Gulmarg

I'm still up in Kashmir, and while there has been a little unrest down in the city of Srinagar, up in the mountains there has been nothing but blue skies and fresh tracks. I needed a little break from the city, and situated just 45 km from Srinagar is a little ski hill called Gulmarg. This place is amazing. It has some of the highest elevation skiing in the world. People travel from all over the world just to ski and board here. But because of the the elevation the weather can be a little tricky and people can be stuck staring at the clouds wondering when the upper Gondola will open so they can ski the epic powder that is Gulmarg.
Luckily I timed it perfectly, and on my first full day there the upper lift was open for the first time in a few days. and I was able to ski some of the most amazing untracked bowls all day under a beautiful blue sky. Skiing here is kind of like a drug, since you don't by a day pass you just pay by the run, so when you get finished from an amazing run, you just want another hit of the powder. A ticket costs 5 dollars, unless you can sneak onto the gondola, which wasn't too hard. Once you get to the top, you are sitting at over 13,000 feet, and if your lungs are up to it you can hike up another 600 feet to the summit, from there you can choose from a handful of beautiful powder bowls that funnel you back down to the lower chair which is at 10,000 feet. I ended up doing 7 runs the fist day, and 4 more the second. After that, since I hadn't bee on a board for a year my legs were shot. Plus since I was a little rusty I took a few spills. But it was a great trip up there. It was super simple, I just rode the mountain, drank tea, read my book and relaxed for 3 days. I had a cheap room, by Gulmarg standards, so when I woke up in the morning, and all the wood in the stove had expired, it was below freezing and there was ice on the inside of the windows. I brought the sleeping bag, so that kept me plenty warm.

I'm now back in Srinagar, leaving tomorrow, headed to more stable and warmer land. I have a had a very memorable experience up here. I purchased some carpets, which when I get back to the states hopefully I will be able to sell them and make a few thousand dollars. I was invited out to a village to a family engagement party where I saw a Muslim engagement where all the men in both families get together and discuss the parameters of the two living together and marrying. This is followed by some intense prayers, then an amazing meal of meats and rice. I have met the people, ate the food. Listened to them talk of how they all want peace. And most of them want to be free from India. When I tell them about traveling India, they correct me and say, "you're not in India, you're In kashmir." I will definitially return in the summer time, when the high mountain passes are open and get away from the cities and into some of the villages of the Indian Himalayas.

Tomorrow I'm off, booked a ticket to the hippie yoga village of Rishakesh, where the Beatles hung out for a while. I'll probably hate it, but it's a gate way to some other nice places. Thanks for reading and don't be a stranger.

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McLeod Gang: Home of the Dali Lama himself.

After being in the country of India for almost a month now, I thought i needed a break from all the hustle and bustle that goes along with this country. I needed to get away from the honking and hassles of day to day life, so I decided to head to the traveler hangout of McLeod Gang. There were a couple reasons to come here, including the peace and serenity. The town sits at 1750 meters, and some of the surrounding hills and mountains get up to 5000 meters. That's a far cry from the dry, arid plains of Rajastan and central India. Also, this is the adopted home of the Dali Lama (every time I mention the Lama, I want to make Caddyshack jokes). There is a strong Tibetan and Buddhist monk population here. that's partly why it's so hassle free. When you walk into one of there shops, they just say hi and let you shop around, they don't give you the hard sell like the rest of India.
There are so many things I love about this place, my first day here I met some travelers who asked me to join them on a hike, I thought we may meander through the local villages, but they had other things in mind, instead we trekked up to 2800m/9300 feet. There were some great views of the Himalaya foothills and all the surrounding valleys. It was great to get some exercise and fresh air after breathing exhaust for a month.
A few of the other great things that pull the travelers in are: food; Chinese, American, Korean, Tibetan, Indian, all available and all tasty and cheap. The people. Everyone seems so happy here, both the locals and travelers, and it's such a small town it's easy to meet other people. There are lots of coffee and chai shops. At the moment I am drinking fresh french press coffee, you don't find that everywhere in India. Have I mentioned the scenery, the views are breath taking, from the deck of my 100 rupee guest house I can see the 5000m peaks of the Dhaula Dar Range. I know alot of these amenities here cater to the spoiled backpacker and is not the real India. But sometimes you just need a little break. You want to sit at a cafe and read the English paper, you want to walk down the street without diving into the gutter to avoid a speeding rickshaw or motorbike. You want to breath fresh clean air. The real India is fascinating ans stressful at the same time, and that is what I came over here to see, and I know I have many more months of seeing the good and bad of India.
All the little things her are great, but the most amazing thing here has been the Tibetan people and learning their story. This place became an adopted home of the Dali Lama and the Tibetan people in 1959. Tibet was invaded by the Chinese in 1949. They basically wanted to take their land and get rid of the Tibetan culture. They destroyed 90% of their monasteries and holy places. So for the past 50 years or so, Tibetans have been escaping to the surrounding countries. And many of them ended up here in the town Of Mcleod Gang. The Dali Lama and other Tibetans escaped to this place in 1959 by trekking through the Himalayas with limited supplies. it takes months and it's dangerous, as you could be captured by Chinese troops and put in Jail. I actually met a 26 year old monk here, and he wanted to practice his English, so we had a 2 hour conversation where he told me his amazing story of how he left his family. His name was Wosa, he said that in Tibet , once you reach a certain age, monks are no longer allowed to study Buddhism on the Monastery, so to continue his studies he had to go to another country. So at the age of 16, he and 50 other Tibetans packed up and trekked through the mountains for a month to reach Nepal, where they would be safe. Wosa said that some people went snow blind from the lack of sunglasses. Some people lost toes due to frost bite, but everyone made it alive. He ended up here in McLeod, briefly to meet the Dali Lama, but he now lives in a monastery in southern India with 3000 other Buddhist monks. He's been there 12 years, and he has 10 more years of study until he becomes a High Lama. He is just up here for his 2 month vacation. he said the weather is a little more tolerable for him, Southern India must feel like an oven after spending the first half of your life on eh high plains of Tibet.

Still, Tibetans are leaving through the mountain passes in search of freedom. Currently in Tibet there are more Chinese people than Tibetans. The Chinese aren't giving Native Tibetans the human rights they deserve. You probably remember the protests of last march that killed so many Tibetans, and those that weren't killed were arrested and placed in jail where they will stay for up to twenty years, according to Wosa.

It's such a sad situation, There are signs all over that say Free Tibet, and in the states those bumper stickers don't seem as popular as they once were. I'm not sure you can save Tibet, and return to how it once was, with it's thriving nomadic culture and Buddhist ways. I don't China has any plans of handing it back over to them. They just need to fight and maintain some of their culture. But that would mean letting people who have left, like Wosa back into the region to teach the Buddhist ways to the younger generation. In fact, when the current Lama passes, China has already appointed a new Lama, one that isn't from Tibet. So the state of Tibet, and Tibetan Buddhism seems pretty Dire, but fascinating at the same time. I'm now thinking of getting up inti that area to check it out myself, but I'll have to be dealing with the Chinese government to get all that arranged.

As for me, I'm leaving this peaceful little hamlet and heading even farther north, up to the Kashmir area.There should be plenty to see and write about, so I'll be in touch.

Rajastan to Amritsar.

Alright. I'm finally getting back to the blog, it's been too long since any posts. But I already said that was going to happen. In the past couple weeks I have been getting in more of a groove over here, I have been meeting more travelers, some over and over again as you inevitably do when you're on the tourist circuit. I have stayed healthy, with a mix of Indian, street and continental food. I have stayed away from the drink, except for one rough night with the whiskey. So things are going well right now.
Since the last time I checked in I have wound up my time in the deserts of the state of Rajastan. I visited the highly recommended town of Pushkar. I thought the place was OK, it is small and peaceful, situated right on a lake where Indians from all the local villages go pray and bathe. But there seemed to be a high amount of Hippies in this town, especially Israeli hippies. It's not that they are bad people, it's just when you visit this town as a person just stopping by for a couple days, it's hard to get in the flow and meet anyone. There were even hippie babies that had been born while their parents on permanent vacation. I did end up meeting a few nice people in this town, and it was a relaxed environment compared to some of the other larger cities in Rajastan. I enjoyed renting a motorcycle for the day and cruising around some of the outlying villages. It's a good, cheap way to see some of the sights besides just the streets selling hippie pants and shawls. The quality of bike isn't the highest though, I rented a bike twice, and each time I got a flat tire. Luckily there are bike mechanics everywhere, since it's the preferred mode of transport over here, so getting it patched up cost 20 rupees each time, or about 40 cents.
I decided to wind up my time in Rajastan with a quick one day dash trough the tourist heavy Jaipur. It's in the tourist triangle of Delhi and Agra, home of the Taj Majal. Usually I like to spend more than one day somewhere, but I figured I would hustle to see the sights, then move on. After almost 3 weeks in Rajastan, all the forts, palaces and temples that were all built by the Mughals about 500 years ago start to look the same. I know that sounds like the short attention spanned tourist, but I was in need of a change. So I hopped on a 7 hour bus to Delhi, then on to my 12 hour sleeper train out to Amritsar, which is 30km from the Pakistan Border. That's just how you roll in India, things move sloooow here, so when you want to get somewhere you have to commit to the travel, charge the ipod, get a new book and go with. And realize everything will be a little bit late.
Alright Amritsar, Tourists come here for one thing, It's called the Golden Temple. It is one of the most Spiritual places I have ever been. What it basically is, is a Sikh temple, where 40,000 people each day come and pray. It's open to all religion's and it's all free, if you want they will provide you with free accommodation and free food for up to 3 days. You can bathe in the holy water that surrounds the temple. The temple sits in the middle of the holy water and its said to have 1500 pounds of carved gold on it's exterior. I visited the temple 3 time for the experience. When you enter the temple, which is open 24 hours, there are 4 gurus singing and playing sitar music, the Sikhs are sitting all around the small area reading scriptures from small prayer books and giving large and small monetary donations to the gurus. The temple its self is very small, compared to the rest of the complex. It was definitially worth the long journey out to this city, even though the weather didn't cooperate. It poured all day, leaving the crowded, streets as a flooded, muddy mess, but that didn't stop the Sikh's from visiting the temple in amazing numbers.

I'll be updating very shortly.

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Camel days

Since I last wrote on the blog, or "blogged" as the kids call it now days, many things have happened. I spent 2 days trekking through the desert on the hump of a camel. I have explored more antique forts of Rajastan ans I have also caught a case of the New Delhi belly. People here say it happens to everyone, but I didn't think I would get it so soon after being here. I wasn't taking any steps to prevent either. I have been eating at all the local restaurants and on the street. I shake hands with about 50 people day and I haven't used the hand sanitizer that I brought either. So it was bound to happen. I'm not sure if it was caused by the vegetable corfu, or the delicious tali I had the day before, but when it hit me it was intense. The evacuations started at around 4am, with the stern, and the bow wasn't too far behind. At one point there was a massive evacuations and all lifeboats needed to be manned at the same time. By 8am all the lifeboats had been filled and now it was just time for survival. The seas were rough that day my friend. The heat was intense and eating and drinking was a difficult task to accomplish while on the life rafts. during the midday I took a nice long nap, but it seemed like I was hallucinating with kids screaming and loud Hindi music in the background. By that evening I had recovered enough to eat a little food, and by the next day I was rescued and was able to complete my journey up to Jodhpur, even though I was slightly weakened by the previous events.

Jodhpur was the next stop on the journey, it's a popular destination on the tourist route, because of its fort that towers over the city and for its color, if you look at the city from the fort above, it looks like most of the old city is painted Indigo blue. Most of the building are 500 years old, very square and angular. It is a city that looks like an MC Escher drawing when you look down on it. With the crooked stairs and everything. The fort is massive, and it towers over the city. It was built in 1459 by the mughal Emperor, there is a nice museum inside that has reenactments of what the rooms look like and it has a bunch of old swords and weapons. The city its self was beautiful and quiet when you were with in the blue, old city. You could walk around with out being hassled, say hi to the kids and be relaxed, but as soon as you stepped into the market streets which were a lot busier it was like taking your life in your hands. There were cows, rickshaws, bikes people, and the streets were about 10 feet wide. So I enjoyed jodhpur, when I was wondering the side streets, but then it got too hectic.

Jasailmar is the next stop on the journey, it is another city that is on the well trodden tourist path. People travel very from any where to get to the center of camel and desert tourism in India. A man said 80% of income in this city is from tourism. There is a lot to like. It's small it's an easy city to get around on foot. There is another amazing, old fort that is worth a look and it's a cheap city, and it doesn't hurt that it's the Amsterdam of India with its legal marijuana. The fort is very similar to the one on Jodhpur, except the one here in Jasailmar actually has a few thousand people living in it. Pretty surprising for a fort that was began in the 12th century. It has a nice museum that I didn't visit, guesthouses, restaurants, hotels and travel agents. It just seems bizarre to have so may people in here, it's like living in a museum. The guidebook say it's not good to stay inside because all the stress it puts on the ancient structure. But I did anyway, the views are tremendous, and a room only cost 100 rupees. (2 dollars)

The main reason people travel all the out her is to take part in a little camel adventure, and I did just that, but I found out I came here a week to early, next weekend there is a camel festival, complete with camel tug of war, a Mr Desert contest, as well as a mustache contest.
I signed up for the 3 day, 2 night "safari." I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this little trip, I had heard good and bad. The main reason for the trip was to get way from the city and into the desert for a little camping and quiet. I guess riding a camel is just what you have to do if you want to get out into the desert. When we all showed up there was a nice group of 10 tourists. 7 Americans actually, which was a change. But after talking to them all, I was the only one doing the second night. Everyone else was headed back the next morning. To answer a few of your question, Yes, sitting on a camel is uncomfortable, especially going down hill, their saddles aren't like a horses, which is nice and wide, these saddle don't leave you with much room to wiggle. So the groin is feeling it, along with the rest of the inner thigh. No, the desert out there is not that attractive, they take you to the nice dunes for camping, but in between it's just shrub land and a few abandoned fields. It was nice to have the guides. There was 8 of them for the 10 of us, so cooked dal, chapati and rice for all the meals, while all the guests sat in the shade. The real entertainment came at night when there was some Camel Sutra performed. That's what the guides called it when they tried to get one of the female camels pregnant. It was a noisy performance and you weren't sure if you should really be watching, but we all thought it's something we may never see again so we watched for a few minutes, then gave them their privacy.

The second day was a Little different, it was me, my camel, and the guide, Adam. he was a local villager with 2 kids. He didn't speak much English, so there wasn't much to discuss. He did take me around show my some nice dunes and a village. We took a nice 4 hour lunch break in the shade of a nice tree. I tried to help cook lunch, but there wasn't much I could do, there was only one knife, one pot, one fire, so he just told me to hangout in the shade, and I didn't really have a problem with that. After the siesta we road on a little farther until the next dunes, where we made camp next to a bunch of Koreans on one night safari. We repeated the activities of last night, he cooked up a nice rice dinner while I took in the sunset on the dune with my cold beer I bought from the local village boy who schleps them around to the tourists. After that we sat around our little fire until bed. The next morning we got up early and had a silent trek through the early morning back to the jeep that was waiting to take me back to Jasailmar.