Delhi (original email)

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Namaste everyone.



Well, here I am in Delhi, India. Let me tell you the road here from Kathmandu was none too smooth. I’m sending this once again through my ever-trustworthy friend Bob (who I’m sure has lots of time on his hands to do me these favours now that he’s a new daddy). I managed to check my e-mail messages this morning on the most ancient computer I think I’ve ever used (my old Commodore 64 excluded). I used a DOS-based web-browser to check my hotmail account which actually worked out surprisingly well although a bit time-consuming.



Last I wrote I was in Pokhara, Nepal recovering from a trek in the Himalayan mountains. My recovery diet consisted of lots of beer and rum and several games of pool and darts. Although it proved difficult I managed to endure the strain and I felt fine within a few days. I forgot to mention this last time but I met two guys from Brampton who won an Excellent Edge Adventure (from CFNY 102.1 The Edge in Toronto) and they were trekking and drinking their way through the mountains for free … excellent. I met up with Eric and Marisa (who came over to visit him from Toronto) in Kathmandu before heading down to Chitwan National Park in southern Nepal. I had my first ever elephant ride and saw my first ever rhino (along with the infamous Nepali spotted deer).



Then I had a most excellent trip from Chitwan to the Nepal / India border on the top of a local bus (because it was too crowded inside). It’s illegal to ride on top of the buses here but every time we passed a police checkpoint (about every 20 minutes) all the people on top just lay down flat and remained silent … we went through at least 12 checkpoints and only two people got caught at the first one and had to go down. On the roof is definitely the way to travel on a Nepali bus.



Next came the night-bus from hell to Varanasi, India. This bus was supposed to arrive in the holy city at about 5am … go figure that something in India was ahead of schedule … we arrived at 3:30am instead. Thankfully there were a few other gringos on the bus and we caught a rickshaw to a local guesthouse and slept some more. Varanasi is a very important city to Hindu people because it is on the banks of the Ganges (the Holy river) that they bathe themselves and cremate their dead. There are two crematory ghats where hundreds of dead bodies are burned everyday … this was really interesting to see. The rest of the city is just big, dirty and smelly.



A few days later myself, another Canadian guy and a hilarious English couple made our way to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal (EPD/MES: we did this by getting a night train to Lucknow and then another night train to Agra because the waiting list to Agra was 6 days. Well, Agra is also a big, polluted city in itself but it’s the home of the Taj! The pollution is a major problem here and the Taj itself is suffering tremendously as a result … the day we arrived the smog was so thick that it was hard to see it from only a kilometre away. By the afternoon of the second day the photo opportunities were much better and I took far too many pictures. Now I’m in Delhi organizing an exciting adventure for myself that I’ll tell you all about in my next e-mail (you’ll be rightly surprised I promise).



A new addition to my regular features … Messed up English phrases:



In Nepal when you go out for breakfast you can have some ‘Apple Cron Flaks’ or some ‘Cron Flaks with Milk’ if you’re in the mood for something light … or maybe some porridge … perhaps ‘Banana’ or ‘Apple’, or if you’re really hungry maybe ‘Chinamans with Hot Milk’. For dinner with several friends maybe some ‘Mass Potato’ and for desert perhaps some ‘Crap Suzettes’. There’s lots more … I’ll include menu items from India in my next email.



Toilet Update:



Still lots of squat toilets although people just seem to piss and shit wherever they want to around here (in the streets, on sidewalks, everywhere).



Personal Items:



Bobby: sniff sniff … I still haven’t seen any pictures of Jessie yet … and now you’re going to St. Catherines to show her off to everyone.



Kimmy: Sorry to hear about your grandma … I hope the family is doing ok.



D. Black: Although I don’t participate in these types of activities your question about drug use in this part of the world has led me to do some research on the matter. It seems that drugs are quire readily accessible and lots of locals and travellers alike seem to be smoking up in abundance …



JDF: Big brother watching … understood.



Dean: I don’t think I’ll make the x-mas party … maybe next year.



EPD / MES: You must try the special Lassi (aka Taj Lassi) in Agra at any one of the restaurants … it’ll knock your socks off.



Kerry: I’ll bet you’re driving all the little French boys mad.



Ang: I haven’t been to Edinburgh actually … and I’ve never heard of Louise Woodward either. I am interested in Oz kicking England's butt … who won?



Kirsty: I’m glad you kids made it back alive from Everest … I hope kayaking went as well for you as it did for Eric.



Pat: That’s about the only snowball I’ll ever get hit with in Delhi.



Molly: If you think Europe was hard work try this side of the world … I’m glad you had lots of fun though.







OK, time for me to go. I’ll write sometime soon.



Love. Gerry.

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