.html 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 a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Himachal-Pradesh/Mcleod-Ganj/blog-290817.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Himachal-Pradesh/Shimla/blog-285412.html 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 we http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Himachal-Pradesh/Shimla/blog-282918.html 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 m http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/National-Capital-Territory/New-Delhi/blog-157984.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Himachal-Pradesh/Parvati-Valley/blog-157703.html so let me start the story like this. the parbati valley really exists in some alternate realityuniverse. 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Himachal-Pradesh/Parvati-Valley/blog-155430.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Himachal-Pradesh/Mcleod-Ganj/blog-154694.html 18 hours on the train is never fun. Especially when you can only get a second class unreserved ticket and you have to bribe the conductor 20 bucks to let you sit in the ac car because everything else is full to the brim with humans and luggage. The only nice thing about the ac train coaches are that they have less sellers so you are not woken up at 4 am with the scream of Chai... Chai.... Cooo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Varanasi/blog-153073.html 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 amoun http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Agra/blog-153098.html After my trip to the mountains i headed right for the digusting heat and humidity of the jungle. i learned from a dutch couple in yuksom that you did not need to go to the northeast states they are dangerous and lawless to see rhinos that there was a small little visited reserve in northern west bengal that is not often visited. i had a nice train ride there. some young indian ladies started fl http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/West-Bengal/Jaldapara/blog-151491.html you can check my last entry for updated photos Waking up at 4 am hiking from 12000 to 12700 to watch the sunrise over the kanzchechunga singhaliaia and some other indian himalayan range is not the way most people start your average day. The pounding headache lack of oxygen and freezing cold weather didn't make it any easier. But it really starts back in Yuksom. After hiking for 2 days be http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/blog-150221.html NOT FOUND http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Sikkim/Gangtok/blog-148829.html It has been far to long....... sorry its a long entry It starts off being convinced to spend 3 days on a boat with 500 other Indians and shitty food. I really was going to skip the Andaman Islands and part with Martin in Chennai and make my way to Hyderbad and then Kolkotta. But this Kiwi in our hostel made me think when he said the Andaman islands are one of the last unspoiled beach paradise http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Andaman-and-Nicobar-Islands/blog-146098.html Since I talk a lot about what I do from day to day but none of you see it I figured I would give you a little tour of my life in India. This may not be so exciting for some but for others who have done this plan to do this or just like to hear me ramble keep on reading please at least check the pictures So here goes...... I usually wake up to noisy neighbors or the smell of burning cow cra http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Mahabalipuram/blog-142027.html So I stopped counting how many times I was close to death on the way up from Allepy to Kumily. I believe it was maybe 1015. Indian drivers go around hairpin corners with thousand foot cliffs at full speed with the beep of a horn. Its like playing chicken but you cant even see the car around the corner. If you are really lucky then there is no other car around the corner. If as usual there is a c http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Kumily/blog-140650.html So It all left off in Mysore and begins in Mysore. Before our train at 6 pm martin and I went downstairs and got some real good Indian breakfast... Masala dosa and chai. We then walked from our place about 2 or 3 kilometers to the more residential area of mysore and just watched the people live there colorful lives. I haven't been to northern india yet but most people say its a lot more colorful w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Kollam/blog-139232.html In the last 3 days I haveWent cliff divingSat on a 2nd class non ac overnight train and ate dinner dal chapati with an indian familySlept with bag like it was my girlfriendSaw crocs in the riverSaw an indian porno they are illegal by accident becasue of my new danish friend martin Skip near the botom for thatBrushed up on my spanish with some Galicians If any of these adventures interest http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Mysore/blog-137499.html So I was so excited to leave mumbai. After seeing a person die on the street and the noise pollution and poverty it was a relief to get out. The only problem was I got out in real india style. After buying a 16 hour bus ticket to Hampi I showed up at the bus stop only to be told the bus did not work but I could ride to hampi on a shitty non ac bus that looked like a child molester van. I decided http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Jodhpur/blog-136457.html