Drift through the skies, where souls collide.

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Monday, 12th May 00:07 am
After a few very hectic days in Scorching hot Delhi, I managed to escape the infamous Belly, that one sometimes gets. Cruised the many dusty streets that vein off from the Main Bazaar, in Parah Ganj. Drunk enough tea to drown a small elephant. Duck & dived the hundreds of travel touts wanting to befriend me, and dodged beggars left, right and centre. Its not that I’m stingy, but if you give one person something, than like an army of ants attending to a drop of sweet sugared water, they all come out of the woodwork, all stumps & hands waving in your face. Trust me I’ve experienced it, and especially don’t do it whilst at traffic lights, when a little kid wants to sell you a pack of pencils for Rs 5, ‘cause before you know it the whole family is surrounding the car, whilst the Ricky driver is trying not to run over the amputee dragging himself along on his hands, as he has no walking sticks.

Whilst chillaxing © S.Vos ‘08, I was starting to wondering what route I should take next. I read that south of India is coming towards the monsoon season, so its off limits there for a while, as most places I hear will be closed down for the season. So, I had an idea to visit Rishikesh, which is known as the ‘Yoga Capital of the World’, where people seeking spiritual enlightenment can learn meditation, Yoga, & Buddhism, from Teachers & Healers within the temples and Ashrams, which are scattered along the Ganges River. It is set amongst a backdrop of tranquil settings of trees, rivers & the Himalayan mountain peaks. A place where your body rests, whilst your soul roams free. It was actually made famous after the Beatle’s went to stay there with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, back in the sixties, who taught them how to expand their minds. But I’m sure it was their first drop of LSD-25, rather than their teachings, that was the catalyst for them writing most of the ‘White Album’ there.

After making the rookie mistake of enquiring how to purchase a train ticket to Rishikesh, I had to try to come up with a plan to escape from the travel guy in the Hotel. All I wanted was a train ticket, and all he wanted was to plan my whole trip for me, for a small fee of course. He simply would not take no for an answer. I wanted to listen at first, just to get an idea about what places would be good to visit etc. Next thing you know, he asks me my daily budget. I tell him the truth, I am spending about US$10-12 for a room & food per day, because thats how cheap things are here. Around £4 for a room, and food ranges from 10-90 pence, with water costing 20p for a 2 litre bottle. Anyway, he tells me that for the best trip in my whole life, where I can visit paradise on Earth, ‘The Crown’ of India, I can go on a two week trip to Kashmir & the Himalayas, for a measly US$95 per day. “Ha ha very funny...I thought.” Does this guy not know that almost every traveler owns a copy of ‘The Lonely Planet’, which tells you exactly how much things cost. Well, I do & I could do the whole trip for a maximum of $20 per day, living like a king, eating far too much food etc etc.

Anyways, as luck would have it, whilst using the Internet I got talking to a guy called Stef from South Africa, who tells me he’s here traveling solo, and is about to go to Bir, near the Himalayas, to go Paragliding. After going for some lunch & Chai, I tell him about the arm twisting travel guy, & he says, “Hey, how do you fancy going Paragliding near the Himalayas this evening”, and after about a nano-second, I said hell yeah!!! So, thats another box ticked, from my list of 101 things to do, before samsara kicks in again.

Within about an hour I had checked out of my Hotel, booked a ticket at New Delhi train station, and was on a whistle stop tour of some of Delhi’s tourist attractions. When booking a ticket at New Delhi station, you have to go upstairs to the 1st floor, where there is an air-conditions room especially for tourists to book tickets. Just ignore anyone trying to tell you otherwise. We checked out the museum, where we stayed for 5 minutes as it was closing. Then popped over to Mr. Gandhi’s house for a photo, ate some fresh cucumber with spices on the street. Before heading over to Lodhi Gardens, which was very relaxing, away from the sounds of traffic & horns constantly going off. Chilled there for a while, played some football with the locals, and checked out some old Temples. We met a soldier with a pair of ears, that would make a Hobbit green-er than they already are - with envy. Check extreme close up photo Stef kindly took, whilst me and the war hero were giving our salutes. We then headed over to the Red Fort, which is ridiculously huge. Did a bit of shopping, ate some dinner, then headed to Old Delhi train station for 8.30pm, where we were to catch our night train to somewhere, where a taxi driver will be waiting for us.

The journey to the train station was an experience in itself. I now understand why we have traffic light systems & laws about driving. I have never seen such chaos, and order all at the same time. There’s Auto-Rickshaw - really a Tut-tut - drivers bumping Cycle-Rickshaw’s out of the way, people pushing & pulling massive bales of material on wooden carts, a three-wheeler cyclist with a bed mattress, attached to the back, all swerving here there and everywhere. Horns just constantly sounding off. And the amazing thing, is that there was not one accident. Even when going around the corner, and people where driving motorbikes on the wrong side of the road. Absolute madness, and pure entertainment.

Next up was finding our train carriage & platform, which was very easy. Once there, we met some nice people from Canada, who we were sharing the carriage with. After some Chai, and a nice bottle of South African Red, we were off to sleep. The journey took around 11 hours, which seemed to go by in a flash, after a good nights sleep. We arrived in a town, I still don’t remember the name of, maybe ‘Billing’. Where our driver Anil, was awaiting with our carriage. Three hours later we arrived at our destination, way up in the hills 1300m above sea level, in a small Tibetan Colony called Bir. It is famous for its launch pad for Paragliding, where your flight begins 2600m above sea level. They hold the Himalayan Hand-Gliding Rally here every May, where teams compete. The current world record is 135 Km, the longest journey traveled and was set here. Its funny people in Delhi described Bir & Kashmir as Little Britain, as it has the same climate. Luckily I bought a jumper with me, as its gets freezing cold at night. So, I was in my full English attire, last night. I knew I should have bought my leather jacket. But who would of thought I was gonna need it, with the weather report in Delhi being 105 degrees. Unfortunately the weather turned a little sour yesterday afternoon, when we were due to go up. I was gonna do a tandem with one of the locals, but it looks like we’ll have to try again tomorrow.

Monday, 12th May 16:47 pm

Woke up very early today after only a few hours sleep, with our guest house owner delivering some chai for breakfast at 7.30 am. Stef gave us the all clear for paragliding today, which I was very excited about. By 8.30 am we were on our way to meet my tandem partner Joyhti. We drove for 30 minutes up the mountain to get to the jump off point. The conditions weren’t perfect straight away, so we waiting about 1 hour, and then off we went running straight off the edge of the cliff. It was absolutely amazing. So chilled out. Its like meditating up there, so peaceful sharing the sky with the crows & eagles, flying up & down with the heat pockets. After about an hour, we made our way down, as I was feeling a little sick, as it got slightly bumpy up there. Then we landed in some dried out paddy fields, just next to the road, and walked back to our guesthouse, and spent some time chilling out. Can’t wait to do it again, by maybe next time it will be Kite Surfing at Hua Hin, in Thailand instead.

So it looks like we're gonna stay here for another night or two, and then head off to Daramsala, to get high on life.

To view the rest of the photos go to the Facebook page here.

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Comments

[Anna]

Hell yeah!!!
20 dollars you can live like king.... Cool.