Nepal or bust?

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Greetings from Sunny Jaipur - Home it would appear of the mosquito!

I spent a few days in Macleod Ganj, a unique place, in the North of India. This is where the Dalai Lama is in exile from Tibet and where the Tibetan government is based since they were booted out of their home by the Chinese. Each year many Tibetans make the dangerous crossing of the Himilaya's by foot, many die on the way or are captured by the Chinese but a large amount of those that make it settle in Macleod Ganj.

For a town with a lot of Buddists I was really surprised by how dirty it was, I was expecting it to be like Shimla, a clean calm haven but it was in fact hectic and litter strewn like many other parts of the country.

i got a room at 100r (GBP1:25) breaking my international accomodation record (previously 1:50 set in Cambodia!) and then went for a tibetan massage. Not what i expected as this was administered by a guy of about 20 wearing adidas trackies and an Eminem t-shirt! however it left me feeling really relaxed and i was not 'abused' in anyway (a relief after my mate Shep's story about a massage from a monk!)

That evening I went to an evening of Tibetan dance and music, which basically was a bunch of people in traditional Tibetan dress playing ring-a-ring of rosies and making a lot of unique noises - call me an insensitive phillistine but I was not inspired. The next day I spent a few hours reading The Idiot (Dostoevsky - not a first draft of my autobiography!) then went to a yoga class!

After learning that 'my breath is my power' and the merit's of a downward facing dog i felt that I had had my fill of Tibetan influenced india and while my friends went to go and watch an informative documentary entitled 'Escape from Tibet' I went and watched Die Hard 4.0 in a dodgy cinema.

Next day I caught the bus to Amritsar in the punjab via Pathankot - probably my most 'Indian' bus experiance yet. The roads here are not great, the buses are slow and driven by kamikaze nutters and on this particular journey there were about 120 people on a 50 seat bus - it made the tube in rush hour look like first class! Imagine packing 20 people on a milk float then trying to cross a lunar ladscape with Stevie Wonder driving..... for 9 hours and you have a rough idea.

I got to Amritsar at around 22.30 and after a scrum of rickshaw drivers had agreed who knew where I wanted to go and who would take me I hopped on the back of a cycle rickshaw.... 2 minutes later my rucksack fell of the 'no sir - very safe' luggage rack into the middle of the main road and was narrowly missed by an HGV and subsequently retrieved.

I arrived at the guesthouse exhausted in just about every way but within 5 minutes things were looking up. The guesthouse was cracking - the bloke had sent to the wine shop for a cold beer - Chris Gayle was going mental in the 20/20 and a plate of BBQ chicken and chips was infront of me in my aircon room. I immediately resolved that the next day I would do NOTHING!

After my day of nothing I went to see the Golden Temple which is (as I understand it) the most sacred place in the Sikh religion. Its in the middle of a holy pool and a beautiful sight. I made my way to the train station and booked myself a sleeper berth for the 18.00 train to Jaipur - arriving at 10.00 the next morning. The carriage was nice and it had aircon but I was billeted opposite a big sikh bloke who snored like a Lion with a speech impediment - needless to say I am now kicking myself for not bringing earplugs and got next to no sleep!

Yesterday was spent seeing the sights of Jaipur, including the worlds biggest sundial and the very impressive Amber Fort before spending the evening watching India Vs Pakistan with a bunch of Gem dealers - really nice people and happy with the result as well.

Today I am either going to go to Puskar, get a really nice hotel (may spend over a tenner!) or get a sleeper train towards Nepal. I think that I have had enough of India for the time being, the travel, dirt and constant hassles that a tourist faces here are starting to grate so it may be time to move on - I think I will flick a coin!

Ta for now,

Me

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Comments

[SANDEEP THAKRE]

Hahahahahhahahahahaha
I cant stop laughing mate, good luck.