from the Desert to the Jungle

So three days ago we split ways with our driver, Kumar in Agra. He was expecting us to give him a "traditional" 10 percent tip at the end, which we weren't able to afford. So that didn't go so pretty but whatever. We went to the Taj Mahal that night during sunset, and Kumar insisted that we bring along his friend as a guide or else we would be surrounded by beggars and people wanting to be our guides [This turned out to be false as beggars couldn't afford to get in and guides can't get in without guests] We asked if it was at no cost and he said yes, so we reluctantly agreed. And like ever other guide we have had in temples, mosques, forts, and the like he just wouldn't shut up. It is impossible to find any peaceful moment to enjoy the Taj Mahal when you have someone constantly telling you what to look at and where to take a photo. And they don't understand when we want to just stop and stare at something, I think that the number of fanny pack wearing mindless tourists have given Indians the impression that white people have very small attention spans. None the less the taj mahal was amazing, it doesn't even look real when you are standing right infront of it. All the photos you have seen do it no justice at all. In the end the guide gave us a sob story about how this was his only job and that he only does one tour a day, and basically demanded we pay him, this is a very common experience.

The next morning we took a train out of Agra to Jhansi, and then a taxi from Jhansi to khajuraho which is where I am now. We met a nice old lady from Israel at the train station also looking for a way to khajuraho so we all pitched on the taxi ride. There is an amazing amount of Israelis in India, about half of the tourists seem to be from Israel and nearly all the hippies are Israeli. Most Indians we encounter greet us with "shalom, shalom!" assuming we too are Israeli.

khajuraho is really awesome, it is the city of tantra and all the temples are carved with elaborate displays of crazy sex positions. This area we are in now is so different from Rajastan. There are palm trees here and way more vegetation. We have seen wild snakes, two types of monkeys, large and small lizards, cockroaches you name it! And right now in khajuraho there is a swarm of small black beetles that take over the streets when the sun starts to set. Apparently it only lasts 4 or 5 days and happens every year and we just happened to come at the right time. In the day they are no where to be seen but at night when you look at the ground you see about 75 percent cement and 25 percent beadles, its really crazy! Yesterday we took a Tuk Tuk out into the jungle and sat at a beautiful riverside and fed fish in a area that is a alligator sanctuary. We went with our driver and his friend, a traveler man from Oaxaca Mexico that we met in Agra, and his driver to a small hut in the jungle where all these Hindi speaking men were playing cards. We were invited to have lunch with them, which was a really cool experience. They cooked up all these mushed vegetables and spices in a pot overtop of a fire while another made chapatti (bread). When it was ready one of these jungle men went an picked some big green leaves off a tree which we used as plates!

I have been feeling very healthy this whole time, my only sickness came from drinking to much beer that one night...

What else to tell? hmm... One of my favorite parts about India is all of the animals everywhere. There are large herds of goats [30 - 60] periodically passing by with their Shepard, cows absolutely everywhere, wild boars with the cutest little piglets at their side, lots of street dogs [click for picture], monkeys in some places, peacocks, elephants sometimes, beautiful chickens, massive falcons, bright green parrots that swarm the trees and sky in groups of ten thousand during sunset, its all so amazing! Most of them eat from the massive piles of garbage in the streets but the locals also give all their scraps as offerings. And the rocks laying around are so much different, I haven't seen a single round smooth rock or pebble like in Canada. Most of the stones are jagged pieces of shiny marble. The soil is almost red and the trees so different. The one thing that is nearly the same is the sky, the clouds form very similar to Alberta skies, but it isn't quite as blue here.

tomorrow we will leave on a bus to Jhansi, then on a train to Varanasi, the oldest and most sacred city in India, also one of the most polluted and dangerous. I don't know how long we will stay but I am very excited to see nearby sarnath, where the Buddha taught the 4 noble truths, its a major Buddhist pilgrimage site. We have been struggling to mail out the gifts we have got, one fragile gift in particular is putting us through hell! But hopefully we will get it mailed in the next few days! India is much more expensive then we were led to believe, but its all good, money comes and money goes.

Much Love to everyone on the other side of this big beautiful earth.

oh yeah, and about the comments. Even if it says it has to be moderated or if it doesn't show up we are still getting them so don't worry!

Power Out!

I was just 30 seconds away (literaly) from publishing a long entry on where we have been and what we have done for the last few days and the power went out. We tried to run up the stairs and get away without paying but the man at the desk saw us and demanded we pay for our hour of nothing. Im not having the best day today and am not in the mood to sit here and type it all out again, im sorry. Doe is going to do another if her computer starts working anytime soon (they moved us to the shitty computers after our little encouter) so check out her blog http://earthensoul.blogspot.com

But I have been having lots of fun and I am feeling very healthy. My money situation isn't nearly what I had planed it to be, and I will surely come home with debt. So only cash for x-mas/b-day this year :)

heres a photo of the city we are in now, Jodhpur, the blue city... nevermind these computers are way to slow. Google image search it if ya want a photo. peace

Mandawa, a peaceful town in the Desert

We arrived in our first destination, Mandawa around 10pm. The drive was long but never boring, and the temperature outside the car was blistering. Luckily we payed a few dollars more for a A/C car. We settled into our room, pleasantly surprised but how much nicer it was compared to the hotel in Delhi. Painted roof, very clean tile floors and a toilet that worked. We had dinner on the rooftop cafe and settled in fairly early.

The next morning we awoke around 10 and took a seat on the terrace outside of our room. The view during the daylight was mind blowing. The homes all a sand colored wash, camels tied up underneath trees, tractors driving by blaring Hindi style trance, children on bicycles. The sky line was dominated by the beautiful Mandawa fort. A boy was sitting in a chair below us just staring for a few minutes (Eventhough Mandawa gets a constant small flow of foreigners everyone we saw had their eyes locked on us). Eventual he asked me what country I came from and my name, we talked for a bit and he asked me to come down to meet him. We went back to our rooms and got ready and then went down to meet the boy, who spoke incredibly good english. His name was Ajer, and he is 10 years old. He offered to be our guide to Mandawa and he was most pleased when we accepted. Within a few minutes his friends on the street were coming by to say hi and one asked me to ride his bike. We moved around for about 20 minutes in the blistering hot sun, it must have been about 45 Celsius in the sun. He showed us some of the Havelis, which are 250 to 300 year old homes once owned by important Mandawa families, which are still lived in today. At each one he would poke his head in and ask the people in the home if it was alright if we came in, never did the say no. The homes are painted top to bottom with 200 year old artwork of the sacred scriptures, stories of the British solders and life experiences of the gods.

We then went back to hotel for breakfast. There are gutters along the sides of all the homes in Madawa for the water to flow down to the occasional sewer. Many of them we overflowing across the road with a bright green glow to them. India is definitely not for the walking impaired as it involves lots of jumping over puddles, balancing on curbs to avoid nasty water and such.

We found our friend Ajer later on to continue the tour. He took us to a very old water well made out stone. The women used to take their camels into adjacent stalls and then walk up the steps to the well, so they could easily put the buckets of water on the camel's back. The well was incredibly deep, Ajer threw a stone and it took about 7 or 8 seconds to hit the bottom, no joke. He took us to see a few more Havelis and the last one we entered we we greeted by the owner, a man in his mid 60s. There was grains strewn out across blankets in the courtyard and his daughters were organizing them into piles. He took us around the Haveli and told us some of the stories of the paintings. Then he invited us into a small shaded room with a fan to sit on a bed, his wife brought us black masala tea and he showed us some national geographic magazines with photos of his haveli. When he found out that I was interested in Buddhism he became very excited, he said he was born into Hinduism but that he much preferred the teachings of the Buddha. He told me many stories that I have always wanted to know, such as how the Buddha justified running away from his wife and son, and the throne. And how the Buddha's father eventually became a devotee. The compassion and knowledge in this man resonated deep. He told me he once, 25 years ago tried to become a monk at a monastery but they told him he had to many obligations to his life and must practice as a lay person.

Anyways, it seems that my blog posts are incredibly long, I cant help but blab on and on about the experiences. I am only writing a small taste of what happens yet I have been at this computer for well over an hour now!

Mandawa was lovely, we left this morning at sunrise and drove threw the beautiful desert. I took lots of photos with my new zoom lens while driving, of women deep in the desert carrying baskets on their heads, men riding camels, and goat herders. Today we are in Bikaner, and we are staying in a very posh pink hotel. Tonight we are going to ride a Tuk Tuk (motor rickshaw) around town to see all the temples and sights. But I will speak of Bikaner later.

Much Love.

God, I love the sweet taste of India

It is amazing how much happens here in such little time. Time often goes alot slower here, and the people are never in much of a rush.

As soon as we stepped of the plane you could taste the difference in the air, much warmer, and way more humid than in Calgary, but it also has a certain sweetness to it. As soon as we left the arrivals area in the airport we were swarmed with people yelling "hello gentleman, cheapest taxi here!" This was just our first taste of the eager buisness men in India. The ride to the hotel was awe inspiring, I was blown away by the many different types of trees everywhere, and how different they are. There is people absolutely everywhere, running across the street, chillin' in the middle of highways, laying under trees, you name it. We were approached by beggars at a few stop lights, but I didn't want to give them money since I was new to this whole thing and didnt want to give our drivers the wrong impression.

When we approached the area ourhotel was in (Paharganj) the driver stopped and the man in the passenger seat told us we needed to go inside the office to confirm our hotel. He asked for our passports and pretended to be very offical about it all. He proceeded to tell us that we needed a verification code to go the hotel, but since we didn't have one that he would call them for us to sort things out... but the hotel line was "busy". He then dailed the "operator" and got ahold of our hotel, he then gave the phone to Dominique and somebody on the other line played stupid and said we weren't verified (this is a common scam in India). I was trying to reason with the man, some part of me always trusts in others. But Dominique instantly stood up and walked to the door, she told him he was lying and that she knows we have a room. After some bickering we left the office and the driver took us another 2 blocks to the Bazaar our hotel was on. A friendly man in the streets helped us find our hotel, where sure enough, we did not need a verification number. We were greeted with higher than quoted prices for rooms, but a room none the less.

The streets of Delhi are a big, blurry dance of tuk tuks, nice modern cars, cows, street dogs, and many, many pedistrians running in and out, dancing around a collection of obstacles such as uneven roads, massive potholes, puddles of slim, and more cows. Our first morning in Delhi it was raining very hard, we set out to find a cafe to do a blog entry but on our way we made friends with a man who offered us his umbrella. He was so exicted that we were from Canada, as his brother lived in Quebec. He told us he knew where the best place to get train tickets was, (at the government office) and that all the private shops are often overpriced or scams. We walked with him for about 10 minutes, balancing on curbs, hopping over nastly puddles and dodging traffic, until we reached the tourist office. We asked for a train ticket to Jaipur but all that was available was a first class ticket 6 days from then, which was too long to wait and too much to pay. We ended up striking a deal with the tour agent to hire a driver to take us around the province of Rajastan (stan meaning the land of, Raja meaning King[s]) for about two weeks. The deal included all our car related expensies, hotel rooms, acess to some sites, basicaly everything but food. So here we are, traveling with our driver and new friend Pavneer Kumar around the desert land of kings.

One night and one day in London

So on the 10th we got to the airport in Calgary expecting to hop on our plane direct to London @ 7:30 but it was announced that due to mechanical problems the flight would be delayed until midnight. Dominique and I brushed it off and enjoyed just chillin in the airport for a while. Then at 11pm they announced that the flight had been canceled since they didn't have a pilot to fly the plane. They told us to come back tomorrow at 4:3pm to catch the reschueled flight.

Everyone in the terminal starting flipping out and we overheard a employee say something about a plane leaving for Toronto @ midnight then connecting to London that still had some seats left over. We managed to run downstairs to the ticket booth and pull some strings and got the last two tickets on the plane.

So after a long, long night... and morning, and then another day we arrived in London at 9pm. We ended up getting hoaxed by the train ticket machine into buying an expensive direct route ticket to downtown but it got us here quick none the less. We walked around for about half a hour trying to find the hostel until we finaly found some nice Welsh tourists who helped us out. All the locals we asked any questions to just looked at us and kept walking. I mean Londoners are really big jerks, people look you in the eyes and when you smile they just keep staring. The place was very intimidating at night as the streets were pretty empty and the people all seemed so cold.

We ended up settling into our hostel and then finding a cafe down the street for some sheesha and mint tea. The hostel was alright, no cold water, only scalding hot. And the taps don't shut off. But atleast we got one of the few rooms with working lights!

Today we woke up early and walked thru Hyde park which was absolutely beautiful! The park is over 500 years old and so are a lot of the trees, they are massive! We walked about 10k today and saw some war memorials, parliament & big ben, buckingham palace, and some really big pelicans! Overall I'd say London is a cool place to visit but not to stay, let alone live. For the most part its seems like a big, overrated dump.

Were just about to grab all our stuff and head over to train to the Airport to hop on a plane to Muscat. Im excited for the comfy seats and sleeping. It feels to me like its about 8 when its actually 4:45 here, I wonder how the next two flights will screw with our internal clocks!

Im out! Peace

ps. I tried to log into my gmail account and it told me I have a wrong password, and I have to wait 5 days to try again. So don't expect me to read emails anytime soon.