Never Alone In India

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Throughout this trip, I have met some amazing travelers...very open minded, cultured people travel to India, not quite the same quality of people who travel to countries like Thailand where the main draw is the full moon party. But the locals...who are a mix of Tibetans, Nepalis, Indians and Kashmiris are special people. I can't walk down any of the streets in the small towns I spend most of my time in without several locals stopping me to shake my hand and say namaste or tashi delek (hello in Tibetan). It really makes me feel welcome and happy. I spent 6 weeks in Dharamkot (the village the Dalai Lama calls home) and it felt like home to me as well....like I've always lived here. Buddhists would say I must have lived there in a past life...to feel this kind of connection to the place. It helps that my backyard is a massive himalayan mountain! I guess this is the place I'll hae to come back to.

Many people have this fear of India and always expect that it is difficult to travel alone in this country...especially as a woman. My 14 months of experience have shown me that actually finding a time to be truly by myself is so rare here. There are endless amounts of tourists no matter where I go...even obscure non touristy places! And then there are the Indian people...you absolutely cannot escape them. If they see a lone woman they get nervous, like it must not be fun for to be alone, so they engage you in conversation. I have to make an effort to spend time by myself in silence!

Something I noticed a lot this trip, is the lack of customer service. Indians tend not to think beyond the present moment, which is great for their stress levels, but doesn't really help tourists in getting what they want! If you order naan bread at a restaurant and instead you get chapatti, you eat it anyways. Telling the waiter about the mistake won't change anything! On the one hand it's nice because it teaches you to not expect to get what you want all the time. But on the other hand, it makes it really hard to hold anyone accountable for a mistake and makes it virtually impossible to know whether or not the outcome will be in your favour!



My last few weeks in India brought me to some areas of India I hadn’t yet explored. I spent a week in Manali, which was just a short 8 hour overnight bus ride from Dharamsala! I intended to partake in the plethora of activities available in the area….trekking and snowboarding in the Himalayas, rafting, paragliding, zorbing (rolling down the mountain in a bubble!!) Instead, I sat on my ass for a week, venturing only as far as the top of the little hill I lived on to relax, read a book and meditate. After running around Dharamsala, taking courses and going to the English classes with Tibetans, I was tired! It felt weird to be lazy in India but I took advantage of being in a touristy town surrounded by many travelers relaxing in cafes. Staci had been there a few weeks earlier and had met some local boys who were friends with the guys we hung out with in Srinagar. Everyone in India knows everyone! So I hung out with them, in their shops, watching them try to pick up girls walking by. They sat outside their shops all day, bored, entertaining themselves with the tourists walking by. It was interesting to be on the other side of it…not being hit on by them and seeing how other girls reacted to shopowners trying to get their attention. I usually just smiled at shopowners and continued walking….I was shocked at how many girls stopped and indulged them!



My last day in Dharamsala I ran into Mesi, a Hungarian girl I had met months earlier in Rishikesh. She was with another girl I had met back in February, at the beginning of my trip in the south! India really is a small country! A few days after I left for Manali she emailed me to say she was coming. So I waited for her so we could go together to Ladakh, the northern most region of India. Normally I would have gone when I was ready and met her there but I heard how horrible the bus ride up there was, lasting anywhere from 18 hours to 3 days, so I decided it would be easier to do with a travel partner! The bus left at 2 am, so that only a few hours of the trip would be done at night. It might be better for the driver, who had to drive 18 hours straight, but I think I would have preferred not to see the high cliffs, one lane roads and landslides in daylight. When I did have the guts to look out the window, the views were incredible. Rolling mountains one after another, reaching 6,000 and 7,000 metres high. They had the 3 highest driveable roads in the world, the highest reaching 5,600 metres. The air was noticeably thinner up there, making every breath laboursome. But it was hard to notice when I was surrounded by snow covered peaks in the middle of a desert, with a lush oasis in the valley that had a river running through it. Standing on a peak, looking out into miles and miles of mountains was breathtaking. I couldn’t help but just feel at peace. You really can’t think of anything but the natural beauty in front of you. It can’t possibly compare to hiking up hills in Quebec! At regular intervals throughout the drive, mini tent communities were set up for the vehicles to stop, eat and rest. Since this road is blocked by snow for 9 months out of the year, these temporary villages are set up for only the 3 month tourist season. They also act as guest houses for people riding bicycles and motorcycles, who need to stop along the way and recharge. It took the cyclists about a week (and some sort of insanity if you ask me!) to make the 424 km trip.

Leh, the only city in Ladakh (which is technically part of Kashmir) is at 3,500 metres. So it actually took a few days to acclimatize. Just walking up a tiny peak for half an hour to see a view of the city was an effort! So we waited a couple days before taking any trips. The city itself is pretty big but doesn’t offer much, aside from a local market and a touristy street with the usual attractions for us whities; travel agencies, restaurants and shops selling souvenirs we don’t really need! The smaller surrounding villages and the high peaks outside the city are the real draw to the area. A lot of people go there to hike but I had enough trouble breathing just sitting at a café so I opted out of the trekking! Instead Mesi and I arranged with some others from our bus ride up there, to take a jeep out to Pangong Tso lake, which borders Tibet. We tried to go on our third day but in the morning it had snowed on the highest pass and the army shut down the road (there’s a huge army presence in the whole region of Kashmir, which borders Pakistan and China). We were all disappointed at having to wait a day…us westerners get frustrated when things don’t go our way and there’s no one to blame! There was no one to take responsibility for the weather! The only person who was unfazed by the event was the travel agent who booked the trip….he was also the only person who really stood to lose from the problem because if we didn’t go he didn’t get paid. It amazed me that he was so unemotional about it and it forced me not to be upset. How could I justify being upset about it when all it did was push back my plans by a day?! And it all worked out in the end, the next day the weather was clear. We had a nice, sunny day to see the landscape, which was even more incredible than the drive through the mountains up to Leh…but that could have been because it was a short 5 hours and I wasn’t falling asleep! The lake was massive. It didn’t seem to fit in to its otherwise desert surroundings. There were temporary villages set up there as well, for the indian and foreign tourists to sleep over. It was the highest elevation I had ever slept at, 4,500 metres. The next day on our drive back, we stopped at a village called Sakti, to visit a monastery that was built around a cave carved out of the mountain. Supposedly the Buddha who was attributed with bringing Buddhism to Tibet meditated in the cave in the 7^th century. Mesi and I went inside and after only 3 minutes of sitting there, we looked at each other in astonishment. We both felt this inexplicable vibration. My ears wouldn’t stop ringing. Neither of us could put it into words but we knew we felt the same way and decided in that moment to find a way to stay in that village. It wasn't too hard, since there was a guest house with a huge sign just outside the monastery. But as it turned out, we met come local boys while walking around the village, who after about 10 minutes of showing us around, invited us to stay in their homes. In Canada I would probably be hesitant to take up strangers on an invite to their home. But these boys were so sincere, in wanting us to have a great experience in their village, that it seemed natural that they would invite us to spend the night with their families. And they took us to each of their homes to meet their parents. We all cooked momos together that night...Tibetan dumplings filled with vegetables. And the next morning they took us back to the monstary to meditate. The next morning we went to a neighbouring village to attend a Buddhist festival for 2 days. The boys were there with some friends and one of them invited me back to her house to spend a few days, once the festival was over. She was so excited to have a foreign visitor! I got to spend a few peaceful days in a quiet village, with a family who wouldn't stop feeding me! Her 5 year old nephew followed me around the whole time, always asking to go where the Englsih girl went. As peaveful as it is to visit the village, it is not easy to live there. They have minimal facilities...the toilet being a whole in a mud flood. No running water, just the river flowing through the back yard. Farming duties like watering the crops and milking the cows starting at 4 am. Only one road leading in and out of the village, with unpredictable bus schedules. To leave, I had to hitch a ride to the closest main town, 10 km away. But the views are incredible...the village is surrounded by huge, snow covered mountains. And the people are trustworthy and honest. It's the only place I wasn't nervous at all getting into a truck with 2 guys I didn't know. The family I stayed with told me to come back directly to their house next time I come back to India. They only wanted me to stay longer...even though they spoke little English and our communication was done mostly through their daughter's translations and body language!

As always, I was sad to leave the country that I feel has become my home. What to do....as the Indians always say! I will just have to go back again. And that's definitely the plan.

Who's coming with me?!?!!

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Photos

on the beautiful drive from manali to Leh
the drive's highest peak at 5,300 metres

making momos
(Tibetan dumplings)

local toilet
in households in northern India

Comments

[judy litvack]

I am blown away...
I saved this read for the moment that I would really have the time to savour and digest it.What a gift: both for your readers ,and the extraordinary talent YOU are blessed with! Your descriptions bring me right into where you are-both physically and mentally. For your reader to be so engaged creates a connection with you that is impossible to define. Once again, I have loved living vicariously through you. The opportunity you provide is visceral and tangible. And your own joy is truly palpable. Thank you for sharing yet again, what is so precious ... India is truly with you wherever you are. May that certainty sustain you until you are there again. Much love, Judy

[peggy]

amazing
I am rarely jealous I am jealous of your experiences