It is not "goodbye" it is "until next time" ...

Orange, Orange, Orange. Our first introduction to Diwali - The Festival of Lights and the most important festival of the year in India was a man we ran into on the street who was dressed as Hanuman, the Hundu Monkey God. His costume included orange fabric draped over his body with a long monkey tail, bright orange face paint and fake bristly hair along his jawline. Orange marigolds were for sale in long garlands and huge piles all over the street. These brilliant flowers were used to decorate everything from houses to offices to trucks and rickshaws, always in excessive quantities! Makeshift booths all over the place were selling boxes of wrapped Diwali sweets and every object and building was decorated with lights, Christmas light style. It ended up being quite lucky that we took an overnight bus that evening, as it provided us with front row seats to the events of Diwali - mainly the fireworks that were being lit up all over the place (on the road, from rooftops, outside of shops) all throughout the night and by all ages of people (little kids to seniors - I don't remember ever being able to play with fireworks when I was a child.....). The lights on all of the houses combined with the random and spontaneous bright lights of the fireworks was such a beautiful sight (and distracted us from the insanity of yet another mountain bus ride adventure!) I can't say I have ever really seen a firework display quite like this one.

Our Diwali bus ride concluded at Chandigarh - India's only planned city, and by far the cleanest and greenest. You may be thinking - "India's only planned city, what is the big deal?" Well it is a huge one. This city actually has roads that are straight and in a grid system, wide streets with medians, very modern traffic lights that not only work, but are obeyed, trees and green spaces, and garbage cans. If it weren't for the rickshaws and horsecarts sharing the wide roads with marked lanes and beautifully landspaced traffic circles and medians, I really may have been fooled into thinking that I was in a North American city! Definitely was a huge contrast from the India we had seen thus far. Unfortuantely this unique city brought an end to our time with Leslie and her friend, Fayza and we said goodbye and went our separate ways. Who would have thought in first year University when Leslie and I were roomates in residence that we would be trekking in the Himalayans together four years later ... small world it is.

As our time in India was fast approaching an end, we had to make a difficult choice as to where to spend our last few days before heading back to Delhi. We made a very spontaneous decision and caught a bus headed to Northern Punjab and the city of Amritsar. This bus ride encompassed us in a very valuable quality in India - as we arrived to find the bus full of people and were just thinking that we would have to catch the next one, India's strong sense of community and "help your neighbour" mentality slapped us smack on our sweaty foreheads, as we were pulled onto the bus and then told there was one empty seat left at the front. There really is always room for one more person here..... This was a huge lesson to me in lending a hand, and another example of how India has really shown me how to be a better person. Not only seeing, but being on the receiving end of freindly people who have done things to help us out, which to them are so small, but to us make a huge difference, and experiencing and witnessing the incredible generosity of people who sometimes have so little themselves has reminded me how much friendliness and the desire to lend a hand can go such a long way.

I feel it necessary to comment on the dynamics of the road in India, as I was able to sit in the front seat of the bus on this trip I think I now actually understand how this organized chaos works. Aside from the hierarchy of the road which I had already witnessed on numerous occasions, in which pedestrian yields to cyclist, cyclist to cycle-rickshaw, cycle-rickshaw to autorickshaw which yields to cars, cars to trucks and trucks to buses. The only thing the bus (and ALL other entities on the road) will always yield to, without question, is the King of the Road - the cow, I learned something else. Here is how it works: the bus roars down the highway in the right inside lane. When an object blocks it's path, the driver simply lays on the horn (which sounds like a doorbell-meets-video-game-sound-effect) until said object moves out of the way into the outside lane. This continues until the destination, meaning that the bus barges along in the same lane for the entire journey - no time wasted on passing or anything silly like that. In the rare instance that it is necessary to pass, often the vehicle in front will use their signal, but not to initiate a lane change, to tell the driver behind that it is safe to pass on that side of their vehicle. As crazy and bizarre as this all sounds, it really just works.

Amritsar is home of the Golden Temple which is the holiest and most sacred sight of the Sikh religion. We were actually able to stay in the temple, as the Sikh temples always offer accomodation, to anyone. Due to the scale of this particular one, there was actually a "foreigner visitor" dormitory, which we stayed in for free (but gave a donation for). This was the beginning of what was to be a very incredible and memorable experience. In search of the toilets, I walked out of our dorm and immediately entered a circular area full of people - curled up on the concrete floor sleeping, families sitting cross legged and pilgrims enrobed in bright orange cloth bathing in the communal shower area in the center of all of this activity. I kept on walking to the female toilets - a room with 20 or so squat toilets which I used along with the other female pilgrims, Indian visitors, Sikhs and non-Sikhs and the few other foreigners. For the first time in our travels through India I felt as if I was truly a part of this fascinating mass of humanity, rather than an external observer ..... The temple itself had a truly magical feel. I still can't really describe it, but it just felt so peaceful with such a vivid sense of community and ... belonging. Before going to sleep, I went out to use the toilet and was stopped in awe of the scene before me - the same circular room of earlier was now filled with hundreds of people sleeping on the concrete floor. The various sleeping positions, rainbow of fabrics and sheer mass of people gave it the look of a woven tapestry carpet. If not for the fear of disturbing the sleeping ensemble, I could have stood amongst this scene for hours, taking in the details of the faces, the minimal belongings tucked safely beside each resting body and imagining the life of each person. On our last night, we ate our dinner in the dining hall that offers free meals to all (a characteristic of all Sikh temples) and serves over 30 000 people per day. Sitting on the cold concrete floor, surrounded by the warmth hundreds of people from all walks of life all eating the same Indian meal (which, even in this instance was offered with so much generosity - the food just kept on coming), was truly an experience of welcome and generosity.

We spent our last few days in India in Delhi, back in the luxurious comfort of Mr. Sahgal's house. Walking through Delhi on our last day felt quite different than one month ago - somehow things just make a lot more sense now! I have to say that I am quite sad to be leaving India, and feel that I could easily spend another few months in this vast and fascinating country, and still not see everything. However, this only means that I will be returning sometime in the future. India has been a great host, teaching us so much and also steering us clear of food poisoning! (No Delhi Belly for us!!!!!) Not only have I learned so much about religion, culture and humanity, and am also now know the ins and outs of bargaining and have perfect the squat toilet technique. To this country with its ability to inspire, frustrate, thrill and confound all at once - thank you, and I will be back!

"... India .. it's ability to find beauty in small things - the tattoo of circles on a camel's rump, a bright silk sari in a dark slum, a peacock feather in a plastic jar, a delicate earring glinting by a worn face, and a lotus painted on a truck. ...the sheer exuberance of a billion individuals and their pantomine of festivals.." - From Holy Cow by Sarah MacDonald

Slip-sliding in the Himalayans

I just sat down to post a blog about the fabulous Himalaya trek that we just returned from, however Shaina already wrote a fantastic and funny one, so I am going to take the liberty of borrowing it from her:

We’re back safe and sound from a 5 day wilderness trek in the Himilayans. We had every kind of weather imaginable from sun, rain, a hail/snow storm and cloudy days. This trek was not any normal trek though. Apparently when you get a guide for a trek in India he comes with a cook, a helper, a pony guy and 5 ponies to carry all your gear, a full kitchen and a bbq size propane tank. It was a weird lazy feeling to get used to but arriving to a set up camp site with tea waiting every night was beautiful.

Day 1 we set out around 9am and climbed for about 6 hours and gained 1200 m in elevation to a beautiful campsite at 3300m. The coolest part about being up here is that instead of lying down and looking at the stars, they seemed to just flow all around you. We buddled up in our long johns, pants, wool toe socks, t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, fleece sweater, wool sweater, gortex jacket, wool gloves and lumberjack hats and enjoyed the view. Yes, it really was that cold when the sun went down.

Day 2 started off with a gorgeous sunrise and a tough morning climb up to about 4000m. We were a little faster today and managed to keep up to the ponies (those things are fast and incredibly sure footed) The climb didn’t last past the afternoon and we spent the last few hours winding down into a valley. We learnt how to make Dahl, breadpudding and pakora’s at night with our incredibly talented chef. Affer filling our bellies, we watched our piro pony guy make a fire. He speaks no English but is quite entertaining to watch as he builds his typical 6ft fire and casually walks or jumps through it for fun. We learnt how to say "Stop, drop and roll" in Hindi just incase he ever went up in flames.

Day 3 was the middle day and a little more relaxing. We walked to a glacier at the foot of Deoteba peak. Our guide who had been doing the route for 14 years showed us where the glacier used to be and where it stands now, about 1 km shorter and less than half the height. This tiny,used to be glacier was a sad sight to see. We then clambered our way to the next campsite where we spent another relaxing night learning how to cook and keeping warm while it slowly snowed outside. Thank goodness for our woolen sweaters.

Day 4 was fantastic!!! It was an incredibly technical route simply because the guide got a little lost and took us bushwhacking up and down the mountain side. We did a little bouldering to get around some corners and lots of slippery side stepping. I took a wipe out into the river (third one of the trip) and we got to the final campsite just as a huge hail storm started. We desperately tried to put up the tents before it got too bad and then huddled in the mess tent while watching all the sad poorly dressed people hike past. I never would have thought that I’d come to India and sit through a hail storm! The night was cold enough that the four of us curled up in one tent to keep warm.

Day 5 was even more interesting than the fourth. With another early morning spill into a river it was a real mental challenge for me to keep warm and non-grumpy as we crossed the next 7 streams to get out of the hills. About 2 hours into a hike the rain started coming. If you’ve ever been hiking you know that rain sucks unless you’re on the way out. The rain made the route that much more fun as we were jumping over puddles and slipping in mud. We were finally out of the hills at 1pm but being cold and numb decided to hitch hike the final 12 km back to the starting point. The four of us climbed into a dump truck and hurled down the muddy gravel roads bumping along with the a random group of locals who also didn’t want to walk down the road. I didn't know if I should laugh about the ridiculousness of being in India in the back of a dump trunk or cry about my numb toes and fingers.

We’ve finally warmed up after 12 hours of drinking hot teas and getting our clothes cleaned and dried from the mud and rain. It was 5 days that I won't soon forget. First trip in the Himilayans = a flying success.

Next stop is Chandighar as we slowly make our way back to Delhi :o(

Thanks Shaina ... I promise to write the next one! For more pictures of our trek, go to http://therickshawdiaries.blogspot.com/

More Pictures!

Monks debating at the monastery complex which is home to H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama.

The view from our hotel in Mcleod Ganj, with laundry drying on the roof.

Leslie and I sporting our amazing hats. (Trust me on this one - it WILL be the next big trend!)

Shaina and I cooking up a storm at our Tibetan cooking class in Mcleod Ganj.

Hand-weaving wool.

The "Pre-trek" pose

I think I could handle waking up to this view everyday....

The best feeling under the sun is being under the sun.

Alive.

The four of us cuddling in one tent together, trying to stay warm at 3500m with snow howling outside of our tent!

Caught in a blizzard on the last day of our trek.

Mental Marathon

To living in the moment ..... Shaina and I should have known that once we arrived in the mountains we would not be able to leave them! We have officially cancelled our flights to southern India and have decided to spend the remainder of our time here in the North. In retrospect I feel it was definitely the right decision, as otherwise we would have been spending more time on crazy bus rides (which we definitey do not need more of!) and less time seeing and experiencing. This decision allowed us to have more time in Mcleod Ganj and Dharmsala, and we ended up spending 5 days there. It was quite the amazing place, with a very strong Buddhist presence with many monasteries and nunneries. Dharmsala is the home of both the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government In-Exile, resulting in a very large population of Tibetans who have fled to India from Tibet.

I think the best way to describe Mcleod Ganj is a place for personal growth. The number of courses on yoga to buddhism and everything in between is incredible. Shaina and I took full advantage of this and did a Tibetan cooking course where we learned to make momos (dumplings with various fillings from veg to chocolate - YUM!), attended two courses on Buddhist Philosophy taught by a Lama where we sat on cushions on the floor and listened to the teachings in both Tibetan and English (so intense and very difficult to understand, but extremely interesting nonetheless!), ate way too much delicious and nutrious Tibetan food (along with chocolate cake, borwnies and cookies that mysteriously appeared in many of the cafes - such a rarity in India!) and tried to learn as much as we could about Buddhism, the Dalai Lama and the situation in Tibet. Ironically enough, we ended up sitting down with a Canadian man who has been a practicing Buddhist for 15 years and had "Buddhism 101" course - very enlightening! I have to say that I felt extremely ignorant for not knowing more about this horrific situation, and I challenge those of you who are not aware of it to familiarize yourselves with it. Along with the over 1.3 million Tibetans that have been killed, a huge threat to the Tibetan people and culture exists if action is not taken soon. My learning about this was so much more impactful as every single Tibetan that I spoke with during my stay is a victim of this situation and each has their own tragic story to tell.

I left Dharamsala and Mcleod Ganj with my brain full of thoughts, ideas, and learnings.... I will definitley have much to ponder and figure out during the next few weeks. We have now met up with Leslie Moreleand (my roomate from first year at Queen's!) and a friend of hers and are in Manali. We are leaving tomorrow for a 4 night, 5 day trek in the Himalayas! I am extremely excited to venture further into the mountains. I was thinking today that it is ironic, as I am sure most of you are thinking that I have been basking in the balmy temperatures here. ALthough this may have been true for the beginning of my trip, I now sit here wearing wool socks, wool mittens, a HUGE handknit wool sweater and a furry hat - it is cold here in the mountains! Makes me feel even more at home .... :o)

(For more stories and descriptions, please feel free to check out the blog Shaina and I are trying to keep up together at http://therickshawdiaries.blogspot.com)

Will write more when I return from my trek..... until then, a quote I found in Mcleod Ganj at their Environmental Education Center that I spent some time in, which provoked many thouhgts and questions about environmental issues not only here in India but back home in Canada.

"When the last tree has been felled
The last river has been polluted
The last fist has been caught
Only then, people will realise that money cannot be eaten."
- Cree Prophecy

A new trend is on the rise...

Shaina and I have quickly come to the realization that we have one very obvious problem with travelling together, which ineveitably always results in us taking much longer walks and explorations than intially expected - we both have a compulsion to find out what is "around the next bend" and will not turn around until we figure it otu. I guess this isn't really a problem, unless discovering amazing new views and interesting situations is a bad thing.....

We posted our last entry from Shimla, where after spending 2 nights we took a bus to Tattapani, a small town Northwest of Shimla, which we picked randomly off the map as it was on our way. After having experienced the chaos of our earlier mountain bus ride,the hairpin turns, sheer cliffs and constant contemplation of hurtling over the edge felt more normal this time. To our surprise, we arrived to a small town with only a couple of hotels that was set right on the banks of a river - beautiful! The laid back atmosphere, delicious food, cheap room ($1 CDN each per night) and beautiful environment got us - we quickly decided to prolong our stay by one night and spent an entire day hiking to a cave on the river, where we splashed in the water, let the current carry us downstream, let the sun warm our skin, and practiced our rock climbing skills while checking out the great scenery.

After spending 16 hours travelling (the out of control mountain bus rides almost feel quite normal now...) which invovled a 3 hour delay to change the bus tire while being entertained by the antics of monkeys, a ride that rattled every bone in our bodies and shook up our blood, stopping at a random and seemingly out-of-nowhere rest point in the middle of the mountains with all you can eat chapati, dal and chana for less than 25 cents CDN each, we arrived in Palampur. Although we only had one night here, it was definitely short and sweet as we spent the next morning walking through the tea plantations with women working amongst the squat dark green plants in their vibrantly colored punjabi suits, along a road that was accompanied by a small canal of water on either side, yielding a relaxing gurgle of flowing water. We watched women minding their cows while knitting warm woolens, and tailors in their small shops concocting beautiful garments on hand operated Singer sewing machines.

On another note, wow, I have to say I just love the Indian hospitality! I was just offered milky Chai (tea) by the man who runs this internet cafe. This is so typical, as in most shops and stores you go into, they will offer you tea whether you make a purchase or not! To think, internet cafes back home likely wouldn't even let you bring water into their establishment, let alone even consider offering you a drink...... what a life.

We are now in Mcleod Ganj and are loving it so much that we are contemplating completely changing our entire plan and spending the rest of our time here in the North. (This would involve cancelling the flights we already have booked down south) To living in the moment...

Another notable point that I cannot leave unmentioned - today Shaina and I bought the most incredible matching hats. They are like fur-trader hats with big ear flaps and sheep skinned lined giving neverending possibilities for ridiculousness. But they are SO warm and you should all watch out when we start up a contagious new trend when we get home....

Thanks for all the comments - they are hilarious and always so great to hear from everyone back home!

India Imaged

Shaina staying sane by taking advantage of the beautiful pool at the "palace" we stayed at in Delhi. (And you thought she could go 3 months without swimming!)

Simply Spectacular - One of the Seven Wonders of the World - Taj Mahal

Shaina and I just chillin' at the Taj


The incredible colors of India which we love so much already - people here are definitely not afraid of vibrant and beautiful clothing! Such a neat contrast with the sparkling white marble of the Taj.

Shaina immersed amongst the vibrant colors of the bazar in Jaipur

Shaina and I dressed in Punjabi suits in one of the shops in Jaipur. So comfortable, but not so attractive when you are sweaty and sticky... This is where we got the ultimate compliment when we were told that we are "very intelligent in bargaining"!

Indian Adventures Initiated

As we were packing up our bags ready to take off to India someone said to Shaina “I hope you have a lot of travelers luck.” She went on to explain that travelers luck is the family you meet who teaches you how to cook their specialty dinner all because you missed your bus. It’s the little side street you stumble upon while simply looking for a bathroom. And it’s the beautiful sunrise you catch because you couldn’t sleep due to a ridiculously hard bed. This trip is only 8 days old and we are already counting our lucky stars for the amazing and hilarious experiences we’ve had thus far.

We had a relatively easy introduction to the bustling city of Delhi as the friend’s house that we were staying at turned out to be a gorgeous palace off the beaten track. We spent three days there getting accustomed to the somehow organized chaos of Delhi, the touts, food and mayhem with our own driver and history teacher. We spent each night sitting up late with Mr. Sahgal learning how to cook India food, about the history of India, the religions, the culture and why selling cigarettes makes sense. (Yes, we really did cover a lot of topics in a very short time!) On day two we took a rickshaw into Old Delhi and from what we saw there knew that we would definitely love exploring this country.

By day four we took off on our own for Agra, Fatehpur Sikri and Jaipur. This was when we realized the wall we’d been hiding behind in Delhi. Being on our own introduced a whole new challenge but was twenty times more exciting. The slow introduction in Delhi left us excited and prepared but cautious for the time on our own. We feel that we could each write a novel about how spectacular and surreal the Taj Mahal is, the friendly rickshaw driver that saved us in Agra, the bus ride that was more like off roading through incoming traffic, learning how semi-precious stones are inlaid by hand into marble, the bus stop that was no more than a pile of dirt and random carts selling even more random things beside a camel and some wandering cows in Fatehpur Sikri and the even more ridiculous “bus ride of death” with hairpin turns at every bend and no guard rail between the narrow road and the sheer cliff up to monkey-governed Shimla. As we really can’t go into detail on all of these things, we will tell you about our day in Jaipur. We never had plans to go to Jaipur but were encouraged to go because it is nothing like the north or south but rather its own little place, and is part of the “Golden Triangle” that is made up of Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur. We arrived late at night and knowing it was a high “tourist” town (which means you don’t see any other tourists) knew we’d get hassled more than any other place. We spent the day walking through the many bazaars buying amazingly cool and comfortable Indian cotton skirts and shirts. We have to say that we have become masters at bartering. Although our first few tries were embarrassing and awkward to say the least, we have progressed so much that one of the shop keepers even said to us “You girls are very intelligent in barterting” – now that is a real compliment coming from someone who does this for his life! This is also one area in which being a female is super useful. Now we know that everyone probably thinks that they are great at bartering, but trust us, we have a darn good system and got deals that we didn’t even know existed! Before we knew it, the sun was setting and we had yet to see a single site in Jaipur. We’d only seen the many stores and random side streets that we constantly went exploring down. Making the firm decision to stop shopping and see the town’s wind tunnel we started heading towards the Wind Palace. For some unknown reason, without shouts or calls to come to their store and utterly bored of shopping, we stepped into one last store just to look for a shirt. Before we knew it we were sitting in the back covered in colorful clothes chatting with the sales man. Usually we’d be in an out of a store in 20 min because you know right away if they have what you want or are just pulling you around. Somehow we stayed in that last store for almost two hours drinking tea and merely chatting with the many Indians around. We drank tea with them and started dressing up in their Sari’s and Punjabi suits. Next thing we knew we were in a mini-photo shoot with the Rajakstani newspaper photographer, striking different poses in our peacock blue and golden Punjabi’s. We left the store with a free bag, tea and two shirts just to come out to a parade with elephants, camels, weird naked monkey men, bullocks and people dressed in celebrational Indian wear. What a day, oh what a day.

We had a few more run ins with “travelers luck” last night where we somehow ended up a some government building drinking tea and eating sandwiches before being given a free room to stay in all because we were led astray by our travel agent and missed the overnight bus to Shimla. Funny how things works out that way…

I know we’re going to have a blast for the next four weeks in India. No sunburns or illnesses yet. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

'Til next time...

"It is not down in any map; true places never are." - Herman Melville