Monks and massages

I completely forgot to write about these things....

Monks:
There were a fair few monks around Bangkok,not in the delightful maroon cloaks of the monks I saw in northern India, but a variety of bright orange sari type designs. Fetching in their own way... What I also noticed about the monks is that they didn't seem as happy as the Tibetan monks in Macleod ganj, I can only presume this is because they don't have the dalai lama to party with... I also noticed one monk swaggering down the street with a bag thrown over one shoulder, sunglasses and a fag hanging out his mouth. He was like a monk version of johnny Depp(playing hunter s Thompson) in fear and loathing in las Vegas... Wasn't expecting to see slightly threatening looking smoking monks around...Another monk, later that same day, did smile at me in traditional monk like fashion; it occurred to me how delightfully contagious smiling is, one does forget these things. Let's all smile to strangers more often and make the world a happier place!

Massages:
I met a guy called Tom when I first arrived in Thailand and he raved about the massages... After my slightly traumatic massage in Nepal I was thinking I probably wouldn't go for any more, especially one where they 'stretch you in all sorts of ways' as Tom put it... On my second day there I thought as it was only about four quid and a typical Thai experience I should probably try the Thai massage. I was shown upstairs by this man who seemed very nice, he washed my feet and took me to a room where there were thankfully other people already being massaged so I was less worried about being molested. I don't think words can really adequately express how good the massage was... It was without a doubt the best massage I've ever had, I want more, but I'm worried they won't be as good and I don't want to ruin my good opinion of Thai massages. I was stretched in all sorts of ways, and there were some very questionable positions, and bizarre slow thrusting actions, but I think it was all normal cos he was chatting to the other masseuses as he massaged away... I went back for a foot massage yesterday, it was almost as good as the full Thai massage. My decadent lifestyle continues.


Anyway, I'm on koh Tao now. First impressions are:
Doesn't beat the adaman islands,
The sea is less scary
It's possibly hotter
I do like it
The chocolate cake is good. (my nose just seems to sniff the stuff out!)
I don't think I'll go to any more islands after this, seen one tropical island seen them all, unless one is significantly different in some way, which it won't be, unless I ever start my vegan communist island with lots of rabbits on...

Bangkok dangerous

at the grand palace

cool looking fort thingy near my favourite cafe place

So I thought I better write about my time in Thailand so far as I'm about to head off to koh Tao, an island that comes highly recommended by everyone that's been there. This may be a little slap dash as I've not been writing in my diary as regularly as usual -I'm distracted by my new toy...

I don't know why but I didn't expect to like Thailand and I wasn't particularly looking forward to arriving. I enjoyed my flight as much as ever, and was pretty sure India would have lost my luggage (no offence) and I was trying to think buddhistly about it... After waiting half an hour in immigration, which I actually secretly wanted to take longer so that dawn would break and I wouldn't have to use a cab or something in a strange country while it was still dark, I saw my luggage rotating towards me in the conveyor belt as though it knew... Spooky, I've never had so little hassle when arriving at an international airport! Next I found the information desk where a very helpful lady told me my cheapest option to for getting to where the hotels were was to hop on a train, she told me which train to get, how much it would cost, and then said to get a taxi from there. The train was a delightful experience, so clean and not remotely crowded, probably in part due to how early it was, but still, such a change from India! It was lovely seeing the sun come up as we passed between skyscrapers and other buildings. The city is a lot bigger than I expected; I say that, although I'm not sure I did actually expect anything... I guess in my mind a city is just as big as it looks on the map...

I shared a cab with another white person I just met as we came down the station steps, his name was Tom and he was from Germany and had been to Thailand 4 times, we also hotel hunted together. Eventually found one, which is where I have stayed for the past 5 nights or so. It does what it says on the tin. I am still impressed with the cleanliness of the country thus far, and the reasonable number of people, and the male to female ratio...

This is where it starts to get a bit tricky, can't recall much of what I've done... I might just write bullets of things I can remember...

I don't have the bullet point option on my iPad... Ridiculous!

food at the joy luck club

-found the cutest cafe ever called the joy luck club, the lady is lovely, friendly, as smiley as you hear about, the food is great, the coffee awesome, the decor insane, I love it.

-the girls here are all really pristine and pretty, when I was on the train after arriving and not having washed for a day or so, this really skinny girl with perfectly manicured hands sat down next to me with her neat clothes and smart handbag and busied herself on her tidy phone in its sensible case. I looked in my reflection in the window, a fat, scruffy, slightly spotty, tired looking me felt a little inadequate and out of place in this land of clean and tidy perfection.

-I went to the national art gallery, the young artist award work was particularly spectacular, I loved it. One girl had entered her 5 photos for the competition and they were of road kill - she stole my idea! Also some good pictures of cats, almost bought one...

-went to the national museum as I know nothing of thai history. I learnt: they have had a lot of kings and a lot of wars and had an iron age too! They like gold things and have a rich Buddhist history.

-went to a big IT mall to look for a laptop of sorts to write stories on... Bought an ipad2 and have felt very extravagant since, and also a little paranoid... Is it still in my bag? I used the train and boat to get there and back, and also had a short tuk tuk ride to the station. The tuk tuks are a lot more comfy here than in India...

-done a lot of shopping, it's like they know me! All the cutesy rabbit stuff is awesome, I have bought many rabbit related products... I do not need any more pens or pencils with rabbits on...

-shopped in Chinatown, that was busy. Lots of cutesy stuff though.

-went to the grand palace and saw the emerald Buddha because I felt like I ought to rather than because I wanted to... Yeah it's nice buildings and what not... But... I don't know, I think I've just had enough of buildings now... I don't want to see any more buildings except for my windmill...

-I've been practically robbed by a pigeon lady!! I guess you need to be ripped off at least once in every country, plus I've had a lot of good stuff happen, it needs balancing out... She was just there feeding the pigeons and I smiled - as is the done thing in Thailand, she cleared some pigeons away for me, I thanked her, then she stuffed some corn in my hand and said 'good luck' I thought she meant it was good luck for her to give me free corn to feed the pigeons... She then gave me three more bags, I just thought ok, they won't be more than tuppence... 150 baht a bag... I was like'no!!' then thought I'd pay her 150 in total, and she grabbed the 1000 baht note out my purse and gave me 50 baht change! Which isn't even good maths anyway! I gave up after getting 400 baht back and decided it could be like a charity donation as Im not supporting any charities at the mo... Although shes possibly the most undeserving charity I've ever given to...

-I've posted some stuff, and I have to say the postal service here is an absolute delight to use, I'd even go so far as to say I enjoy the process. Although I do quite enjoy it in England too... If there aren't queues... Maybe I should become a post woman, I've often thought I'd enjoy it.

- The weather has been balmy! It's like a lovely summer in England. There was a thunderstorm the other night which was possibly one of the loudest I've ever heard, I felt scared, and then a little pathetic after that... the next day it rained a fair bit, but was still warm. It's much warmer than the parts of India I visited.

That's about it then, I'm off to go and beach myself for a few weeks now. I don't really know where I'll go after koh Tao, Its nice just asking people you meet where to go... Planning huh? What is it good for?

Love you all!
Photos to come later...

Feelings and stuff.

When I was in Srinagar the Aussie girl, Hannah, picked up my diary one day and said something along the lines of: "What's this-your diary? Like feelings and stuff? " she flicked through the pages and followed up by saying "that's a lot of feelings." In all honesty my diary contains very few feelings. It is more observational writings and descriptions of things i have seen or done. And on the whole I think it's fairly superficial, I don't think of any solutions to problems I see or have any insights really, it's quite basic, in no way profound (unfortunately). But it got me thinking - maybe I should write more of my feelings. I don't have lots of feelings though, and they confuse me on the whole, so are difficult to write about. I mostly just feel happy at the moment. I thought I should prob make it clear that I am happy in case it doesn't come across in my blog. I asked Stewart Jellyfish if I come across as happy and he said something about definitely and he was REALLY jealous or something - but he is a tad prone to melodrama. For me though, I would like to remember how happy I am. Sometimes one does forget these things...

So basically I keep feeling a lot happier than ever. I don't seem to feel scared about much except when Betty sends me texts about how I need to be 'very very careful. Very very careful indeed.' And on the whole my travels have confirmed what wonderful people the majority of humanity are. I keep thinking that actually, if I died now, I wouldn't really mind. Life has been very good to me and I could have nothing to reproach God with. (Not that one would reproach God anyway....) I've been so happy in fact, for this whole trip, that I am a almost worried about my precious serotonin reserves. I've loved meeting all the interesting people, being almost adopted by families and helping out in mostly insignificant ways where I can; I've loved being exposed to such different environments and just hope that maybe I've learnt something along the way about places and people even if I'm not aware of it presently. I feel my old energy and enthusiasm for life returning. I think travelling gives one the sense of freedom that we forget we have, and even though we are never truly free in this world, I think this may be as close as it gets. So on the whole I feel very very happy. Very very happy indeed.

Of course whilst visiting less economically developed countries, and travelling across large chunks of land one does also see a lot of suffering. I strangely bumped into Boris (the Swiss guy I met on the Andaman islands) yesterday we talked about beggars and the poor people you see lined up sleeping on the streets at night or living in their 'houses' which are nothing more than plastic sheets forming a tent of sorts. They beg for food and money, but you know that wont solve their problems and can actually aggravate their situations if for example money is spent on alcohol and the abuse of that causes family problems etc. To certain degrees this sort of thing is a global problem as we're all aware. Being faced with it on a larger scale does make you think about it more though. I still feel awkward and helpless when faced with it. When I start earning again I would like to do more to help the homeless, it is difficult to break the cycle of poverty. Boris and I talked of how some people, who have grown up in those conditions all their life, they may on some level be content - they've not known anything else. As we all know, sometimes interfering, doing what we think is best, isn't always the best option for those involved. As I said, I don't have solutions to these problems. Seeing extremes of poverty does make one sad though. I think ignoring the problems would be sadder.

Anyway, that's mostly it. What other feelings are there? I've been reading about Buddhism and actually feelings, like everything else, aren't real, I've really enjoyed my book on Buddhism. Nothing really matters so to speak. I can't remember whether I said it in an earlier blog or not - but I always remember that scene from Pulp fiction where Samuel L. Jackson is saying he just wants to wander the world. And John Travolta says - "so you're gonna be a bum" I think I'd be very happy doing the same. Just to be a bum  wandering the earth being at peace with everyone and everything.

My End in India

Macleod Ganj:

On the way. 

View from my window

After 1 night in Jammu I knew I didn't really want to stay any more. There's not much about the place that would really entice one to stay from what I saw. I was close to the bus station so the next day I hopped on a bus that was en route to Dharamasala. The guys that work there would just turn you away saying -"No there are no buses there until tomorrow at 8am." You have to be very specific and say well, can I get on a bus that takes me half way and change? - then it's easy. Hopped on a bus at 11 and arrived at Pathankot where I hopped on another bus that a white guy was on cos he said that it was going to Dharamasala - so had the Indian guys outside - but they stopped at the town before Dharamasala - so the two of us changed and got onto a local bus to take us up the hill. The views of the mountains from here were wonderful - especially as it was sunset, they looked all pinky. I didn't get any photos as the buses are so jostly and my camera has pretty much packed up now. I said goodbye to the lovely Spanish guy I'd been chatting to on the journey when we reached Dharamasala. He stayed on there - but I wanted to carry on upwards to Macleod Ganj the Dalai Lama's place of residence. As I arrived it was quite dark, but a guy approached me asking if I needed a room - and I just said yes to him - as it was easier than wandering round dark streets alone trying to find a reasonable place to stay. He took me to a well lit square. It looked like a cute little festive hill top town. I loved it immediately. I followed him down some streets which were darker and had the quintessential Indian  cows eating the garbage. The rooms were a very reasonable 300Rs /night and had hot water, bathroom and double beds and a tv. I was very happy. Very happy indeed. I danced around my room a lot in the following days.

Arif.

The next day I had hoped to go to the Dalai Lamas house but instead got caught up shopping - which I spent all day doing even though I wasn't supposed to be spending money after the carpet incident... It sure does make a girl happy though. Ridiculously I bought a lot of books... I've almost finished one now. I really love reading about religion and philosophy and Tibet. The world is so interesting, and sad sometimes. I met Arif this day, a sexy Kashmiri guy who is well travelled and extraordinarily strange. We had some good times together. I went to his shops most days to chat and we would go out for my daily cake fix and sometimes watch movies in the evening. I'm not allowed to talk too much about him, he's a very private person - in some ways.

View from the Dalai Lama's place.

I stayed longer than I expected just because there was such a wonderful atmosphere in the place. I had no sense of being ripped off anywhere. The food was delicious - although Tibetan food I find quite bland - all the cakes made up for it though. I visited the Dalai Lama's monastery about 3 times because I really wanted to go to the Tibetan museum which was closed each time, and the souvenir shop which was also closed each time. Unfortunately, I did not meet the Dalai Lama as I had hoped, but to be honest, I don't know that I'd have much to say to him other than - "I think you're wonderful keep up the good work-  Anything I can do to help with Tibet?" (I bought a t shirt that says something about Free Tibet  - when you buy any other Tibet of the same price... That prob helps a little). I was told by a few people that he was at home at the time that I was there. So I'm happy knowing I was in the same hilltop town as him for 5 days or so. He's so cool. On my way up from the monastery one day I decided to buy a maroon shawl so I looked like a monk - the lady kept trying to sell me girlier ones and I explained - no I want to look like a monk - her little boy laughed but I don't think she understood.

Buddha at the Buddhist temple

Amristar : 

Entering the Golden Temple Complex

I was a little sad to leave Macleod (mostly because of the cake) but I always look forward to going on to new places. I hopped on a bus to Pathankot again where I could change and go to Amritsar. There is a golden temple that Sikhs built there, and I've not seen so much of the Sikh religion in my travels. I've stayed with Hindu's and Muslims and in a mainly Buddhist town. The journey was about 5 hours before changing buses. The views are so lovely coming down from the hills though that the time passes quickly. I felt a little ill on the journey from the dinner the night before... fruit in a korma was what did it I reckon... I hopped off my bus and the very next bus I saw was going to Amritsar... Cool. So I hopped on. It was one of the scarier drivers who like to accelerate towards oncoming traffic and then swerve at the last minute in front of another vehicle in the lane that we should be in. You know your driver is a little crazy when the Indian passengers on the bus are looking at each other as if to say "what the hell?!" I laughed at one near death miss, which very few other passengers seemed to have noticed. Lots of them looked at me like I was strange. In Amritsar I popped straight into the 1st autorickshaw I saw who took me to the golden temple as requested. I would normally walk at this point but I had 5 bags of shopping from Macleod. The fist hotel I found was called the lucky hotel , it had a good name so I stayed there. You can stay in the temple, I've heard it's very nice as is the food. But I had so many bags and was a bit ill - so it's nice to have a private toilet and what not. And hot water again. Such luxury.

A VERY religious man...

The Golden Temple

The next day I went to the Golden Temple after breakfast. It was lovely and peaceful and beautiful. You have to take your shoes off before you enter and it was all very clean. There were lots of people but not too many, walking round the golden temple which was in the centre of this pool where people could bathe. I think it was holy water. You  can go inside the temple where there are many people praying and singing. It's lovely music. There was also a museum there about Sikh history which I went up to see. It had a lot of painting's of Sikh martyrs being martyred. There's a pretty bloody history I wasn't expecting. Why are religions so hypocritical? It's like every single one has been involved in wars and what not - even though it goes against their major principles! I left there and did a bit of shopping (just a bag to put my shopping in really) And then organised a jeep to take me to the border where you can see a ceremony for the closing of the gates and the taking down of the flags at the India and Pakistan border. I have never seen such crazy high knee marching in my life. And the soldiers, in their funny fan shaped hats, also do incredibly unnecessary high leg kicks. It's all for show I believe - but it draws a huge crowd on the India side and a slightly smaller crowd on the Pakistan side, and all the people are like cheering and what not. It was nice to see but a little strange nonetheless.


Delhi:

I went to the bus station the next day at 12 being told there were buses ever 20 mins by my hotel man, every hour by a man who worked there and eventually being told there was one at 4pm by a man who worked for the bus the was running adjacent. I confirmed it with another man who worked at the info desk. I hopped on another bus and the ticket man kindly helped me at the station where I had to change. These buses were slow and the journey rather boring. All roads no mountains. Its the kind of journey where you arrive at your destination and after blowing your nose your snot is all black from the pollution I'm presuming... It's gross, and a little worrying.
I arrived in Delhi at 11pm, I was accosted by many rickshaw drivers at the bus station. I was back in a place where everyone was trying to rip me off. 550Rs! just to get to GK where Betty's guesthouse was. My Journey from Amritsar was like Rs400! Crazy. Anyway. I picked a guy, and his friend almost invited himself along until I made it clear I wasn't happy about that. The man was drunk and had been standing too close to me as I waited for the rickshaw. He said goodbye and groped my boob as I was leaving. I was glad he didn't come along for the ride. The driver I did have may not have been the best choice either. I think he may have been drunk, He kept trying to speak to me in Hindi when it was quite clear I didn't know what he was saying. I phoned Betty who then sent me a text saying  'be very very careful. Very very careful indeed.' as apparently it was very dangerous to take an autorickshaw at that time. It wasn't terribly helpful. But Betty spoke to the driver a few times, and I arrived safely so it was all a happy ending.

Rajghat : Ghandi's tomb thing

Betty has been looking after me well, taking me to temples where you're not allowed to take any photos so I'll probably forget all about them. But they have interesting robotic and light shows, fountain and light shows, underground boat rides and what not. We also visited the beautiful Lotus temple where people were singing prayers which were just so spiritual sounding that they put you at peace even though you had no idea what was being sung. The place echoed like crazy - I think even I would have been a good singer in there... We saw Rajghat where Ghandi's ashes are - another peaceful place. I've also met more of Betty's extended family. We had lunch with aunts and uncles and cousins and grandmother as well as immediate family yesterday. Amazing food. Lovely company. I love being in a family group - even if I'm not technically related, you really feel like one of the family when you're with Indian people.

The lotus Temple at sunset. 

I was supposed to go to Agra today to see the Taj Mahal, but I overslept and have decided to do that tomorrow, as I thought I was leaving on Thursday, so I didn't want to go on Wed in case I was delayed in Agra. It's lucky I did come on the internet just now, as I've printed off my flight ticket and realise I leave Delhi on Wednesday... I leave India from Kolkata on Thursday... Phew... Just as well I didn't go on the internet on Wednesday... This does however mean that I probably won't be going to Agra... Which is a bit crazy. But, the way I see it is, I have to come to India again. I need to visit all of Rajasthan, so I'll just start my second trip in Agra then move on to Jaipur etc. etc. I've actually already got a lot of places I need to visit next time... like Kerala - because their adverts just make you want to go there an lie on an elephant as you're by a waterfall...

Anyway, I leave for Thailand in 2 days now... so I probably should find out where to stay and what not...

My Srinagar Adventure

My last blog entry was a little rushed and muddled - I was all excited about my immanent adventure. I was also a little apprehensive having found out very little about where I was going and not really knowing where the bus or when the bus was leaving. But it's all part of the fun isn't it?

Quite a few people told me to be really careful where I was going because of civil unrest and weather conditions and what not. A lot of people told me to be careful before I left to go travelling... Do I give the impression of a person who's not generally careful? I can only think of one uncareful incident in my life - and that was alcohol induced. Otherwise, careful is like my middle name. Also, like, what can I even be careful about? I can't help the weather! How can I be careful about it? And it's not like I'm going to go up to army men and pretend to shoot them or have some weapon on me just to cause trouble, or like stand in the way of fire... I'm very careful... (Something's going to go wrong now isn't it.... just because I said that.)

Anyway. I was led to the bus by one of the guys who worked where I booked my trip. Abdul called him 'one of his men'. A bit like the mafia... cool. We went on several metros. I had no idea where in Delhi I was. He did take me to a bus station of sorts - so that was a relief - I was less worried he was taking me away to kill me then. The man who worked at the counter was a quite attractive Kashmiri man. After sending the other guy away to get tea he asked for some photos with me in slightly too familiar poses - I put my foot down at the point where he wanted one of us kissing. He invited me on a tour of  Delhi with him when I returned. I said no.

Some guys I made friends with on the bus. 

The bus Journey to Srinagar was approx. 26 hours. It wasn't so bad. I had a seat at the front with lots of leg room. There were sleeper compartments above the seats - I didn't have a sleeper, but I was happy in my seat. The first part of the journey out of Delhi was a little boring, luckily my phone worked for the first 6/7 hours so it was nice to listen to music. There were a surprising number of English beer and wine shops - I didn't think England was particularly renowned for its beer or wine...? The fog was a little terrifying - I woke up at one point and only saw white out the window which is usually the view I get in planes and what not that freaks me out - it's like what the first bit after dying is like!!!- I looked out the front window of the bus and it was the same - I had to stand up to see the road. Visibility was probably at about 1m... A fair bit after Delhi the weather was like this. Bus drivers in India are pretty crazy, I'm sure they must all be pretty good, I don't know much about driving and don't usually get scared at friends' driving, but when they accelerate into fog where another vehicle has just vanished it doesn't seem to be that safe to me... I've also experienced numerous incidents of acceleration down hills where there are blind corners etc. I don't really like being able to see out of the front - it makes me nervous. I didn't sleep too much in the end. I think the guy behind me was stroking my face when I started to doze, and there was another man in the top adjacent bunk who stared at me for like the whole trip ( He was quite an attractive Kashmiri man). They all turned out to be alright - we chatted when we made food stops and what not and they tried to help me fix my phone.

different landscape from the rest of India

It was interesting seeing the landscape change so dramatically out of the window as we moved further North - it looked like what I imagine Romania to be like...

Dal lake

I was thankfully picked up at the bus station by Ishfaq (An attractive Kashmiri guy). This was a little detail I'd been a bit worried about - I'd asked Abdul "what if no one picks me up?" to which he replied "impossible" and I left it that forgetting to ask the name of the place where I'd be staying. So if no one picked me up, I'd not even be able to get to the boat house, or phone Abdul as my phone was out of action. Ishfaq had been waiting 4 hours or something - my bus was late. It was very cold up here. He took me down the road where I met Gulam - the owner of the houseboat. The man who would become my surrogate father. I was basically adopted by the family. We had to cross the lake to get to the accommodation. That's pretty novel. On arrival I was given a poncho to wear so I looked like a local - it was just as well as I didn't bring a coat with me travelling other than my raincoat. I was always offered a fire pot, a little wicker pot with a clay dish which has hot coals in, they hold it under their ponchos to stay warm. The boat house I was staying in was amazing. Chandeliers and everything. I'll post photos - it'll be easier than describing it. I spent the rest of the day with the family and ate dinner with them. The food was awesome! Probably joint best food with the food I had on the Sundarbans tiger reserve trip. I couldn't stop smiling the whole of the first day. This didn't feel like being in India, cold, misty, strange British looking boats. But such a welcoming environment.

Ishfaq in the kitchen in his poncho warming his feet on the fire pot

I slept like a baby that night - they put the wood heater on in the room just before bedtime and you're given a hot water bottle. The rooms are so cold that you can see your breath most of the time. I was awoken by the mosque singer early in the morning, but slept until 9am after that. Had sweet tea (thank goodness - Kashmiri tea is usually salty and to be quite frank - it's disgusting.) and paratha for breakfast. Awesome. Ishfaq showed me the town after breakfast. I thought he worked for the family but turned out he was Gulam and Shamima's nephew. I felt bad that they'd sent their nephew to pick me up from the bus station and he'd had to wait for 4 hours for me - but he had said it was his pleasure to pick me up - so sweet! We went through the market and around the main part of the town and then went to a park - where I played on all the children's play equipment. No one else was there. Too cold apparently. Ishfaq spoke good English (funny English at times -"I am at least 21" Hannah and I asked what this meant and in the end worked out he was 19...) and it was really lovely spending the day with him and chatting about everything from politics and religion to love and favourite vegetables. Ishfaq left that afternoon - which I was a little sad about. Gulam then took me out on the boat to go to a carpet shop that was also on the lake. I really didn't think I'd buy a carpet - especially as they're like Rs42000, the man who worked there said he didn't mind if I didn't buy one - it was my decision - but he was going to show me anyway as it gave him something to do. So I drank Kashmiri tea and looked at all these carpets being spread out and ended up liking one that looked magical. The others all looked... non-magical. He said he's sell it to me for Rs40000. Gosh, I liked it... but thats a bit pricey. Gulam asked him to lower his price and in the end he sold it to me for 450quid/ Rs37000. Phew. I still have mini panic attacks whenever I think about spending that much all at once. It was fairly stupid considering my budget - but at the same time - I've spent more than that on rent before and rent sucks... but my carpet rocks. Once I see it again (probably in over a year) and learn how to fly it - it'll all be worth it.  The guy also showed me his paper mache shop - which was also very expensive - there was a very cool life sized rabbit box thing which cost Rs4000 which I would have bought if it had been like a fiver rather than fifty quid. I then ended up breaking this giant crocodile jaw, the shop was so darn crowded with bloody paper mache! He should have thought more about the lay out! Anyway - I felt guilty and bought 3 smaller rabbits and a cat to make up for it. I really didnt want to spend money after the carpet thing. The shop man looked like he was repressing some anger...

My carpet

LIFE SIZE BUNNY!

Some cool Aussies had arrived at the guest house, which was nice. I could just chat to them non stop! I love meeting other travellers.We arranged with Gulam to have a day trip in a couple of days to Gulmarg this snowy mountain place where people go skiing. The next day the Aussies wanted to wander round town, I thought I could show them, as I knew it a bit after Ishfaq had shown me. But I was whisked away by Shamima (Gulams wife - the amazing cook!) to go to Ishfaq's house where we were going to arrange an ear piercing for me. She had some really cool piercing in her ear and after seeing it I thought it would be a nice way to remember my time here - as well as having the carpet. I was a bit nervous about getting my ear pierced it looked painful, but Ishfaq had arranged a man to come and do it - and arranged a good price (Rs300) and it was all fine and now I look really cool. Then I was taken to the house next door where I was fed loads of cake and tea and then they had a big proper celebratory meal, I think Ishfaq said it was because his cousin had passed his exams or something. His cousin is called Zubair... such groovy names here! After this - Ishfaq took me off to show me the old town, lots of mosques and stray dogs and rubbish tip cows, and also Jesus' tomb. I was told off by a small boy for trying to take a photo of just the outside! I took Ishfaq for some coffee at a coffee shop and then we went back to the boat houses.

Ishfaq took me and the Aussies - Chris and Hannah -to Gulmarg the next day. They were quite excited by the snow, Chris had never seen snow before. I still remember when Snowy the rabbit first went in the snow, he sort of stood still for a bit and pushed his nose in it. Chris wasn't cute like that when he saw the snow. After the first jeep ride there was a second slightly scary jeep with chains on its tyres ride up the winding mountain we went on the ski lift thing called the gondola. I started building a snow rabbit when we stopped at the half way point. It got too cold to continue very quickly and I had to go inside for a hot drink to warm my fingers which I'm pretty sure were on the verge of dropping off. In that time a snow cloud came in and engulfed the mountain so we didn't go on the second part up to the top - it was also a little more expensive and I didn't want to pay just to be on the top of the mountain. I was happy at this height. We got a bus back to where the first jeep had dropped us off. The locals do like to squash in on theses bus journeys, I saw the fat man coming and KNEW he would want to sit next to me. You bump around less when you're all squashed in like that though. Our jeep was waiting for us, as was a cute little shivering puppy which I tried to take back to Srinagar with us but the jeep driver wasn't having any of it. Poor little puppy, it wasn't safe in that car park, in the cold snow, with the aggressive monkeys fighting with the dogs over the scraps in the bins... Poor puppy!

We were supposed to all be getting a bus the next day, but it snowed. I didn't care too much, I'm not on such a tight schedule but Chris and Hannah worried a bit. I built snow rabbits in the morning - it was awesome. (Gerrard and his 3 babies, they all had long twiggy whiskers.) I was fed excessively, maybe because it was cold...? Ishfaq  and I went off to try and sort out my phone and to run some errands for Shamima. Ishfaq doesn't have much luck with shopping for things at chemists. But thanks to his perseverance we managed to fix my phone. It needed a new battery - even though the old one still should have worked...? There's a lot of hanging out in the kitchen at Gulam's house and sitting watching cricket with fire pots under your ponchos.

I was snowed in the next day too.  Ishfaq - my new surrogate best friend- came with me to the mainland, after letting me row across the lake - I got half way and then burst into hysterics unable to row further as I was completely incapable of going in any sort of straight line. I went to the internet cafe alone to fb, and make an e mail and fb account for him. We met up later to go to the Sunday market where I was very good and didnt buy anything... even though there were many delightful wooly numbers... We had a light lunch together. Sweet falafel. We chatted more about religion on the way home.

Me and Gerrard the snow rabbit

I spent 2 more days in Srinagar, not doing a lot. Just chilling out with Ishfaq, going on the internet, chatting to Chris and Hannah. Chris and Hannah booked flights to leave Srinagar and luckily the road opened the same day so I hopped on a Jeep to got to Jammu. Saying bye to my surrogate family was a little sad. They'd been so lovely, and looked after me so well. I'd miss Ishfaq the most probably, but it's ok, he uses fb probably as much as me at the moment. Shamima was saying "family member, leaving" in the morning as she cooked me breakfast. We bonded over a shared love of chocolate. After I bought her a big bar the next day she was taking some medication and after I asked what it was for she said diabetes so I told her she must ration her sugar intake...

The journey to Jammu should have taken 8 hours. It took 18. The roads were insane. I was worried about avalanches as they cause problems round these parts when there's this much snow. We sped out of the city and I was a little concerned that maybe I didn't have acareful driver if he thought these speeds in these conditions were safe. But we soon hit traffic jam after traffic jam in immense proportions, and completely stopped for like an hour or so in places. In the largest tunnel in India (?) 2500m or so, we moved once every 20 mins by about 100m. Slow. Outside the tunnel was also very slow moving as the ice was a lot worse. It was a cold journey and I was glad Gulam made me take the poncho with me. No one really spoke much to me in the jeep - they were 7 men, one guy spoke quite good English and was called Rameez (another awesome name...Another attractive Kashmiri guy!)He spoke to me a bit after the tunnel (probably about 12 hours into the journey). He was also very kind when we got to Jammu and took me to where the hotels were after I had walked off in the opposite direction. I tried finding him on fb but failed, I can't believe I've never heard that name before and there are so many of them! It was an effort finding a hotel, I was hassled by a drunk man for a bit, but it all worked out fine. I just stayed for that night and the next morning took 3 buses and a jeep to Macleod Ganj... but that's an adventure for my next story/blog update.

the journey to Jammu-if you look carefully you can see the cars curving round the  mountain in the distance. 

Things I've noticed/found out :

• Parts of India are VERY cold.
• Kashmiri ponchos significantly reduce the amount of hassle you get from locals.
• Everyone uses the phone excessively here - turns out you're not allowed to text in Kashmir... bizarre.
• there's lots of men with guns not doing a lot.
• Muslims can't marry people of another religion, get tattoos or stand on the floor-cloth they put down to eat on.
• Kashmiri carpets are expensive. 
• Kashmiri people I reckon are experts in reverse psychology... you don't have to buy that - I don't want you to buy that... blah blah blah and then you buy it cos they're so the opposite of pushy! 
• Kashmiri men are VERY attractive. Apparently the women are renowned for this too - but I wasn't looking at them so much and theres not so many around... always men in India... everywhere men...

I've forgotten my camera cable so will probably upload pictures another day.

Christmas and New Year

Well, after I got back from the Andaman Islands I went to go and help the nuns working at Prem Dam, this is a place where elderly, sick and dying people  stay. I woke very early that Wednesday morning (4:30) to leave at 5:00 to get to motherhouse for mass at 5:45 before having breakfast (bananas and bread) and walking off to Prem Dam. It was a bit like working in a nursing home - in the kind of jobs we had to do like washing the sheets, changing the beds, getting blankets, taking people to the toilet, just being there to chat to and handing out food. The volunteers only work half a day so at 12:30 we go off. There was no one in charge to say what to do or how to do it - you just asked other volunteers - I thought it would be better organised in all honesty. It was  nice to see that there was a large number of people volunteering, there was a school load of NZ 17/18 year olds who were on a school trip doing volunteer work for like 2 weeks - Pretty eye opening life experience for them I should expect.

The next day was a day off, and I fell ill- just a cold or something, but not a nice one. So I did little over the next few days - Thursdays are volunteers days off, so I took it easy that day thinking I may make a miraculous recovery. Which I didn't. So I ended up not going back to the nuns; we were told not to go in if we were ill in case we made the people there unwell too.

I tried to do non strenuous stuff like visiting the botanical gardens and sitting around in coffee shops reading Terry Pratchett books. But even walking was tiring and trying to get places - like the botanical gardens was a lot of hard work - seriously taxi drivers need to learn where places are or be ready to say they have no idea where that is so I dont get taken for a literal ride!

Made some friends - Kim, Scott and Peter from sitting around in the cafe where we think we might have all got ill. We didn't go back. I hung out with these guys Christmas day for breakfast and met up with them again in the evening. It was a very unconventional Christmas day - although I did eat a lot of cake. I've recently discovered Skype and Skyped home which was wonderful. And then I slobbed out in cafes some more before meeting people for drinky-poos. Kim and I and this English guy went to a club afterwards where they played energetic cover versions of songs we knew... I cant remember what any of them were now - but I recall dancing and having to turn round to tell some men to stop touching my posterior! Anyway, it was a wonderful relaxed day, followed by a happnin' night.

On my last day in Kolkata I went out for lunch with a guy that runs the hotel who had shown me where to buy a pencil case the other day. It was delicious food! -He's such a nice guy! Then I went to wait at the train station and hopped on my train to Delhi. The journey was fine, I think it went quicker as we were given food like every 2 hours. Except at night time.

Right - I'm in a bit of a hurry cos I'm writing this just before hopping on a bus to Srinagar up in Kashmir and Jammu in the North of India. So I'm going to have to condense some of the last few days.

I met up with Betty in the evening of my first day in Delhi and he took me on a drive around to show me some of the sights. The food here is also just as delicious as everywhere else. We ate at a fancy restaurant. I visited Connaught place and made friends with 2 random Indian guys - Abdul Majeed and Naz from Dharmasala - we got chatting about where I wanted to visit so they advised me to go North hence my trip up there. I'm taking an 18 hour long bus trip and plan to stay in Srinagar for 3 days before making my way down to Dharmasala and Amritstar nd the Corbett Tiger Reserve ( I will see Tigers damn it!) Anyway. On other days I went to India Gate and the Modern Art Gallery and the National Museum. Betty took me round on the Delhi bus on New Years day after our fabulous party round his house for New Years.

The Awesome Party:
Deserves its own paragraph cos it was like the most fun I've had at new years ever. Went shopping with Betty's friend Ravel, to get supplies. Went to Betty's house to do the cookng. I was the chef - I even had to chop off a turkey's head and legs. Betty's mother helped - we had a lovely chat n the kitchen. She seems to think my trip up north is a bit crazy like everyone else... hmmm. Anyway I made a roast and loads of veg, bruscetta for a starter and even little cheese squares with pineapple and olive. There was lots of choc cake, and brownies made by Betty's mother - which were amazing - and mousses she made too. Food - delightful. There were only about 6-10 of us at the party - but they were all Betty's close friends/famlily. Ravel had brought Karaoke along so after it turned 12 we played that until about 2. I've never done Karaoke before and it was SOOOO much more fun than I ever imagined. I loved listening to other people. Especially Betty. Especailly Betty rapping. Betty's best friend Ajar(sp?) has the Best laugh ever so we were both in hysterics for a good part of the evening. I met a princess. And then we went back to GK where I was staying (Betty's guest house) the others went to another party - but I was exhausted and didnt want to make the evening drag.

Got to go now!
Hope everyone else had a fabulous new years!!!
I'll post photos later!