Ko Samet & Ayuthaya

This blog has some harsh opinions, I apologize in advance if I offend someone, and as well I'd like to hear your opinions on the subject :)

On the bus to Ko Samet I watched a mixed couple, he was about 70+ and was barely walking, she was probably in her 40s. It makes me sad looking at that. Some couples have even greater age difference. In my opinion men who get younger wives are selfish, or ok if you got married earlier, but now that you can barely walk, go to a retirement home and give your wife a chance to live!
I took a tuk-tuk to some guesthouse, but it was too expensive. I asked the owner where I can find cheaper guesthouses, and he said he doesn't know. I ask him, you live here all your life and you don't know??!! That guesthouse had a very nice restaurant, but I never went there, don't like liars. I'm not gonna stay at his guesthouse anyway, why not do a person a favour. Thank god someone overheard me and pointed me to a guesthouse just 100 meters from that one.
The beach was very nice, white sand, wide and long, although the pictures are not that great, and when I took the them it got a little bit stormy ... oh well. The beach is always getting cleaned and is in a superb condition. The sellers are just walking by showing their products without bothering anybody, and I can finally relax :)
Everything is nice except that there aren't many people and all the people who are there are 20. Each bar at night playing loud music, there are lasers, advertisements for cheap drinks and games "there is a party going on!" I'm thinking excitedly when I hear the loud music, but I walk from bar to bar, and there is not even 1 person in them, just groups of people doing exactly what I'm doing, walking from one bar to the next, but not getting into any one. There isn't much to do, and it's good that I had my 1000 pages Shantaram book to finish. I sat on the lounge chair, sipping cocktails and reading an interesting book, not too bad :)
Next day I rented a bike to ride around the island. A few minutes later I realized that they shouldn't rent bikes on that island, ATVs ok, bikes no, it's suicidal. The island is a hill and the roads are unpaved. There are many roads that are steep up and down with small stones, big stones, & dry rivers running though them. Every time I came to one I thought that I'm not going to make it. I have to plan my route before conquering the hill, and if something going wrong along the way, there is no stopping. If I'll stop the bike will simply fall, you just have to keep giving it more gas. After seeing a few beaches, I made up my mind that the beach I'm staying on is the best, and even though I only saw half the island, I decided that I had enough adrenaline rush for today and headed back. I always rode bikes on a good road, and was always very careful when there was some gravel or a bit of unfinished road, but what am I talking about, you can take this bike to the jungle or to the moon, to the most off road place ever, and it will listen to you like your most beloved dog :)
Next day I had breakfast and I got tired of being on my own. That's it, I'm gonna find someone to talk to today I decided. I looked around and I saw one guy sitting by himself. I don't usually have problems starting conversations, just ask something, the time, directions, is the food good, anything at all, but here there was nothing to grab onto, so it was pretty much going to be "can I join you?". I started to feel nervous, I've never done that before, and my stomach was full of flapping butterflies. I didn't like that feeling at all, and started analyzing it. Why am I nervous? Because I don't know his reaction. Ok ... what is it about his reaction that I'm nervous about? I guess if he'll say "no". Why do I care if he'll say "no"? I really don't care. I don't know him, I'll never see him again, and my self esteem is higher than that anyway. I got up to approach him and then I saw a ring on his wedding finger and decided against that idea. I don't know what kind of a jealous wife could be hiding in the bushes :)
I guess some other guy got tired of being by himself as well when I saw him sitting on the table next to me. Soon we started talking and spent the day together. He's a psychologist. In the evening we went to a bar with a dance floor, the music was good, and even though there weren't too many people, that didn't stop me from dancing alone in the middle of the dance floor till the others joined in :) While dancing I was watching the following scene unfold. There was a guy and a girl talking in a bar, she didn't seem too impressed but nevertheless was sitting and pretending to enjoy the chat. Then some other more engaging guy came and pretty much stole her away. These 2 guys then pretended to be friends, giving high fives to each other and laughing only to have "I'm gonna kill you" look on the face when the other turned around. Some time went by and a girl was dancing with the 2nd guy (he's not doing anything), they dance some more, she's already rubbing herself all over him (he's still not doing anything, just standing there with a stupid smile and the arms by his side). Then they'll separate, and I'll watch him walking around looking for her, when he found her, he pretended that he was just randomly passing by. She's more and more and more on him, and he's still standing there dumbfounded. It's clearly a green light!! What's going on?? I remember how if I liked guys, they wouldn't do anything. it's like, it's shining bright green ... no .. they need some time, hours, days, weeks just to make sure it's green, but by that time it might not shine anymore. I was worried that they're not interested, but now I understand that it was a fear, a fear of rejection. I have to change some rules here. Not only do they fear to make the first step, they fear to make the second step. Why does he wait 3, 4 days to contact her? So that she wouldn't think that he's desperate, that he has a life besides her? What's wrong with a guy liking a girl and what's up with the rules? The girl worries meanwhile, what's happening, what went wrong, did he lose my number, did he meet someone new, was it just a bar fling? She talks to her friends, she can't sleep, and meanwhile he's playing these games. From now on if a guy texts me 3 days later, he'll lose his chance, that kind of behaviour should not be encouraged! If you have balls then do something about it, if you don't, get castrated, since you obviously have no use for them!
Meanwhile this guy I'm with is getting more and more drinks, and by the end asks me if I like him. I told him that it's time for me to go back to my guesthouse. What is he thinking? He took a piece of gum for himself and didn't offer me any, he didn't offer me any drinks. Most of the time while I was dancing, he spent talking to these 2 girls in the bar. Like him for what? For pretty eyes? You're a psychologist, figure it out!
My bungalow had a mosquito net, but I guess I was not careful enough with it and while I was sleeping I could feel the mosquitoes biting me, at the end I got tired, got up and turned on the light. There must have been at least 20 mosquitoes inside the net, they had nowhere to escape, and it was a bloody battle until I killed them all, there was so much blood on my hands I could've donated it.
I left Ko Samet on quite an early boat, just off the boat, there was a ticket counter to buy bus tickets. Thailand is a place where things make sense! I just missed the bus by 2 minutes and had to wait an hour for the next one. When it stopped at the terminal, there was no bus going to where I needed to go. There are 4 bus terminals in Bangkok, South, East, West and North, each servicing buses going in respective directions so they won't have to go through the traffic of the city. I had to go to the north terminal. I took a long BTS train, and the terminal was not on the station ... bummer! I took a taxi, and told him to hurry up cause I had only 15 minutes till the last bus, traffic didn't help at all! 5 minutes before 6pm I run into the terminal looking for agents with Ayuthaya name on it. They tell me the bus has already left, I tell them no, it leaves at 6! They talk to figure out if there are more buses and assign me to some guy who rushes me through the huge terminal to the right bus. 1 minute before 6, I made it! :)
Hotels and guesthouses in Thailand cost more than in India but oh so worth it. They're sparkling clean, usually a nice decor, nice stuff. I guess you get what you pay for. Though I think Brazil has the best hostels, but no wonder, they cost about $25/night!
Even though I like Thai food, I just can't have it all the time, so I ordered a burger with french fries in a restaurant. Some guy told me that I'm so Canadian! No way, in Canada I never order burgers :)
In the morning I cannot wake up, and I barely crawl from the bed at 9. I rented a bicycle to see the temples. (LP) Ayuthaya was one of the most dazzling and dynamic cities in Asia. Between 1350 and 1767 it was the capital of Siam. As a major trading port during the time of the trade winds, international merchants visited and were left in awe of the hundreds of glittering temples and treasure-laden palaces. At one point the empire ruled over an area larger than England and France combined. Ayuthaya had 33 kings who engaged in more than 70 wars during the 416 year period. The last of the empire's battles was in 1767 when an invading Burmese army sacked the city, looting most of its treasures. What was left continued to crumble until major restoration work began. In 1991 Ayuthaya's ruins were designated a Unesco World Heritage Site.
Cycling is great in Thailand cause it's so flat, though it's very hot. The map wasn't too good, it missed a lot of small streets, and I never knew where I was, but I still managed to find everything :) Some temples are nice, there are a lot of Buddhas, but most of them lost their heads.
I went to one temple which was active. The Thais love to put golden leafs on their Buddhas, it doesn't look too pretty to me, but I guess it gives temples the money to support itself. Then they chanted and threw long orange material from a big Buddha and people covered themselves underneath it for luck.
When I left Ayuthaya for the train station, I had to walk for a bit and cross the river on a boat. My suitcase was picked up to the boat, from the boat, up the stairs by different people without me even asking for help. So nice :)

https://picasaweb.google.com/100036016632387453128/KoSametAyuthaya

Bangkok

Bangkok, wow! What an interesting city! I love it so much and there is so much to do that I can't leave. I take my bags and walk to the train which will take me to the city. On the way I stop by the shop that says "Local sim cards". Remember my story about Indian sim card? It took me the whole day, they sent me here and there and here again, I had to fill numerous applications, take pictures, and provide a local address with a local reference! It took me the whole day! Listen to the Bangkok sim card story now ... you pay $10, you get a sim card, it takes a whooooole freaking minute! :) I get on the train with hundreds on signs leading to it. Everybody's smiling at you, greeting you, taking their time to help you, opening doors for you, helping you with the luggage. I have never had an easier arrival than in here! You just can't get lost or freaked out in a city like Bangkok! The train is clean, efficient, fast, people wait on the sides when the doors open letting the passengers get off first. I was so tempted to push in at first! :) The Thais are so fashionable! They wear very outgoing colorful weird cloths, weird nails, weird contact lenses, too much weird make up, they all have weird gadgets, weird couples, he's shorter and younger, but he looks cool and wears the coolest cloths ever. People are dressed like they just got out of a fashion show. Unfortunately Thais have a big problem with very bad cases of acne. Ladies wear the shortest shorts ever, and no one is staring at them except me :) Everyone is so polite, quiet and respectful. WoW!!!! I have no idea who the Prime Minister of Canada is, but an hour after arrival in Bangkok, I already know who is their king. His picture and posters are everywhere. Huge billboards on streets and schools, government offices, in all stores … people love their king!
First hostel where I arrived is in a very traditional Thai neighbourhood. No one is really speaking English, but everyone is so helpful, it doesn't really matter that they don't. I settle down, and go to meet my friend who lives in Bangkok for 2 years now. We meet at the mall, and it's the best mall I've ever been to. It's called "Terminal 21" and every floor is like a different city. A man dressed up like a pilot opens the doors and salutes you. There are Tokyo, London, Rome, Istanbul floors all selling appropriate things with appropriate decor. In the restaurant, the lady who serves us bows down every time she comes to the table.
Shopping is great and cheap. I bought Esprit shorts with a tag on it that says among other countries, Canada $44, Thailand $9. The shops are all original, good quality with a fraction of the price. If anyone comes to visit Thailand, please do yourself a favour and come with an empty suitcase! :) The toilet is amazing. It has so many buttons which control the temperature of the seat and the water, the volume, direction, pattern. It should become a tourist attraction! :)
In the hostel we all gathered up and went to see the royal palace. Man, this palace is expensive, but oh so worth it! Everything is decorated with statues, dragons, door keepers, "gold" plated and glass plated buildings and stupas. It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen! We ended up in the most touristic part of town, everybody left and I had a problem catching a taxi back. The taxies wait at the ends of the street. I tell them where I need to go, and they tell me $7, what?? It should cost around $2 (taxies are so cheap in Thailand, $2 for 20 minutes). I tell them to use the meter. They tell me that it's too little for them, I tell them that $7 is too much for me. We don't settle on anything, and I do what I usually do in a place that's spoiled by tourism, I walk a minute in any direction until I get out of that area and catch a taxi on the road which happily turns on the meter without you asking for it.
Next day I went to a few more sights. I saw huge reclining Buddha, 42 meters in length! And 100s of Buddhas sitting around it. People are exchanging their bills for small coins and drop them in small iron buckets that align the walls of the temple generating a musical melody. Then I saw a temple with spooky stairs to the top, but offers good views of the city. The river is used as transportation too, and there are public boats that go along the river, with smaller boats that take you to the other side at every station.
I've never seen that many tourists in my life. Maybe there are many tourists in Europe, but it's hard to tell who's a tourist and who's a local. Here because local people are Asian, it's easy to see the tourists. At some boat stations, the tourists way outnumber the locals. Among the tourists, there is huge number of expats, not surprisingly, most of them are male.
In the evening I meet my friend again and ask him all about Bangkok and its culture. I ask him if he dated any Thai girls. On this evening I learn everything there is to know about sex tourism in Thailand. He tells me what's the point of dating white girls. They're so picky, they want too much, they're playing hard to get, they're unsatisfied with everything and expect too much. On the other hand Thai girls are so easy. You don't even need to pick them up. All you have to do is be white! Thais are hanging out where the expats do, and in a vision of a white guy launch themselves at them. He told me that they don't have any guy nights out, they try to do it every time, but it's always cancelled because every friend is going to the bar and is surrounded by 4 Thai girls. What's the point of having guy's nights out? Everybody wants a white boyfriend, or a chance to sleep with him, or just have a drink. He said that you can take your gf out once a week and she'll be the happiest person ever. Every guy's self esteem rises in Thailand. If you're socially awkward, if you don't know how to speak with girls, no problems, just book a ticket to Bangkok! Sex tourism is a big problem in Thailand with a population of 70 million, 3 million are sex workers. It's hard to make a life in villages, and all the girls dream of scoring a white husband, most of them don't though and the only option for family’s survival is to send the girls to go-go bars. At first it's looked down upon, but after the family can buy larger rice fields, or get modern gadgets such as TVs, bikes, cars, the neighbours seeing that, send their own daughters to big cities. We went to one of the go-go bars. Ladies are dancing topless with numbers on their skirts most of them with fake boobs, you just sit around the stage with a menu and order anyone/thing you like. I have to tell you, the girls don't look too enthusiastic though. Bangkok should be renamed as Bang Cock ... it seems to be appropriate for here. We ordered a drink, and after 1 drink I had enough. On that street full of go-go bars, a lot of very young girls have c section scars, I guess from big white babies who can’t make it out of small Thai women. Afterwards we went to a club. The music was very good, Thai band was playing, and by listening to them you could never guess they're Thai. Again, lots of old white men are hanging around young Thai girls. I mean really old, like 70 years old, barely walking, with barely any hair left, and are with 20 years old, doing to them anything they want. Most of them having their hands right there. Every time I see it, it disgusts me, and I see it often. Not only in Thailand, but I guess here it's much more open and common, but in all of SE Asia as well. I'm getting used to it though, and am trying to understand it. Old white men have problems at their countries getting a girl other than a hooker, and it's gonna cost them a fortune. They can get girls (and who wouldn't want to) in SE Asia for $5, at most. They're happy, the Thai girls are happy. It's a win win for everybody. On the other hand I'm thinking if sex tourism was not allowed in here, maybe the girls would do something else more productive? I'm a bit against that, but very pro marriages. The guy can have a Thai girl who's gonna cook for him, and clean for him, and care for him, and not be all fussy like the white gfs/wives. The Thai girl gets security, money, and even the least white gentleman is the biggest gentleman in Thailand, because from what I heard Thai men treat their wives very badly. They're the kings, and wives are servants. There is no opening doors, pouring a drink, putting a coat on, a woman does all that. Women work more, don't go out, don't drink and only do the household stuff and care for their babies and husband. Inter-racial marriage sounds like a very good option to me for both sides.
I come back to the hostel at 4am, when Petra comes into the room, wakes me up and says that they're having a party on the roof. We partied till 7am and I went to bed smiling. She asked me why am I all smiley, I tell her that I had more fun in that one night that in 6 months in India (well maybe except Varkala)! :)
In the morning, I'm all sleep deprived moving to Kho San road. The most touristic small stretch of road probably in the whole of SE Asia. Everything is compared to it, and if you see any movie that's shot in Thailand, for sure Kho San road will be in it. A few of the hostels that I checked were full, and I went to a hotel. Kho San road is crazy. It's full of shops selling t-shirts, shorts, dresses for $3 each, fake brands, fake documents (licenses/press/diplomas ...), different bugs, worms, crickets, scorpions, everybody wants you to go to the ping pong show. I wanted to go, but heard from everyone how disgusting it is, so didn't, western restaurants serving the best and cheapest food ever, clubs upon clubs upon clubs. Guys are walking with T-shirts saying "Here just to have fun". 7/11 on every corner, not only on Kho San road but everywhere in Thailand. With a huge variety of everything and a strong A/C it's the best store ever. Everybody smiles and greets you when you walk into the store (maybe not on Kho San road) and I'm learning how to smile again.
I'm practicing my Thai. Learning how to say "thank you". Khop kun ka, khop kun ka, khop kun ka. I repeat it 10 times, for half a day, saying thank you to everybody for no reason. But every time I say it, I need like a minute to remember it, I get out of taxi, wait a minute, don't go, don't start driving, just wait ... oh damn it, I forgot again! This language just doesn't make any sense to me :)
Food is so yummy, and there is so much of it, especially street food which is very famous in SE Asia. On one street, the street food is so famous, that even people in Ferraris come to eat it. A lot of it is spicy though, so I can't have it, the whole dish just looks red from all the chilies. Needless to say I learned pretty quickly "my pet!" - not spicy! Thais love their fish, salty fish, dried fish and sea products. Of course most of the time you have no idea what you order, or even what you eat, just point your finger at something and hope for the best :)
Bangkok is awesome! So easy, so fun, so yummy, so cheap! Best food, best massages, best fruit salads and banana pancakes. Kao San road has massage spas after massage spas. Half an hour foot massage $3, full hour body massage $7. I did a lot of massages, but I always thought that traditional massages away from the tourist area would be better. No way, after being 3 months in SE Asia and having many many massages, Kao San road massages are the best! You get out of the club at 2am, and the street reclining chairs all full of people getting a foot massage :) Massages are usually done in big room with 10-20 people getting massaged on the mattresses that cover the entire area of the room, kinda feels like a harem :)
Thai massages are very interesting. I understand why all guys just love it. The girl pretty much sits right on you, between your legs, on your butt, massaging almost everything. Getting into weird positions, massaging you with her hands, legs, elbows, feet, knees, walking on you, stretching you in positions you've never been stretched before. It's fun and good! :) Thai massages are very appropriate in Thailand and probably most spas offer happy endings.
While I was changing from a hotel to a hostel, a girl on the street asked someone where she can find a cheap hostel, I was walking right by and said that it's exactly where I'm going. Her name is Cassidy, and we hung out for 4 days together. She's only 21, but so mature, responsible, smart, funny, an amazing person. At 15 she already saved enough money from working as a babysitter and went to travel to New Zealand on her own!
When we were talking, she said a phrase "yesterday when I was in the jungle in Singapore..." huh??? I asked her to repeat ... yesterday? Singapore? It's so funny. Another guy I spoke with also said something like, "last week when I was riding a bike in Philippines". It's great travelling! :)
We went to some museums which weren't that great, and then to a palace. In Thailand everyone wears short stuff, the less the better it seems, but you should wear covering cloths for temples and important monuments. Sometimes they give it to you for free, sometimes you have to rent it, but in this palace not only you had to wear covered cloths (as I did), but it was to be a skirt, which you have to buy! WTH??? It's an obvious technique to rip tourists off, and I refused to go in.
In the evening we went out. All the bars are full, everybody is competing with the bar next door by playing the loudest music and by serving the cheapest cocktails. Buckets are very popular in here. They cost the cheapest, they're the biggest, with the most cheapest alcohol, giving you the biggest effect followed by the biggest hangover. I had one, it was disgusting. No more buckets for me, no matter how cheap they are. Sometimes they could cost as low as $1. Next we went to a club which was full of locals for some reason. We found one group of Westerners and came to dance with them. They had 2 local friends who were too much fun, dancing, singing, making fools of themselves. The white guys weren't so much fun though. One of them started talking to Cassidy, a minute later they're already making out. Well that's moving quickly I thought. The next minute she grabs me by the hand and drags me out of the club. What happened I ask her? She said that the guy asked "do you have to be with your friend all night, or can you come to my place?" She said that "I'm not a Thai hooker!" and stormed out of the club with me. We changed clubs. There I was dancing on the stage when one guy approached me and started dancing next to me. I asked him to show me his best moves, he grabbed me by the hips and started rubbing himself against me. I go find Cassidy and tell her that my night out is over, it's really not my scene. I feel exactly what she said to me one night "Everybody is too young, or too drunk, or French!" :) Thailand, and indeed most of SE Asia is full of drunken 20 year olds, and it's very very annoying! It's also summer, and everybody's on their school/uni vacation, and it's impossible to find someone my age. It's hot, it's cheap, it's a party place, it's easy, drugs are available on every corner, every bar advertises happy hour, free shots, buy 1 get 2 free, girls come free, it's a 20 year old paradise! People get so drunk that they can't walk straight, look straight, the dorm is empty till 3am, and when I wake up at 11, I try to quietly get out of the room not to wake anybody up.
It's impossible to sight see in Bangkok. Everything's closed for 2 hours for lunch. Even when I try to wake up early to go see a temple, a monument, a museum, I still have to have breakfast and get there, even if it's 10:30, it's already too late. The place shuts down in an hour and then what will I do for 2 hours until it opens up again? I've been to Bangkok for 2 weeks, and I didn't see much. To properly sight see, you need to wake up at 7, now you ask yourself ... is it possible to wake up at 7 on Kao San road?? After 1 day though I got so tired. I saw palaces, museums, took boats, I did so much, I was drugging my feet back to the hostel when I look at my watch. It's 4pm. 4pm??? Man, in Canada I would still be working for an hour, and in here I've seen so much, did so much, that I can barely walk, and I remember a joke "Work shortens your life by 9 hours a day". Consider commute and hour there and back, and its good 10 hours/day.
One evening when I returned back to the hostel, the manager told me to change room. I was thinking about something else, was kinda spaced out, and didn't pay much attention to it. I didn't even ask why. While I was moving to a different room a thought occurred to me. Why am I moving? I asked the manager and he told me it's because 2 friends came and they need to be together in the same room. If I had a friend they would do the same thing for me!! I could not believe them ... but I am with a friend!!  But by that time, it was already too late. And they stayed there just for 1 night!! I moved from a 6 bed girls dorm, to a 10 bed mixed dorm, on a top bunk (which I hate) and a locker which barely closes, shower that barely works and doesn't have any hooks in it, and guess what, I'm paying the same price! After that they told me the wrong bus to get to a market, and advised me to go by taxi to an island which is 4 hours away when buses go there every half an hour. I'll let you guess where the managers are from? India of course!
In Bangkok there is one street full of malls. Mall after mall after mall. One day Cassidy and I went for a mall day out. Sometimes you don't even need to get out on the street. Malls are full of the most modern cinemas I've ever seen. You can go to a first class movie (usually better for couples) where you sit on a love seat with blankets, pillows and full service during the movie. On the board that shows movie times you have trailers running next to each movie, humongous and excellent food courts, fountains, ocean world, discovery center, wax museums, fashion shows, best ice cream ever, best cakes, best stores. Bangkok feels like Las Vegas to me where everyone tries to out-compete everyone else.
In the evening went to a sky bar where "Hangover 2" was shot. The elevator wasn't working and while standing in the line waiting for it to be fixed we started chatting with 2 guys in front of us. They're from Belgium, both operating successful businesses in there. They said that they don't like Americans (Cassidy is from America, and I'm a close neighbour) cause they don't remember names, they just ask for names to be polite, but never actually remember them. I was wondering what's more impolite to forget names, or to never ask in the first place (they didn't!). They said that it's much better to be married, cause you can enjoy such a wonderful bar with your loved one. I asked them, what about a boyfriend, or a friend, or your parents? No they said, wife is much better. One of them is divorced, the other one has a gf who stayed at home. They didn't offer us drinks and Cassidy was bored out of her mind. Despite them, the sky bar is amazing. The best bar I've ever been to. It's made Hollywood style with live music, beautiful bar on an illuminated platform, a fountain, and all that on 50th floor overlooking the whole Bangkok. Cassidy had a flight that night and we had to leave. The guys left with us asking me what will I do by myself, and that they know a good area to party. I just took their map, made a mental note where that area is and sat in the cab. Cassidy said, didn't you notice they were flirting with you? Oh wow, when I think back it makes sense, but I guess I was so not interested, it completely flew over my head :)
I still don't have a slightest idea what to do in Bangkok or in Thailand, and for breakfast I sat myself in a restaurant and dissolved into LP. I look up and notice a single guy sitting on the table next to me. Hm ... I think, what are the chances of him sitting there, because of me! I'd say pretty high! I looked at him and gave him a hello smile. Adam asked me what I'm reading and I said LP. He wore sunglasses, and it's always tricky to flirt with a guy wearing sunglasses. He took them off, and yeah, he didn't look too bad, in fact he was very very cute. We chatted for an hour, and decided to do something more productive. LP came to the rescue and we went to China town. I don't know how, but we couldn't find it. We were walking back and forth, in circles. There supposed to be thousands of stalls selling everything on earth, but all we find is a major street with Chinese characters and nothing else :( Then we waited for a boat to take us back. Schedules are confusing and so are people. Some say there is boat, some say no boat. We waited for an hour getting soaked under the dripping roof, and at the end took a bus. We were so lucky, people who didn't know any English at all, pointed us to the bus that dropped us off right on Kao San road. We agreed to meet up for a drink later that night and things started evolving. For the next 3 days I was floating somewhere on cloud 8 or 9 in a fairytale designed especially for me :) We went to a museum, played pool, ate awesome food, went to bars, movies, to sky bar again, chilled by the pool in the hotel. There were couples there trying to make the "dirty dancing" lift in the water (http://cdn.blu-raydefinition.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/lift-600x338.jpg?d9c344), and they plainly sucked, screaming and wining, and not getting anywhere close to the pose they ended up in the water time after time. I was looking at it, and was itching to try it too. We did this pose in the circus, and I know how to jump into it and where the guy supposed to hold me. It's on the hip bones, and not on the stomach where the couples were doing. 1, 2, 3, I jump, and perfectly hold the pose in the air with straight back and straight legs, all stretched out :) I hope the couples didn't see us, I think they were sleeping, or pretending not to notice.
btw, I stayed underwater for 2 minutes and 45 seconds without air, my new record by far! :)
On our last day together we went to a trip around Bangkok. I don't know what happened but we barely talked. The trip was nice though. First we went to the floating market. Thais and SE Asians in general use the water a lot for transportation purposes. Most of the people live on river edges fishing for their living. On the floating market, there are more tourists than locals. LP advised to get to the town a day before and go to the market early in the morning before the Bangkok crowd arrives. It still is a cool experience as you get hooked to the selling boats checking out all the weird stuff they have for sale. I didn't buy anything, just had the famous Pho - beef noodle soup. We then went to a war museum built near a bridge that was used to supply weapons, and was bombed by Americans even though there were tens of prisoners of war tied to it. Next we went to a more interesting though just as painful place, a tiger palace. There are 20 or so tigers living in a zoo kind of place with 100s of tourists arriving daily to take pictures with them. Even though they claim that they feed the tigers before hand and exercise them before making a public lunch time appearance, when the tigers are having their siesta, there are many talks about drugging the tigers heavily to make them veeery calm and veeery sleepy. There are children working there who hold your hand while walking from tiger to tiger to relax you as well.
Back in the hotel Adam tells me that he has to pick up his friend in the airport. Yeah, I know I tell him, don't worry, I have stuff to do. No he says, I'm actually asking you to leave. He tells me that he hasn't seen his friend in ages and they need to catch up. I don't get it, he told me before how excited he is for me to meet his friend. I ask him if anything's wrong as I'm aware of my ability to blab stuff without realizing the effect it makes on people. I pack my stuff in silence and move back to the hostel. I feel like I've just been pushed from the cliff. I don't understand what went wrong and what makes things more difficult is that it ended in a second and I know that I'll never find out, will never see him again, and will not have the chance to thank him for the wonderful time that we had. I sit in the hostel in a terrible mood on the verge of crying, but an hour later I convince myself to get out and to get it out of my mind. I'm travelling, Thailand is great and I want to be in a good mood. Though for many days later I play the time we spent in my mind thinking of the breaking point, trying to understand ... 2 months later, he added me on facebook and apologized for behaving in the way he did, apparently he has a gf back home and all over the sudden started to feel guilty about it. I'm not happy about it, but I'm happy that he had enough guts to tell me that.
In the hostel I was talking to one guy about my plans, where I'm gonna be, what I'm gonna do. I have 3 months in Thailand, so I have as much time as I want to hang out in Bangkok. 3 months? He asks me. Everybody is given 30 day visa on arrival. When I checked visas for Thailand, it talked about a 3 months visa, but only if you actually make one. Free visa on arrival is only 30 days, and I was so sure that I have 3 months that I didn't even check my passport. Sh*t! I only have 2 weeks left in Thailand, and all I've been to is Bangkok. Not that I regret it, but I have to move fast. I quickly pack my bags and leave first thing in the morning to the island of Ko Samet.

https://picasaweb.google.com/100036016632387453128/Bangkok

McLeod Ganj & New Delhi

I can barely lift my suitcase anymore, it got transformed into an overfed monster, but an elderly guy at the bus station put it on his head and climbed the ladder to the top of the bus to put it on the roof. He got a good tip for that :)
We got very tired from the bus ride or from the climate change (from boiling hot to chilling) that we slept all the time, slept and ate, slept and ate, but could also be a group effect, when I'm by myself I'm much more efficient. I got tired of doing nothing, grabbed Ally and went to a waterfall. The 3km walk to a natural thing was not natural at all, it was filled with endless stalls, traffic and hundreds of honking cars. We didn't even go to the top, and I didn't even take a picture. On the way back we bumped into Rich who nobody added on facebook, and nobody wrote him where we stay. 1 day of Rich filled energy is enough to last a year. He wanted to spend another day in Amritsar and leave the day after, and I almost told him that they can see the temple in the evening or early in the morning, but my brain caught up in time and told my mouth to be quiet :)
I have about a week before my visa runs out and I still have no idea where to go. I went to a book store and picked up China Lonely Planet. Initially I thought to go to Beijing and make my way down the coast, but after looking at different itineraries of coast routes, and internal routes and all of China routes, my head started spinning, I am not ready for yet another difficult and huge country. Besides, visas seem to be hard to get, and apparently there is no Chinese embassy in Delhi, only in Mumbai. I went to internet cafe, opened Google maps, and stared at the world map thinking of where to go next. Europe? Central America? SE Asia?? I'm looking at tickets, prices, visas, I leave the internet cafe 2 hours later stressed out and almost crying. I have no idea what to do :(
Andy is leaving soon and I'm not in the best of moods. Feeling a bit foggy inside and waiting for the moment to hit me.
We wanted to have a quiet evening, buy cheese, olives, white wine a relax on the balcony. Found a white wine store and asked them to put a bottle in the fridge with a pick up in a few hours. A few hours later we come back only to find out that the owner took the bottle out of the fridge because he thinks it won't taste good! What?? We were standing there in disbelief!! We went to a beer store instead and took 6 bottles of ice cold beer, at least they know what tastes good and what doesn't.
It was funny when Ally looked at me, at Andy, at me, at Andy. She said that we have the strangest dynamics she's ever seen. I bet she's right! :) We always pick at each other, disagree with each other, can't decide what we're gonna share for dinner, have different views, dreams, perspectives. When Andy and Ally are talking, they share common interest in movies, books, music, something that I’ve never seen, read or even heard of. And when they talk, my percentage of participation hovers around zero.
 Andy is like India to me. I learned to accept and appreciate something/one that/who I don't understand, and a world away from my ideas.
Ally is a nice, sweet girl who still says thank you and excuse me when ordering or asking for something, words that I haven't heard in a long while now. She said that India is making her tougher, she can actually call a waiter and ask for the bill or send an order back if it's wrong, and she's afraid that when she'll come back home, she'll go back to her shy self. We were laughing, and told her that it's not a problem. If the situation will arise again, all she has to do is to come back to India and order one train ticket and she'll be right back on track :)
While Ally and I were chatting, Andy pops out of the room all white, I've never seen him so scared ... there is a scorpion in our bathroom!! I got excited, but he started freaking out, I was lying in the bed, what if he were to crawl in the bed?? Is he poisonous, how do we get him out??? Andy give me your shoe! I say - Why MY shoe??? Because it's heavier, give it to me now! I have no idea about scorpion behavior, can it run, can it jump, can it hiss and breathe fire out of its mouth?? How does it act? I took the shoe and smashed it. I felt very bad, I would've rather got a glass and paper and set it free outside, but we had no glass in our room :( Felt bad, kinda killing one of my kind (I'm a scorpio by horoscope) :(
Andy left to Delhi to meet his friend, and Ally went with him. I keep telling myself that everything will be alright, but if everything will be alright, why do I have tears in my eyes? Everything will be alright, everything will be alright! I think this will be my last trip. I've been moving all my life and it hurts too much to say goodbye so many times.
Next day I closed myself in the room and lied in bed, feeling the "hit".
Andy's gone. Is it time to meet my soul mate? While I'm looking at all the guys who are passing by and considering my chances with the bright red mo-hock dude, I'm wondering about psychics and their "abilities". Do they predict the future, or actually influence it? I'm going to chose paths in my life which correspond to psychics predictions. Good that my predictions were all positive, otherwise I might just sit there and do nothing thinking that psychic said that I won't have money in my life, so what's the use of trying?? Psychic said that I won't have a significant relationship and I won't marry, so might as well just sleep around. Psychic said that the world will end in December 2012, so might as well spend all my money or gamble it away.
McLeod Ganj is home to Dalai Lama and from here he governs Tibet. India was kind enough to give Tibetan refugees land, and now in McLeod Ganj and in nearby Daramasala there are over 130,000 refugees. Indeed this town doesn't feel Indian at all, and the Indians you see are mostly tourists.
Went to a talk of an ex political prisoner. In 1949 China invaded Tibet on the claims that it was always part of China. Tibet is a beautiful natural high plateau with Buddhist residents who protect and conserve the nature. Since Chinese invasion the forests are cut, wild animals are gone, water is polluted, people's freedom is taken away. The man who talked said that they put "Free Tibet" posters around the collage when Chinese police came in and arrested him and his friend for 5 years in prison. They were tortured, they put nails under their fingernails. They now give injections and use electricity to make prisoners mentally disabled. His friend had died from tortures. On one day the prisoners protested the Chinese flag that was put up on the prison during the Tibetan holiday. The authority let 500 soldiers into the courtyard area where the prisoners were protesting and bit them savagely. After the beatings the whole floor was covered in blood, and 8 people were killed. Life in exile is good, but their families are suffering. They don't have any contact with their families, since the communist Chinese government watches every step and every move of political prisoners' families. China imported millions of ethnic Chinese into Tibet to mix the population so much so that the Tibetans will lose their identity. The jobs are mostly given to Chinese and not to Tibetan. Tibetans try to protest, and so far 42 people have publically burnt themselves to raise awareness, but the Chinese government says that they're mentally ill. The only way to escape to India is to go through Himalayas on foot through high altitude, harsh and unknown conditions for months. A walk to India or to death?
Dalai Lama's perspective: Tibet is big with small population. We need the help of the Chinese to build infrastructure, get better health and education, we cannot do it on our own!
When youth confronted him, he said that they're outnumbered by the Chinese, they need hundreds of thousands of weapons, and how are they going to get it? From whom? And how are they going to bring it to Tibet?
My perspective: I think that he knows the independence is impossible, and though he would like to have independence, he can't say it out loud. People will get disturbed, more blood will be shed. He's helpless, and he just tries the best option there is for Tibet. Appearance of peace. Other countries won't help Tibet, they won't fight for it. They have nothing to gain and go to war against a huge communist army and an economic giant of cheap goods that make Western living affordable. There is no hope for Tibet :(
Now I'm very happy that I didn't go to China, I'm very mad at it, and don't want to spend any money to support it!
Went to a restaurant which showed a documentary about Dalai Lama. In there met a guy who told me a story about him being scammed. He arrived in Delhi for the first time, bought a train ticket and went into a station. At the x-ray machine he was stopped by a station employee, was asked to present his ticket for a check, and was informed that his train was cancelled. Why won't you go to Kashmir? Meanwhile I'm sitting there and shaking my head, didn't you read Lonely Planet??? I mean, that's the first thing you do when you come to a country is check a list of common scams. And Kashmir is number 1! If it were to happen in reality (a canceled train), which never happens, but say it does. They would've offered him help to get a ticket to the next train, to take a few trains with connections, if there are no tickets, then take general class. Not a 2 day train or a flight into hell knows where! He agreed and bought a boat package for an insane amount. In there, didn't get the service that he was promised, they were following him around anywhere he went, and then requested a huge tip which luckily he didn't give. It's hard to know where is the truth just on arrival to India. That's why Mumbai and Delhi are huge tourist rip-off cities. Tourists just don't know any better on arrival. It reminds me of a bag that I fixed for 100 rps, when it should've cost no more than 10.
Woke up early to go to Dalai Lama's birthday. Same number of people as in the border ceremony, but everybody's sitting calmly, relaxed, there is order, everybody's quiet. It's so much more important than the border ceremony, yet what a difference! Then too many people walked through the isle, I couldn't figure out where he is, I guess he's the one under the big umbrella. I couldn't hear the translation too well, and my butt and legs were hurting from sitting in the tiny space that I had, so I left, but at least I saw his face :)
Walked around the complex enjoying the views and looking at Tibetan prayer rituals. When they pray, they put their hands on a piece of cloth, sit on their knees, slide forward till completely lying on the ground, slide backwards, stand up and put their hands together in front of their chests, and like that many many times. No wonder they're in such a great shape! :)
Free Tibet!!
p.s. I bought a ticket to Thailand. It's close, it's cheap and they give a free 30 day visa on arrival.
Back to Delhi...
I like Delhi much more this time around. Actually I've noticed that I like places more the 2nd time around ... all except Buenos Aires. I've been there 3 times, and every time, oh, what a nice city. Half an hour later ... I hate it !!
Delhi is green and modern, I'm travelling in an excellent subway system, looking at all the modern women who wear something else than a sari. The memory of real India is very distant and unbelievable now.
Went to see my friends whom I met in Chile. They live in a modern neighbourhood built for the sole purpose of providing residence for the employees of big companies which set up their offices nearby. Even though the buildings are new, they're not maintained and almost black on the outside, there are still no sidewalks and some cows, and among the boutique stores kids are begging for money. Had to go through 2 security checks before entering the building. They said they were worried about cycle rickshaws from the subway station, and were surprised when found out that I paid the local price :)
I was surprised of the difference between rural and city life. They don't know their neighbours and have only 1 child. They have a cook and a cleaner who cleans for 3 hours every day and it costs $100/month! They use seatbelts and turn signals, something that I haven't seen in India yet!
Woke up early to go shopping. 20 cycle rickshaws asked me where I want to go, red fort, Jama Masjid? I didn't even pay attention, didn't get irritated at all. There were many beggars, in very bad condition. Some of them shouldn't even be alive. It's never good to give money to children. The money doesn't go to them, it goes to their keepers. The kids might die, but at least new children won't be disfigured and spend their lives begging.
My last day in India and I'm very tempted to buy a sari. I entered the first sari shop, saw 3 saris and bought one. Usually a big mistake, cause I have no idea how much the saris cost, but I liked the owner, he knew good English and seemed very honest. My friends took me to a mall where they cost at least $100. I got this one for $38 including a tailored blouse which was ready in 2 hours. Later when I found a whole sari street, I was pleased that I paid a very good price for a very nice wedding style red sari. I also bought bangles and a tikka (forehead jewelry), and I'm all equipped for something very special. Although I still have no idea what this special occasion will be :)
Now I'm looking for a Ganesh statue. Some tuk-tuk wanted to charge me 200. That's way too much. Even if you want to rip tourists off, you should say 100. 200 is even too much for Canada! One driver was driving me around with a hope to get a commission, but too bad it was Sunday and most of the stores were closed.
I'm in a market, but there is no street food and no restaurants. I asked for a recommendation of a restaurant and was sent to one. It was packed, it's recommended in LP as well, but it's super expensive and the food is really bad. It was so bad that I didn't even finish it. Why is it so popular? As always when I eat spicy food, my nose starts to run a little. I've been outside for only a few hours, but when I blew my nose, the whole napkin was black!
In the metro, the end wagon (or 2) are dedicated to women only. At the last station, the end wagon becomes the front wagon, so at the end of the lines there are guards spreading themselves wide around the doors letting women exit first before the stampede of guys will begin. With women and men clash I'm sure it prevents quite a lot of groping! At every station near women's wagons there are guards whistling at any guys who want to get in.
Went to see the lotus palace. Didn't like it at all. It's meant to be a place of worship for all religions. It's nice, but it wasn't worth the trip. So many people there, it's crazy! I jumped the queue 3 times. Once to get into the temple grounds, 2nd time for shoes, 3rd time to get into the temple. Payback time! hahahahaha!! Saw a couple of Russian tourists. So out of place. So clean, very well dressed, the guy was even wearing white pants! For who are they dressed like that??
Did some shopping in the backpacking area. No more problems with bargaining. Price for a small Ganesh was 500, I bought the big one for 500. Felt good not to feel bad :) Also bought a table runner and pillow cases. It's hard to imagine what my future home would look like, and if it will fit at all, but for $1 for a piece, one cannot go wrong.
All day of running around, and I'm exhausted. At 10pm I find out that I don't have enough money, all the ATMs don't work, and I have to go 2kms to the train station :S I go to sleep after 12, to wake up at 2 to go to the airport. When I ordered a taxi to the airport, I asked if there are other people going because the price is per taxi, not per person. They told me that there isn't anyone else, and what a surprise it was when another woman sat in the taxi next to me. There is nothing better than to get ripped off at the last hour in India! Oh well, at least I jumped the queue 3 times :)
During the security check where the lady officer metal scanned me, she couldn't do it in public, and every woman is taken into a small room which is covered from public view. At the x-ray luggage scan, some Russian girls had half a bottle of whisky with them that they couldn't take on the plane. One of the girls almost started crying, and told them that she'll drink it right now! At 3am!!!
What I've noticed in the airport is that all the Indian people have a very fair skin complexion, pretty much like mine. Nobody's too dark. That's why they all want to be light, because lightness is associated with higher caste and includes plane rides! Indeed most Indians have never been outside their country or even outside their city.
At 3am all the duty free shops are open, and I'm walking among the perfume ads with my jaw dropped. All the ads show usually semi naked women, all hot and ready, with their breasts out and grabbing some guy. What are we doing to Indian culture, these pictures and ideas have no place in India. No wonder Western women get so harassed in here, they don't realize that it's not real!
I'm leaving India, and after so much hassle, sweat, fighting, bargaining, effort ... I'm feeling sad. India is a great country, though it requires a lot time and patience to understand it. I've accumulated new strengths, new ideas, and new appreciation. There is no country in the world like it, it's something unique that you won't find anywhere else. 3 months have passed now since I left, I'm looking back at pictures and I miss it. It's definitely Incredible India!


https://picasaweb.google.com/100036016632387453128/McLeodGanj

Few new pics are added to the end of the album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/100036016632387453128/NewDelhi

Amritsar

Short train story again. While we're waiting for the train that is already 2 hours late, we watch the platform life around us. People walking with huge parcels on their heads, hundreds are sleeping on the platform's dirty concrete, children are crawling on parents heads, people go to toilet right on tracks in front of everyone without shame, people jump across tracks instead of taking the bridge, they burp, they blow their noses with their hands ... but now it looks so normal. I'm so used to India now that it almost feels like home.
Our waiting seat tickets didn't get confirmed, and so it's another night on the floor. I slept on the bed for an hour when the lawful owners arrived, and I went to sleep on the compartment floor. The ticket inspector came at 3am! (Our tickets were already checked before). He kicked my leg (wake up!). I open my eyes, look at him turn around and go back to sleep. He kicks me again. I open my eyes, sit up. He said "ticket". I look at him, lie down and go to sleep. He kicks me again.
- What?? I ask him
- Ticket!
- No Hindi ... E N G L I S H!
- TICKET!!
- Oh, ticket ... there! I point in Andy's direction who sleeps on the floor of another compartment. So pretty much pointing AT the wall.
He finally gave up, gestured something with his hand and stormed off. I lied back down laughing out loud when it all was making sense to me. The guy who has the authority to kick us off the train, fine us, or come up with any excuse, just waved his hand at me and left. Well, they shouldn't check tickets at 3am!
Slept till 2:30pm and took a 3 hour cycle rickshaw tour. Saw a panorama museum showing local life and battles with appropriate sound effects. Maharaja paintings and battle scenes. People loved him because he helped them and saved them. When they took over a village, he ordered not to ruin the mosques, or hurt women/children/crops.
Went to a temple that has a Disneyland feel to it. The strangest temple I've ever seen. It had colored stones and mirror mosaic, different gods and dolls and people, there is a lying Buddha. It's like a supermarket temple, you can come to worship anybody you like. There are caves which you have to crawl through, water passages and mazes. Who created such a thing??
Andy is still feeling bad and I got tired of looking at him being sick all the time. What's up with men not wanting to look for help? I saw a clinic next to the temple, sponsored by the temple. I talked to our cycle driver that Andy needs to see a doctor now, he in turn talked to some shack owner, and they took Andy into the clinic. For some reason he was given priority to go to the doctor in front of other 20 people who were waiting to see him. Andy paid 10 cents for the doctor visit. When he went inside the office he said that there were 3 other guys talking and laughing while the doctor was holding Andy's help. He prescribed Andy 3 days of antibiotics, rehydration powder and some good bacteria powder. All the meds cost $1.60. He told him for 3 days to only eat rice, dhal, apples and bananas. After 3 days, Andy couldn't look anymore at any of these items :)
On the walls of the clinic there was a sign "Sex determination test is not done here", and inside the clinic a poster "Whether it’s a boy or a girl I won't tell. My honor for money I won't sell".
(LP) Dowry, although illegal, is still a key issue in many arranged marriages with some families plunging into debt to raise the required cash and merchandise (from cars and computers to washing machines and televisions). Health workers claim that India's high rate or abortion of female fetuses (despite sex identification medical tests being banned in India, they still secretly occur in some clinics) is predominantly due to the financial burden of providing a daughter's dowry.
We then saw a silver temple and a memorial field:
On April 13, the traditional festival of vaisakhi, thousands of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh gardens in Amritsar.
The people assembled there to conduct a meeting, peacefully protesting against the arrest of two leaders of the Indian National Congress. It was a peaceful protest and the people who gathered there were all unarmed.
An hour after the meeting began as scheduled at 4:30 pm, British Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer came along with a group of sixty-five Gurkha and twenty-five Baluchi soldiers into the Bagh. Fifty of them were armed with rifles. The Jallianwala Bagh was surrounded on all sides by houses and buildings and had few narrow entrances. Most of them were kept permanently locked. The main entrance was relatively wider, but was guarded by the troops backed by the armored vehicles.
General Dyer without warning the crowd to disperse blocked the main exits. He explained later about this act; "was not to disperse the meeting but to punish the Indians for disobedience." Dyer ordered his troops to begin shooting towards the densest sections of the crowd (including women and children). Firing continued for approximately ten minutes. Cease-fire was ordered only when ammunition supplies were almost exhausted, after approximately 1,650 rounds were spent.
Many people died in stampedes at the narrow gates or by jumping into the solitary well on the compound to escape the shooting. A plaque in the monument at the site, set up after independence, says that 120 bodies were pulled out of the well. The wounded could not be moved from where they had fallen, as a curfew was declared and many more died during the night.
The number of deaths caused by the shooting is disputed. While the official figure given by the British inquiry into the massacre is 379 deaths, the method used by the inquiry has been subject to criticism. In July 1919, three months after the massacre, officials were tasked with finding who had been killed by inviting inhabitants of the city to volunteer information about those who had died. This information was incomplete due to fear that those who participated would be identified as having been present at the meeting, and some of the dead may not have had close relations in the area.
Since the official figures were probably flawed regarding the size of the crowd (15,000–20,000), the number of rounds shot and the period of shooting, the politically interested Indian National Congress instituted a separate inquiry of its own, with conclusions that differed considerably from the Government's inquiry. The casualty number quoted by the Congress was more than 1,500, with approximately 1,000 getting killed. The Government tried to suppress information of the massacre but news spread in India and widespread outrage ensued. Yet, the details of the massacre did not become known in Britain until December 1919.

We were sitting on the bench when 2 guys came over to ask us where we're from. 5 seconds later we were surrounded by 20 or even more people around us. What is this, a circus show? Andy was taking his pills at that time which called for an even larger audience. Everybody is shaking our hands, saying hello, that didn't happen in a while (Amristar is not very touristic), and I became a wife again :) but they're very nice in here, ask for permission to take pictures, are educated and clean. They're the Punjab people, the ones who wear a turban on their heads. I think they're the richest people in India.
Went to the famous golden temple, the most sacred place for the Sikhs. The most holy text of Sikhism, is always present inside the temple. Its construction was mainly intended to build a place of worship for men and women from all walks of life and all religions to come and worship God equally. 1300 kg gold was used to make golden temple.
No shoes are allowed, and inside it's very clean, quiet, volunteers are everywhere, free kitchen, 100s are volunteering with making it, serving it, cleaning the dishes. The temple sits in the middle of an artificial pool. This water is considered to be holy, and many people are drinking that water, the same water where 100s of people are taking their holy dips and hell knows what else. A small boat circles the pool collecting the tiniest garbage, usually just fallen leaves. I waited for about half an hour to get into the temple in a huge line where there was no pushing and shoving. Complete order. We had to leave the shoes and the bags outside in the lockers, but the Punjab people were walking with huge swards hanging from their waists. Inside the temple the prayers have begun. A dozen or so men were sitting on the floor with sacred prayer books and chanting for an hour with their prayers being transmitted through the speakers around the whole temple complex. The words like karaoke were changing on the screens in the corners of the complex. In the evening it was nice when the whole place got dark and only the temple glowing in the middle.
A bit of history: In June 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered an attack on an influential Sikh leader who wanted equal rights for them in India. He was holed up inside the Golden Temple. Because the government chose to attack the temple on a religious day, more than 1,000 innocent people died as it was full of devotees. This attack caused an outrage in the Sikh community. Four months after the attack, Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards, leading to a massacre in which thousands of Sikhs lost their lives.
On October 31, 1984 Beant Singh drew a .38 revolver and fired three shots into her abdomen. As she fell to the ground, Satwant Singh pumped all 30 rounds from his Sten automatic weapon into her crumpled body. At least seven bullets penetrated her abdomen, three her chest and one her heart. The Prime Minister was dead. The two Sikhs then calmly dropped their guns. As other security guards seized them, Beant Singh said 'I've done what I had to do. You do what you want to do.' Beant Singh then was killed by gunfire while Satwant Singh was arrested and later sentenced to death.

In the morning met a girl who we saw in Rishikesh, Allie, Rich, and his friend Martin. This Rich guy is a strange dude, he looks crazy and aggressive and constantly talked about cage fighting, prison, drugs, and talked so much, that Martin couldn't even put a word in. In fact for about half a day, I didn't know that his name is Martin.
We all went to town to an internet cafe and to have lunch.
I have 10 more days before my visa expires in India, and I need to plan my next steps. I want to go to Nepal, and I was researching border crossings towns, exchange rates and visas. All seems good, and then I check the weather "July and August are the worst times to go to Nepal. It's a monsoon season, most treks are closed or dangerous". Ok, I guess I can't go to Nepal then. What about Tibet? I find out that there is no border crossing between India and Tibet, I have to go through Nepal, then I hear from Martin that Tibet is closed this year to tourism due to unstable political situation. Great! I have 10 more days and no plan. I leave internet cafe a bit hazy.
Amritsar is only 30 or so kms from Pakistan border, and every day there is a border closing ceremony. We all take a tuk-tuk to the border. The ceremony starts at 6pm. We arrived there at 4:45 and there were at least 1000 people in the lineup already. Most of them are men, and all of them are staring at us. There are separate lineups for men and women. For men it's 1000 people, for women it's about 100. After a long time they open a small gate and the craziness begins. Everybody starts pushing in, and it becomes a mob rather than a lineup. Andy and Martin are somewhere in the front and I can't even see them anymore, I get separated from other girls who we met, but Rich stayed with me. There is no other way than forward. Rich tells me if I feel like I'm gonna fall or if someone will be pushing me so hard that I'll feel like falling, elbow people and punch people. You cannot fall in here, you'll be run over. I'm taking the tiniest steps forward surrounded on all sides with no exit. The guards yell at Rich to go to another line, but he holds my hand and yells at them that I'm his wife and I'm scared, keep on moving, do not stop he tells me. Children are being passed over the top of the fence. Some people don't make it into the hole and are smashed against the wall crying. I passed the hole and could easily walk. I have no idea why they couldn't open the gate all the way and just let everybody walk freely. I thought that was it, but then we get stopped for security check. All men and women got separated at that point. They were holding us, keeping us in place. But the mob was on the edge of exploding like an overfilled balloon. Like a hurricane getting closer, you can feel it's presence it's calm, calm, but you know that hell will break lose any minute now. There is a barrier on the left between men and women and a rope fence on the right. Guys are pushing so hard that the barrier starts to crack and I have a feeling it will break any second now. I'm standing on the right side near the rope fence getting ready to jump over if anything will happen. The army/police is with sticks hitting people on the heads. I saw Andy getting hit a few times. They told the men to sit down. What a bad idea. If you sit in the front and people from the back will start running, all the people in the front would just get run over. Rich sat down, but was facing the crowd. Smart! The people from the back keep pushing. The police would whistle, hit a few heads, and it would quiet down for a few seconds, then the balloon gets filled some more. Men are held in a place when the metal detector gets opened at the women's side. The detectors are useless, there are so many people pushing through it with such speed that the police wouldn’t be able to react if anything had happened. Everybody is pushing from all the sides, and it's getting very dangerous. I remember Rich's words, if you'll fall down, you won't get up. I turn around and push the woman behind me. I yell at her. "I'm from Canada, in Canada we don't push people!". I can just imagine the same situation in Canada. It would go something like that: "No, you go first - No, no, kind sir, after you, please go ahead". I approach the metal detector and my knees starting to shake, there is no way to be at the side of the line, you have to be right in the middle of it. I look at the female officer at the detector grabbing some woman by the hair, shaking her violently back and forth and then throwing her through the crowd to the ground. On the men's side Rich feels the danger, breaks the sitting down code, gets up and starts running. Everybody starts running and the army becomes useless. On our side, the officer looks like a mad dog with a woman's face on it. She growls at people showing her teeth (kliki), grabs them by cloths and shoves them with all her force through the detector. It could fit maybe 2 people side by side, but 4 of us were squeezed through it with a hard push on the back. There's no amount of words can describe this experience. It felt like out of the movie when some catastrophe was happening and all of millions of people have 5 minutes to escape. I was really scared for my life. When I met up with Andy he was saying: What a great Indian spirituality. Fuck you mother fuckers and fuck your babies while taking imaginary people and kicking them with his knees in their stomachs. Mind you that Andy doesn't usually swear. At the end, there is more than enough space for everybody. Especially for us foreigners there was a special section reserved. That's just an Indian mentality that there won't be enough space, that you have to fight to get anything or to get anywhere.
It seems that everybody forgot how they were pushing each other out of the way, and was dancing happily in the circle before the ceremony began. The ceremony itself was ok. Army people were dressed in uniforms, shouting something, walking with huge steps waving their arms forwards and backwards, then stopping and high kicking. It seemed that there was a competition, who could kick higher, the Indian side or the Pakistan side? Half of the people on Indian side were not singing. Where is their national pride, and what was all the shoving for? The least you could do is sing! On the Pakistan side, the men and women were sitting separately. The women were so quite, only the men were yelling.
After coming back we all agreed that without the mob experience the ceremony would be not worth coming to :)

https://picasaweb.google.com/100036016632387453128/Amritsar

Rishikesh

On our way to town I was carrying a bag of bananas that served as snacks on an overnight train. I saw a monkey uh-uh-ah-ah-ing and climbing down the roof in my direction. I knew it was for me, there was no point of running away or hiding in the nearby garbage dump, so I threw the bag at it. There, hope you're happy!
After sleeping till 1 to balance out the sleepless night train, we sat out for a walk of Rishikesh. Our friends recommended us this guest house, but it was in the middle of nowhere. It's a 20 minute walk till the nearest restaurant, and the variety of all 4 restaurants in the area was just mind boggling.
Otherwise, Rishikesh is a very nice spiritual town, with too many Sadhus to count, it's surprisingly hassle free, it's green and clean, and was a good place to spend the majority of time that was left for me in India. This is also the place where most of the ashrams are, as Rishikesh is the world's capital of yoga, but when I got there, I wasn't sure that I was up for it. I always imagined an ashram somewhere in a surreal and remote location surrounded by a jungle, where the only sounds that disturb your peace are the chirping crickets, and not the endless convoy of beeping jeeps too big to pass in these small streets. For lunch we went to a dirty but very good local Ganesh restaurant, sitting through the meal drenched in sweat since the electricity went off again, but during dinner we compensated going to a nice Italian restaurant where I had a French soup and wished I had a sweater to warm me up in the arctic cold AC dining room. Strange enough, the dirty local Indian joints and the very nicely decorated Western style restaurants, almost have the same price, well maybe only 20% more, but 100% more worth it!
I'm at a yoga capital, and I made Andy go to a yoga class with me, with supposedly one of the best instructors ever! The class was ok, I would say more basic than the most basic yoga I ever took before, but at least with every pose, he went from student to student fixing their postures. At the end he gave us a philosophical talk on going back to life in nature, and we were let go with ideas on re-evaluating our life priorities. This yoga was not for me, and I found another studio, but I got there in a wrong time, and the only option I had was to take a private lesson which I gladly took for $4/1.5 hours. The instructor looked kinda bored and disinterested, and I gave up on my spirituality pursuit of Rishikesh.
We move! I know that Andy doesn't mind where we stay, but I do, and we walked for an hour to the center in the morning heat looking for hotels, then we went back, and then we went back with our luggage yet again, that was quite a work-out, on par with yoga I'd say.
I love the new area, the restaurants are amazing, they actually know how to cook western food and that includes not putting lettuce and carrots on a pizza. The service, food, variety, views and prices are unbelievable, and we were glued to the free movies every evening returning to the hotel at pitch black dark.
Andy and me signed up for a jewelry class, at first I didn't want to take it, but a $2 plus materials for a private 7 hour class was definitely worth it, and at the end, yes it was! I did my initials from silver (Andy thought it was a little bit modest of me :) ). I broke the saw twice in the first 5 minutes, but after he told me that each saw is $1, miraculously they stopped breaking :) I screwed up a few times, and these screw ups are irreversible, and I was a bit upset, but hey, it's my first time, so what can I do. Some screw ups were actually due to inaccurate drawing which I drew! grrr ! I then sandpaper-ed it, and polished it, and the instructor carved the skin of the snake, which I made "S" to be, even though I don't consider myself to be a snake :)
Andy had more interesting tasks of melting the silver into rings and then gluing them around the stones. But I prefer my stones without a borderline. At first I had no idea what to do with the initials, but while waiting I looked around, and found a black stone that I liked. I put my initials on it, and it looked good :) After waiting a little bit longer, I started looking at smaller stones, and I found a blue stone that I liked, which I put on top of the black one :) The instructor said that it's very original and nobody has ever done it that way, and that's exactly the way I decided to go with :) He cut the hook(?) which the necklace would go through. I wanted a small one, but he said it wouldn't hold the weight, so he cut a huge chunk. It looks good, but my letters weigh 1.2 grams, and the hook piece was 3.5 grams! I then glued the stones and the initials which needed a few hours to dry. The black stone wasn't flat and the blue stone shifted all the time. I held it in place and he said that he would check on it in half an hour. Well next day when I came to pick it up, he didn't check, and the blue stone slid from the center :( I wanted to cry :(( Andy tried to calm me down saying that the black stone is in a weird shape anyway, and it's not very noticeable ... well I notice it !! :(
On the way to the jewelry class, I passed an astrology place. I've heard that astrologers are good in India, and decided to give it a try. Andy came with me, and the astrologer said something " ... and a friend of yours ..." (referring to Andy). Hm, he didn't say "husband" as all Indians did, it's a good start!
He did palm reading first saying that I'm blessed with long, happy, healthy, prosperous life. Nothing bad at all, and I'll be in politics one day! I didn't know my time of birth for him to generate my astrology chart, but he put the rest of the details in, and was playing with the "time of birth" numbers, nope, that's not you, no, not this one, no, no, oh that looks like you. You were born around 10am! I told him that I'll email my mom and will come back tomorrow. My mom said that I was born at 10:41am, close enough! :) He gave me an astrology chart for all my life. Here you'll buy a house, here you'll need to work on your relationships, here is a good time to open your business. He said that I'll meet my soul mate between July and November of this year, will get married the next year, and have 2 babies in the following years. I wonder who'll be the lucky guy! :) I told him that when I'll come back to Canada I'll want to open a business first, but he said that I'm already 31, and I really need to concentrate on my private life first. He said that in the past I had problems with my bf's mothers, he said that I should be more daughter like, ask her how she's doing/feeling, if she remembered to take her medicine ... I don't know ... I'm not really good at sucking up :S And that I should bring my husband tea/coffee and make him dinner when he comes from work, without him asking for it. What??? I'll be working too, why won't he make dinner for me??? This is Canada, everything's 50-50. He shook his head in a no ... no, no, no 50-50 is not good, ok 60-40. Well if I'll cook him dinners 60-40, I'd better be working 40-60 :)
But in all seriousness, I have no idea how I'll meet my soul mate during travels. There are already problems meeting someone my age (travelling that is), and who knows which continent he'll be from, and besides all these details, I find absolutely unable to attach to anybody while travelling. How can I open up if I know that I'll never see him again?? I also thought that I already met my soul mate, but as it turned out, he didn't think the same :(
The town of Rishikesh is split into 2 parts on both sides of the river. There is a bridge crossing the river, but every time we had to cross it, we had to pray to god to give us a lot of patience. I hope when they built it, they buffered in some extra weight, because this bridge in impassable. Besides way too many people on it, Indians have a what looks to be like a bridge fetish, and they always stop on it, take countless number of photos, keep moving people, you're blocking the whole bridge!, besides these, cows make their way to it ( I personally think they like the attention ), bikes zip through, honking like crazy and driving on people's feet, and on top of all of it, monkeys look out for people with any signs of food and mercilessly jump on them to get a treat. While walking on it, I saw one monkey which I didn't like, I didn't have any food on me, but it still jumped on my head, scratched my arm and run off! Bustard!!
On our "another day off from each other" I stumbled into Alex whom I met in Udaipur, and her friend Nirvana. We talked for a bit, he got very excited by my energy, and asked me for the secret of my happiness. I thought about it, and I guess that you have to go through hell to find heaven; also, I follow my heart, do what makes me happy, and don't listen to what anybody says. "Are you crazy? What are you thinking? You shouldn't quit, you shouldn't buy, you shouldn't wear/eat/go ..." but why listen to anybody? How do they know what's right for me? I know that there are social norms, but sometimes, they don't suit me either!
We talked and talked, and before I knew it, I was almost naked on his bed getting a massage ( a spiritual massage that is :) ). Sometimes he got very close to some parts, but he said that our views are completely off. There are some points, and it has absolutely no sexual meaning to massaging them. Anyway, I was worried for a bit, but then decided to relax and to trust him, since he didn't really pass any limits and to enjoy probably the best massage that I've got in my life! 2 hours later, and I'm contemplating on importing him to Toronto, and hiring him as a personal masseuse :)
Andy and I went rafting the next day. The rapids weren't big, but it was still fun, and super cheap! $8/half a day. We were cheering when we passed the rapids, and screaming "Rama Rama blah blah blah, Ganga Ganga super star" :) The water was freezing, and the current was super strong. In the middle of the trip we stopped for snacks, and then 2 people joined us who didn't want to go through the more dangerous rapids. The guide just sat them at the middle of the boat, and they sat there, holding on to nothing, with pretty much no balance and without the safety of the safety rope in case the boat will flip. Not something smart to do, but Indians are not very renowned in it. We were passing level 2 rapids, which from above don't look like anything at all, and from below neither. But there was some under current, and the boat got stuck in a water hole. We were all paddling hard, but the boat didn't move. Suddenly the water rushing in from below filling all the boat, and I sensed that it's gonna flip, the guide yells faster faster, and we finally make it out, 3 meters later we get stuck in yet another hole, with not much energy to paddle out of it.
I was happy that we got to do the rafting in Ganga, that way I got to raft and to get blessed by the river. But it was definitely in the plan to get back to the hotel and to take some antibiotics in case I swallowed some water by mistake.
3 guys from the rafting wanted to go out with us. We agreed to go to a restaurant. One of them didn't speak much English, the other most of the time was reading a newspaper or chatting on his phone, and the other one got offended at everything I asked him.
Me - Are these prayer beads?
Him - Nooooo !!! It's just a Rishikesh thing
Me - Do you cook food at home the way they cook it in restaurants?
Him - We need to enjoy life, I love pizza and burgers! (What does that have to do with my question, and where did he find offence in that?? ... just trying to look non Indian in our eyes)
If he's reacting this way, I'm not asking anything more ... so needless to say the dinner was very interesting! When it was finally over, they insisted on paying for it saying that we're their guests and if they'll come to England or Canada and we'll go out, you'll pay for us! ... yeah ... right!
Then they wanted to go drinking in the next town 30 kms away (Why??), they asked Andy first, do you want to go? He said "sure". They didn't ask me, and Andy didn't ask me if I want to go. Going in a car with 4 guys, with 3 of them who don't know how to handle alcohol and driving on an edge of a valley, is something that sounds like a suicide to me. When I told Andy that I'm not coming, he got upset with me that I set him up. How did I set him up, he didn't ask me, he said "sure", so if he wants to go, he should go!
I went to see Alex and Nirvana. He proposed that we'll do some chanting, and since I've never done chanting before, and since according to my own religion of trying new stuff, I agreed. And so we chanted:
"Ooooooooooom, heriiiiiiim, seriiiiiim, sriiii, lolitaaaa, trepusundarie, namon! naman! swaaahaaaaaaaan" and like that 108 times (btw, that's what the prayer beads are for, there are 108 of them). At first slow, then faster, faster. "Ooooooooooom, heriiiiiiim, seriiiiiim, sriiii, lolitaaaa, trepusundarie, namon! naman! swaaahaaaaaaaan". Ooooooooooom, heriiiiiiim, (oh my god I'm so bored) seriiiiiim, sriiii, lolitaaaa, trepusundarie, namon! naman! swaaahaaaaaaaan". I started to bend fingers to count the number of iterations at some point. When will this end???? But in the last 4 iterations when he slowed down especially at OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM we were 3 people, and I swear it wasn't the sound of 3 voices. It was so powerful, with so much energy, it actually didn't sound human at all. "Om" is actually considered to be the most perfect sound. It's the sound with which universe was created, and when you chant it or play it on any instrument, it has the most perfect vibrations. It was unbelievable. At that point, I couldn't wait to do more and more and more. Aahhhh ... why did it have to end?? I wonder if it's possible to do just the last 4 iterations, or you won't feel anything without doing it 104 times? Is it another case of finding yourself in heaven after going through hell?
But I don't know. Mantra chanting is not for me. Although yoga wasn't for me either when I first tried it. We then did different point stimulations (3rd eye, temples, a point above the 3rd eye). So much energy! When he said to open our eyes, I couldn't open them. We tried different kinds of breathing/not breathing techniques, and at that time my legs fell asleep and it hurt so much. Nirvana was teaching Alex his knowledge for the past few weeks, and they quickly quickly laid me down and did something for  it  to stop. After than Alex left, and Nirvana continued to do 2 hours of reiki on me. I didn't take antibiotics when I came back to the hotel, I thought that after 2 hours of reiki I should be alright :)
When Andy came back, he told me that how much this one guy tried to prove me that he's not an Indian, and the first thing he did when he got inside his car is bless his dashboard god.
We went hiking in the Himalayas, hoping yet again to see them. The drive there was peaceful. Our driver didn't honk, didn't race, gently took the curves, I didn't even need motion sickness pills. But it worried me a little, because I figured that he droves so slowly because he's not a very good driver. We hiked up a small hill, and set out tents in a beautiful natural location with a lake in the middle (the deepest lake in the world!) and mountain views. We had a bon fire at night, and had the locals singing and dancing. Very good food was just coming and coming, my tummy was pleased :) We had to throw out a few gigantic mosquitoes from our tents, and other than that the night was peaceful. Next day the mountain disappeared in the fog, but the hike was in the middle on the forest without views anyway. We walked for 14 kms, but in reality it couldn't been so much more. They had no idea at which altitude we were, when they said 2 kms, we walked about 6, and 500 meters turned into about 2kms. How can you not know?? You come to this location all the time! We took a shower in a freezing glacier waterfall. I just swam, but the Indian guys, used soap and shampoo. That's why I'm scared of drinking stream water, you never know who did what upstream.
Andy thought he saw a leopard, but I only saw birds flying away. Our guide said that there are no leopards in this area, but with his knowledge of altitude and distance, I couldn't rely on his knowledge of local fauna. Since then I was freaked out, and was walking constantly observing my surrounding. Then a cow almost attacked me. It was looking right at me, and I was scared to pass her. Then she slowly took a step towards me, when I took a step away from it, and another step and another, it suddenly started running, and I squeaked and franticly run to hide behind a tree. What a mad cow!
The summit which we were to conquer in the morning is actually a paved path which leads to a temple. Someone wanted to find Shiva, but he disguised himself as a buffalo, after a long fight buffalo’s leg fell on earth where this temple is now constructed and is one of the holiest temples in India. I didn't have that information before (we were just told that we'll see a temple on the way). That means that the path is covered with pilgrims, there is no natural trail and we were not in a natural environment, but rather in some guest house which sat right on the road beside the honking cars! There were many dressed up donkeys in the area which were used to take the tourists up, and a bunch of dog with neck protectors made out of steel and spikes running around … guess what these are for? For leopards of course!!
 The room was damp, the sheets, blankets and pillows were grey and not washed for I don't know how long, it was disgusting. What more disgusting were the 100s of mosquitoes (not actually mosquitoes, but giant looking mosquito things) which were attracted to the light, huge spiders which made their way out of their hiding places to munch on these stupid mosquitoes which were flying in all the directions and quite a few times in our faces. At the restaurant, there was a single light on the table, and I don't even know how many hundreds of these mosquitoes around it. You couldn't really put a head light on, cause they were attracted to it immediately. There was so much buzzing in the room because of them, and the buzzing has stopped in an instant when the lights were switched off. This evening it started raining very hard, and it rained for 2 days nonstop. At night Andy got sick again. In the morning we tried to make it up to the summit, but after a short walk, Andy turned white and was shaking like crazy. We've returned to the guest house where he spent 40 hours in bed ... with no food!
The fun hasn't stopped there. We saw 2 leeches crawling their way up on the ceiling. We looked up, held each other in our arms and 1, 2, 3, screeeeam AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Of course by the time we stopped screaming one of them has disappeared into some hole, and Andy banged the hell out of the other one. After banging it with a shoe with all force again and again and again, it was still moving! What the hell those things are made out of?? In the late evening drunk Indians were shouting next door, yelling "I LOOOOOVEE YOOOUUU LINDAAAAA!!!!", burping, shouting some more. I've had enough, opened the door, pointed at my watch, and yelled at them to go to sleep! Which after 5 minutes they miraculously did. At night there was something crawling in a plastic bag and something chewing something/one of the roof, Andy had leeches nightmares, in short it was a great night! I can't have Indian food anymore. In cities, I can eat mild Tibetan food, or soups or sometimes Western food to break the Indians spices, but in the middle of nowhere you don't have many options, and we were served the same thing for every meal. The food was good, but I just couldn't eat it anymore. At one dinner we were served 2 curries and chapatis, and I barely ate half a chapati, Andy didn't eat anything at all. On the last 2 days I was surviving on chocolate and instant noodles.
It rained so hard already, when it started raining horizontally, the shutters didn't help, and a bunch of water got inside the room right on the beds. That night Andy slept in a regular position on the bed that wasn't near the windows, and I slept horizontally on 2 beds on the sides further away from the windows. Next morning it cleared a little bit, and we started our ascend. It wasn't particularly interesting as everything around us was completely white. We made it to the temple into which I didn't even go, and then we had an argument with the guy who organized the tour. I asked him if we can stay another day, maybe it will clear up after the hard rains and we'll be able to see the Himalayas in the morning. He said it's not a problem, but we have to pay additional 25% of the cost of the tour. How can it be 25%? Majority of the cost goes for the car, gasoline and the driver, which will not be in use for this extra day. We don't need a guide, and for food and guest house we can pay by ourselves. He didn't agree, and I hated his stubbornness. We went back only to find out that the car has broken and now they're fixing it. It took them a while to fix it, and by the time they were back, it started raining heavily yet again. The driver said that it's dangerous to drive and that we have to stay here another night! I would be damned if I have to pay for that !! We slept in 1 room, me, 4 guys and a snoring dog! 5:30am wake up, and there is finally a clear view ... well, what do you know! I wanted to hike up again, but Andy didn't, and I got very grumpy. What's the point of coming to this hike if you see nothing, and when it's finally clear it's time to go back?
Back in Rishikesh we did nothing for the whole day, but we did discover some great value breakfast which I don't know how we missed before ... might as well, cause otherwise it would be another few pounds which I'd have to lose. It included any kind of tea, any fresh fruit shake, any style eggs, cornflakes with milk, 2 pieces of brown toast with humus, all that for $2 (only juice and eggs cost that much)! Oooh man !!!
Next day we couldn't leave because I had to do laundry since we were moving again to a cool climate with a short 1 day stop in another city. So we spent an entire day just for that purpose, but that was worth it, after all, it's Rishikesh with best food and best movies :)
When it was time to leave it started to rain very hard and my suitcase got all drenched by the time we got to the tuk-tuk station. I thought that was bad, but when we actually sat in the tuk-tuk, it rained like I never thought it could. The street turned into a river with all the garbage floating on it. We had to wait an hour because nobody would be that crazy to go anywhere in such a rain. When it finally calmed down, the tuk-tuk filled up, but we've already missed our train. The side alleys got completely flooded with water levels higher than knee deep. The ride was bumpy, and we were all shivering because we were soaking wet, plus Andy's bum hurt because he has lost so much weight.
We left our luggage in a restaurant and went for a walk through the never ending market to one of the holiest places for pooja on Ganga. There were 1000s of people around a river suitable for white water rafting. Many bridges crossing the river with chains hanging off of them in case the worshipers would be taken by the current. Indeed a few people have drowned in here, but no surprise, as Indians don't really know how to swim. Everybody is using candy wrapper sheet to sit on, or to cover under the rain ... I wonder from which factory they were stolen from. There were all kinds of wrappers M&Ms, Hershey’s, Cadbury's, Skittles .. mnyam mnyam. It was a sight as though a chocolate factory has exploded. Specially uniformed people were walking around asking for a donation and giving a receipt, again, especially us. Why us? As though we look Hindu, although skeleton looking Andy started to resemble some. We then found the best place in the city to drink Lassi (a yogurt drink). The place has no empty chairs, and just 1 kind of drink, the waiters are running and there is a chaotic feel to the place, but it's so dirty, the walls are more grey than pink, I'm sure Health Canada won't approve of it. Why if they have so much money (I'm assuming) won't they take a day break and paint it?? I loved the lassi, but it made Andy feel sick again :(

https://picasaweb.google.com/100036016632387453128/Rishikesh

Lucknow

At the train station a man in a suit walked by and said "Good morning Sir" and walked away. This moment must be recorded, as this was the first good morning that we've received without anything being sold to us. I'm already used to being ignored. Most of the time men don't talk to me, which is good in a way, but not when "I" try to order something in the restaurant for ex. I would raise my hand to call a waiter, and the waiter would come and ask Andy what I want. What the hell? I was pissed off and didn't leave any tip. How are you doing sir? Would you like a room sir? How do you like your food sir? Sir, sir, sir ... maybe I should change my name to "sir".
On the train in our compartment was the most annoying child ever ... but again, I don't blame the child, I blame the parents. First of all I don't know where the dad was, but just a mom was not enough to handle her. She just yelled and yelled, and was given everything to shut her up. She'll grow to be very obese, cause I've never seen a kid eat so many sweets and snacks. Then she peed right on the floor, when the toilet was only 3 meters away. The train after a while becomes a moving garbage dumpster with everything being thrown on the floor and out of the window. Some kids took the job of cleaning it and getting a little money in return. He was arguing with her, that now he has to clean that mess, he finally did, and when he asked money for it, she yelled at him to go away. I was in shock! She spent so much money buying that devil daughter of hers everything she laid her eyes on, and she couldn't give him 5 rps to clean the mess that her daughter created. Then she peed again, and I couldn't let it slide this time. I told to the mother in louder than usual voice. What are you doing? The toilet is right there! You're the mother, where is the discipline?? She just looked down and said nothing. Her discipline was to buy the child sweets when she started yelling, and when she was yelling too much, she just smacked her head or her back, pretty hard. We put newspaper on the puddle, and I must say that my 1 months old cat never did anything like that in my home, without any discipline! There should definitely be some child control, or a test if parents should be allowed to have any children at all.
Andy was bare feet and the devil child stepped all over him with her peed on legs. They finally left, but the compartment was disgustingly dirty. Next set of devil kids reappeared, but these ones were homeless unwashed troll looking things with more holes in cloths than actual fabric, and they came to us (especially us), grabbed us by the hand or legs and shook us with tremendous force demanding money. I didn't even shoo them away because I couldn't touch their dirty hands thinking of what disease I could catch by doing that. Other than the kids, there were many homeless people on the train, and inspectors didn't even ask them for a ticket. It depends on the inspector. Sometimes they throw them off the train at the next station, sometimes, they are more kind hearted. Maybe it depends on how much bribe money they got this day.
Indians move very slow, but not on train stations. When I got out of the train at one of the stations and ordered omelet in the bread, it was done and packed within half a minute. They're so fast that I'm not even scared of leaving the train anymore. Or you just shove the money in the counter, say what you want and tell them to hurry up because I'm on the train, and I'm getting served immediately. The sellers outside the train must be in a great shape, because when they sell the stuff outside the windows, they usually run after the train to give you what you ordered or to give you change (very honest!).
We went on this train for 24 hours, and I had to have a normal dinner, I was tired of snacking, and needed proper food. The food was as always the same, rice and 3 types of dhal (lentil curry). I sat next to the window for dinner, and things were splashing at me from it. My entire arm was yellow, I hope from dhal.
Another hot day and another shower less night, and I'm covered in small sweat pimples all over my body, face, neck, cleavage... I NEED A SHOWER!
Arrived at Lucknow, another randomly picked destination. I don't think I could've done 36 hours on the train, or maybe I could, but I definitely don't want to. It took us 1.5 hours to find a hotel. This city is not touristic, and tourist hotels recommended in LP were full of some students writing an exam. One tout was following us and following us, we told him to go away, but he kept walking behind us. We don't need his help, because with his help, we could pay 50% more for the hotel due to his commission for "bringing" us there. We yelled at him, but he didn't listen, or he would go, only to magically reappear again 5 minutes later from some deserted alley. After a while Andy got tired of him, or of a sleepless night and him, or he just wanted to play around, he stopped and motioned him to go. JAAOOO !!! The guy was laughing jaoo, jaoo, look at this funny tourist! Andy have had enough, opened his 1 liter water bottle and splashed it all on him. I was laughing from the distance as the tout was dancing around the water not to get splashed, not a funny tourist anymore, a crazy tourist! But he didn't follow us anymore :)
I hate walking with bags, and I left Andy to search for the hotel. All of them said that they're full. I got enough of that, and told the owner that I know that they're not full, and that they just don't want to accept tourists! Why not?? He smiled at me and said that they need a special form for foreigners to give to the tourist police so if anything will happen, they would have a better time tracking us down. I asked them which hotel accepts tourists, was sent to a few, and finally found one, but the room was only big enough to hold a bed, and the walls were grey-ish. Even for one night that wouldn't do! When I came back to Andy the price of the hotel we was sitting beside was dropping and dropping until it dropped from 1100 to 600. We took it. I have no idea why in non touristy places the hotel prices are so high. The hotel was new, but the room wasn't clean. I asked them at least 3 times. 3 times I received a "yes yes" answer, but nothing has happened. Well, it's ok I guess. I already slept on sheets that looked like they haven't been washed for a month, but these sheets looked ok, except that the floor was covered in mud tracks.
I washed my travelling cloths (pants and a shirt), and after 3 refills, the water was still brown, and that's only after 1 trip! I feel yucky wearing travel cloths, but there is no other choice. If I'll wear any other cloths, they'll be just as dirty after 1 trip. Looking at my grey-brownish shirt I was missing the bright blue colour it once had. I slept for 2 hours before we went sight-seeing. As usual, Lonely Planet distances are wrong, and instead of 20 minutes, we were walking for an hour. Andy thought that I must have gotten lost because it took too long, but how can you get lost on a straight road? The temperature hit 50, and that was the only time we spent outside. The whole day we were jumping from cafe coffee day to a horror house which we randomly stumbled upon, an AC restaurant and waited for the sun to go down and for the temperature to drop ... even till 40! This is a very nice city, the center is super modern, fountains actually work, they have a black logo design going on, statues are not falling down, designer stores ... all 9 yards. Andy wanted to go to an electronics store, and I told him to shop till he drops, because it was nicely cooled. While he looked around, I sat on the couch watching Britney Spears videos. He found a camera case which had a shoulder strap on and wanted to buy it, but not just buy it, to bargain buy it. I swear it was the first time in India when I was embarrassed, it's one thing bargaining at the market, but completely another to bargain in a large electronics super store. He was surprised. No discount? Then what can I get (for free)? The sales person took the case and told him, "If you pay this price sir, you will get what's in the box" :) hehehe :))
We went to a shop of local sweets, they're all usually the same, milk based with sugar, molded into balls or squares with silver on top (real silver! but banged into a very thin sheet). I don't like these, but occasionally you come across a really nice shop, where I can't stop eating them. And it's usually different kinds of nuts with dried fruits mixed together in very pretty shapes. The salesman was feeding me more sweets than I actually wanted to buy. You have to try this and this, and I was just trying to say no ... unsuccessfully ... oh well, there isn't such a thing as too many sweets :)
Next was Bata shoes. My flip flops got ripped, and sports sandals are too dirty even for the most modern washing machine, not to mention that it was already tearing in some places, and I had to super glue it. I couldn't believe the prices, and after some walking back and forth in front of the mirror, I bought flip flops for $1.40, and sport sandals for $14! They are super comfortable and no "getting used to them" was necessary. I wish Bata shoes had these prices in Canada.
In the evening in the hotel we watched a movie "terminal" ... it's so rare that we watch movies, that even though we had to wake up at 6 am, we watched it till midnight.
We took a historic city tour. The 2 local guides picked us up at 6:45 in the morning, but before the tour we had to argue with hotel management to leave the luggage in the hotel which they didn't want to do. I told them that ALL hotels allow you to store the luggage after check out time, but they just wouldn't barge. Ok, I thought, the power of money works all the time, and I told them that we'll give them 10 rps per piece, which of course they agreed to right away.
The guides took us on their bikes to the historic city center.
First place was a church which provided escape for the town's people during floods since it's the only natural hill in the town, and later served as a public hanging place.
They told us about corruption, and why it's good and bad. As you all know by now that India is very prone to power cuts. I was annoyed at it first, then I got used to it. But apparently it's because of corruption, it's meant to be this way so that everybody will buy generators, and what a coincidence is it, that generator needs 22 hours to charge, and miraculously there is a 2 hour power cut almost every day in Lucknow. Also, before the drinking water from the tap was very safe, so they decided to pollute it in order to sell water filters. But corruption is also good, because it provides everybody a free public toilet (anywhere on the street).
We came to a monument which has an interesting story. At the time of food shortage the king offered people food, but people refused to accept his offer for free, and decided to build the king a house. The problem was that all the castes built it together, but they can't really be together, that's unacceptable, so the lower caste built the building during morning hours and the upper caste came in the afternoon and destroyed anything that they didn't like, and so one building took 11 years to build.
And since I'm talking about castes, I'll include another section about untouchables which I just read in a book: "... in her girlhood, when untouchables were expected to crawl backwards with a broom, sweeping away their footprints so that Brahmins would not defile themselves by accidentally stepping into untouchable footprint. They were not allowed to walk on public roads, not allowed to cover their upper bodies, not allowed to carry umbrellas. They had to put their hands over their mouths when they spoke, to divert their polluted breath away from those whom they addressed".
Very interesting and short article by national geographic about untouchables: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/06/0602_030602_untouchables.html
We then arrived at a 600 year old market and to a free natural public hospital. We asked what herbs we should take if we have food poisoning, and they gave us some greenish powder which you should chew and follow it up with water. Andy tried to give them money, but they would accept it.
We then came to a house which Mahatma Gandhi visited often to plan his peaceful revolution, but actually we met quite a few people who dislike Gandhi ... although I'm not sure why, they said that he's not what the public and media made him to be.
They told us about times when police was polite and not corrupted, even when they came to a house to arrest someone who was at that time sleeping, the police would be outside waiting for the person to wake up before arresting him.
Then we went to the best place in India for bread, this one was called Kulcha, and when they saw us, they also didn't let us pay, and gave all of us a free Kulcha, which was very very good, kind of like a layered pita thing. We then bought an 800 year old coin for $2 from Muhamud Bin Tughlaq period. Then went to a chai shop which supposed to have the best chai because the water and milk are just boiled when you order it, and wasn't boiled and reboiled 100s of times ... I don't know ... it was ok :) We always have a constant problem ordering tea Western style. It's almost impossible, and you know how much I dislike this word. Andy drinks black tea with no sugar and just a spoon of milk. Every time we order tea with no sugar and a little bit of milk, it pretty much comes with A LOT of milk, and most of the time A LOT of sugar. "Little" is a relative word, and how can you describe "little" milk, if for them it doesn't make any sense and they drink their tea with just milk, not even water?? We started ordering milk on the side ... just a little bit of milk, but of course were served a whole glass of it. They don't get "a little bit"! Most of the time it was successful though, and we managed to get tea without sugar and the whole glass of boiled milk on the side. We used the opportunity to ask the local guides about a solution ... what should we do, how do we order it right?! They were laughing saying that locals don't understand it because if they bring you tea with no sugar and no milk, then what are you paying for, just some water??? So they wrote us a note in Hindu with step 1: Money is NOT a problem! :) 2: Only 1 teaspoon of milk, and no sugar. When we used this note, the waiter laughed, but the tea came with no sugar but still at least half a cup of milk :S   :)
Then we saw a fabric where they make wedding costumes for men. And they transformed Andy from a peasant to a king by dressing him in an elegant white costume and a sultan's hat.
This area is just interesting because most of the stores are hundreds of years old with the businesses being passed on from generation to generation. There is even a 600 year old Kebab place! We didn't go to that place because apparently it has some health safety concerns, but we went to another one which is supposed to have the best Kebabs ever. These are special Kebobs. When one of the sultans got old and lost his teeth, he ordered to make him kebabs which he could still eat, and they developed “melt in your mouth” kebabs which for me was just a blended version of a steak, except that it had so many spices, I couldn't eat it at all :(
When we stopped at one temple, I asked the guides why are there so many gods, and why the cows are sacred - trying to get a different answer. He told me very defensively that Indian believe only in 1 god! , and all the other gods are just a manifestation of that one god. From the 1 and only god, there is the holy trinity of Brahman the creator, Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer, and from these gods and their manifestations, 33 million of other gods come into existence, and you can choose to worship any god you want, in fact you can worship a different god every day if you wish, but by worshipping any god, you in reality just worship the 1 god. And about the cows, I told him how could Shiva get all around India on a cow, he wouldn't have made it out of Lucknow in a year it's so slow! Well thank god it's a flying cow ... but the guide told me that Shiva did a favour to people, because he took all the burden of people on himself. And what's the use of a cow?? So he saved people by making it his transport. This is way too funny for me. Shiva thought that there is no use of a cow, and now 1.2 billion people worship it as a sacred animal cause it's Shiva's transport :)
I also asked him about the reason why Indians constantly make stories up, and he said it's for better understanding. Say for example I bring my son in here, and there is this generator in there. I think it's dangerous as it can shock my son, so if I'll see him go in that direction, I can't explain him yet about electricity and the danger of it, so I'll just tell him that there is a snake living behind that generator, and it will scare my son away, and then my son could tell it to his friends, and friends to friends, and soon enough nobody will approach this generator!!
So I call them liars, but they call themselves fairytale makers.
We then went to a chicken factory (the cloth kind), where we saw chicken making in process, which is very famous in Lucknow, but all this embroidery seems very old fashioned to me, and very disappointedly, I don't appreciate all the delicate work that goes into creating these cloths, in fact, I don't think it looks good at all, and I would pay more money to have no chicken on my shirt! :)
The tour has ended, they showed us around for 4 hours for only 50 rps, but we found the tour so interesting, and them so nice and friendly and informative that we gave them a 500 rp tip.
On the way to the train station it was so busy on the street that although it was only a 10 minute walk, I lost Andy somewhere on the way. I wasn't too worried, but Andy had the ticket, and I only knew the destination, not a platform number, not a train number, not a seat number. I had 10 mins before the train leaves, and luckily I found an English speaking tourist info, into which I barged in, and asked for help NOW!!! They checked their files and found my name, I was relaxed walking to the train when I saw Andy running towards me, grabbing my luggage, running in front of me with it, and screaming that the wagon is all the way at the end and the train is leaving in 1 minute! Not according to my watch, or the station's watch, it was still 5 minutes till the departure time. So while he was running with my luggage, I was slowly walking behind him (with no luggage) till I reached my wagon :)
We had a compartment with a couple and 3 children. Not the children again, and not through the night!! But unlike the devil child on the way to Lucknow, these 3 were such angles. Even though they were all under 8, they looked after each other, playing with each other, the elder ones were feeding the smaller ones, giving them hugs, entertaining them. It was a pleasure to look at them, and I even told the father of what a wonderful family he has. Their mother was not feeling so good and was in a lot of pain, and I couldn't see it under her sari, but she was pregnant, and the contractions started at the train. Soon enough we had the whole family (which seemed like the whole wagon) in our compartment, and all the train personal was there too. They stopped the train and the nearest station, and arranged an ambulance and a hospital for her.
11pm sleeping time, alarm set for 3am.


https://picasaweb.google.com/100036016632387453128/Lucknow