India so Far.......

---

Hello all, this is the first entry since I arrived in India and its been a week since I've been here. Its the old Cliche but I really have seen some things and done stuff that is life changing already, India is mad, a complete assault on your senses, I've been running on adrenaline for about 5 days!

Currently I'm sitting in an Internet cafe, dripping wet in Mcleod Ganj, The english idiot in me decided that my Nike Windbreak would be able to take the torrential downpour outside, as always I was wrong!

As you are probably aware McCleod Ganj is the Tibetian Buddist goverments main place, the Dalai Lama lives here and until China chill a bit, The goverment is in exile along with loads of refugees. Its like been in Tibet, there's hadly any Indian people here at all, quite surreal. I've also decided that Tibetian Women are absolutely beautiful, Theres one sitting just outside the cafe, She is so distracting!!

I arrived here at 5 in the morning to find my hotel was closed, yeah nice one and had to sleep somewhere else for the night, the journey from Kashmir to here was meant to be 14 hours but ended up about 23 odd as the mountain roads were blocked by some landslides caused by the rain. The Indian army did a great job sorting that out, mainly standing there and waving their hands about and blowing a whistle.

Delhi is completely mad, the driving is like something out of a computer game, most cars have no wing mirrors and the horn on a car is THE most important device, its used for indicating, overtaking, telling people to get out of the way, warning stray dogs, cows, tractors, people walking the wrong way down the middle of a duel carriageway, the list is endless. Delhi is also a great indicator of India in General or what I have seen so far, New Delhi is full of all these hip young Indians, new buildings, fancy shops, like london on acid. I went to Capitol, a nightclub in delhi which was posh, Everyone in there was speaking English even though they were clearly Indian. I think its a class thing.

Then you have old delhi with is crushing poverty. I couldn't bring myself to take pictures of it in the end, it was that upsetting, kids going through rubbish dumps, it really breaks your heart to see things like that. Yet people just live their lives, I'm sure they would like more but they seem ok.

From Delhi I ended up in Kashmir. Sringar is mad, the airport is crammed with soldiers, which made me look even worse as I had to go and get my penknife from them as I'd forgot to take it out of my hand luggage in delhi. Proper Roper at Airport moment. Kashmir is a beautiful place but at the same time quite worrying, its a war zone, theres so many armed soldires on the street, at least one every 5 metres in the man towns, in the country they're less scarce but still very visable, along with the checkpoints, Machine gun posts, UN headquarters, UN Vans.
As soon as you get out into the villages I went to trekking, its a different matter, I stayed with some Kashmiri Gypseys in a valley when the bridge collapsed in the heavy rain. I also had to wear on of those shaols you see Muslim men in as all my clothes were trashed in the flooding, I certainly got some funny looks walking round in that! Yet they were so welcoming, giving me the whole room they all sleep in upstairs to me, I looked after the mothers baby while she cooked, it was a real humbling experience and one I'll never forget. Kashmir is a wonderful place and certainly somewhere I'd return to. I hope that its sorted out soon.

I'll put pictures up soon of where I've been soon, I've forgot the lead for my camera and its still pissing it down outside. I hope it stops soon as I really wanna look round here. I'm off to go and get an eat on, I leave tommorrow for Amristar!!!

---