India Part 3: Mountains, Valleys, and Yoga - Himachal Pradesh, India
Himachal Pradesh, India
Manali, Dharamsala / McLeod Ganj, Rishikesh, Haridwar, and Delhi
India Travel Tip #4: Hotel doesn't necessarily mean hotel. Apparently small street side restaurants sometimes call themselves hotels, but they don't have rooms.
India Travel Tip #5: Buy train tickets ahead of time. They sell out fast.
India Travel Tip #6: If you have the option (see #5 above) of a train or bus for long distance...take the train.
India Travel Tip #7: You'll never forget the smells of India. And I'm not referring to spices and food.
I boarded the minivan in Leh in the middle of the night, and for the first time in India we actually left on time! The first leg of the ride goes from 11500 ft (3500 m) to a pass over 17,400 ft (5400 m) in less than 2 hours. So, my normal method of staying slightly dehydrated was counter productive this time. As we passed 15,000 ft I started getting a little light headed and needed to start chugging water, which made the passing out feeling go away, but it still took a little out of me. For those who don't know, you want to be hydrated to deal with altitude. Being dehydrated is bad. I wasn't the only one with problems, however, as after topping the pass, about half the people on the mini-van had their heads out the windows and were vomiting. So small victory for me.
The Leh-Manali Highway is part of the old Silk Road between India and Central Asia. And history geek that I am, it was pretty exciting to know you're traveling on the same road that's been used for thousands of years. In fact, most of it was still just hard packed dirt, only some sections were paved, and in some places you just follow the tire tracks in front of you as there is no road. And the food and lodging options are much the same. After topping the pass, there are no more towns for a long time. While the mountain passes are still open, there are small tent cities, and by cities I mean a dozen people, who set up food stalls and beds for drivers and passengers. They even make cardboard fires for people when the mini-vans roll through. Though, I won't go into details, but one of the toilets was hands down the worse I've seen in my life, and that's saying something.
Driving through the Himalayas is pretty humbling. You're surrounded by 6000+m peaks while driving up and down switchbacks with thousands of feet in elevation change. The scenery starts changing from the sandy rock of the Leh area to a black and brown color. When you start descending the higher area and drop down to 14000-13000 ft closer to the town of Keylong, the color starts changing again to a rusty red with trees on the lower ridge lines again. And then you leave the high plateau and roll down the windows as the temperature starts rising. Going to Manali, you cross the last major pass which is covered in clouds and drop into the Kullu Valley. Unfortunately Manali is below 2000m, so back to the land of Mosquitos again. So after a grueling ride in a mini-van, which only broke down once!, we arrived in Manali.
In Manali you know you're shifting from the Buddhist north to Hindu India. Player flags and gompas start giving way to Hindu shrines and temples. But with the Tibetan refugees, the area is still a mix of religion and culture. I planned on doing a trek from Manali, but after several days I was unable to find trekking partners. It was the end of the season, so organized treks were over and I generally try to avoid taking off into the woods for several days alone in foreign countries. I think I'm just getting boring in my old age. After a few day hikes, I decided to move on to McLeod Ganj / Dharamsala as I didn't care to spend more time in Manali. It's one of those tourist towns that have reached a critical mass of trance music, reggae / rasta themed restaurants, and stores selling ache Guevara t-shirts. Which is fine if that's your thing, but not my cup of tea.
From Manali, I had another exciting 10 hr mini-van ride to Dharamsala. When we arrived after sunset, I headed off to find lodging with my new best friends for a day, a couple from Spain. And it was more difficult than planned. The Dalai Lama was starting a series of lectures the next day, and just about everything was booked up. So most places that had rooms where trying to charge an outrageous price for a small bug infested **** hole (literally). But, eventually we found a place with clean rooms and private baths. All for a surprisingly reasonable price.
I headed to the Tibetan Astro Medical Institute to get my Tibetan Buddhist horoscope done. I heard about it from an older documentary and thought it would be interesting to get your past reincarnations done. However, in the intervening 15 years apparently it has become popular and what used to take 3 days now has a 7-8 month wait and costs about $100. So the horoscope for myself and planned ones as gifts was not to be. I was able to get my life horoscope done however, and trying not to read too much into it, it was eerily close. The first thing she said to me when I sat down was, "you drink a lot, don't you?" Add her constant reiteration that I need to be tactful in my romantic relationships ha me thinking this Tibetan horoscope stuff was on to something. I was going to attend one of the Dalai Lama's lectures, but they were so crowded you need to sit so far back that you can't see or hear him and listen over a radio and headset. Not worth the waiting time.
I did several days of yoga with my new Czech friends Stephanie and Mirek and some short day hikes, but the daily rain turned me off from any longer treks. McLeod Ganj has a lot of yoga and meditation centers, along with the home of the Dalai Lama in exile, so you get an eclectic mix of people: Tibetan monks, western Buddhists, Buddhist pilgrims, Indian tourists, and western tourists, particularly the "spiritual" tourists. Or ones that just want to wear baggy pants, t-shirts, and a bunch of necklaces and bracelets.
And, as fate would have it, I got food poisoning. All in all, I had a pretty good run on this trip so far, making it 4 months before falling ill, and not even anything serious. The morning after throwing up all night, until about 5 am, I went out with a more defined 6-pack to try and have breakfast, getting some porridge at this Tibetan restaurant I frequented, which also happened to be across the street from the restaurant I got sick at. And seeing the morning meat delivery, I understood why. There were goat and chicken carcasses thrown in the back of a dirty truck bed, some hanging off the side, as it was driving down the muddy and air polluted streets. It was parked for about 30 minutes before they even carried some of the meat up to the restaurant. Seeing that, I sincerely doubt the restaurant had a fridge for the meat. So, back to vegetarian for a few more days. The worst part of my 2 day sickness was the tv. I actually had a tv, which was nice, because I had no shows on my iPad due to to amazingly not fast wifi service in India, and it was a little hard to read or study hunched over dry heaving. But there was one English Channel, which decided to run a marathon of the "Vampire Diaries." So after trying to watch a few episodes, I spent some time staring at the wall.
Another big change from the north is you start running into more beggars. Especially the mothers who only "need money for the baby" that they have. And I saw some poor, young backpacker, trying to help, make the classic newbie mistake. He offered to buy her some food from the street vendor. And within 3 seconds he was surrounded by a dozen other beggars all asking for food too. Then there's the guy who just walks right up (only to westerners of course) and says "I want money." "Me too, buddy, do you have some for me?" He walked away at that.
Next I had the decision to make of where to go next. It was either Amritsar and then through Rajasthan to Agra, or Rishikesh and down. So I did what any sensible person would do and flipped a coin. To Rishikesh it was. I boarded the overnight bus and it is going down as one of my top worst bus rides ever. The seats were broken and had weird angles and lumps to them, it was raining part of the time so everyone would shut the windows turning the bus into a literal sauna, and then the windows were broken so when people next to them fell asleep they would slide open and you would get a sheet of water smashing into your face. They would then wake up, shut the windows again, making it even hotter and more humid inside. Fun times.
The bus pulled in to a "side street" away from the main part of town and we were greeted by the rickshaw mafia. They fought their way into the bus and one would escort his "prize" through the others as he tried to get you to use his service. I promptly ignored them all, got my bag, and walked off into the city where I was able to negotiate a much more reasonable rate to the area of town I was planning on staying. After crossing the foot bridge to the other side of town, I turned into the first guesthouse and settled for my $3 room that would make my mother turn pale. But it had a broken fan with my own bathroom with 24 hour cold water and I didn't see any bed bugs, so who could complain? I even had the serenading music of the nearby ashram to entertain me during the day (and yes, I'm being facetious here). There was also apparently a ghat right down from my guesthouse, so I also got to enjoy all the Indian tourists and Hindu pilgrims walking by my room all day. For those who don't know, a ghat is an area of steps that lead to the Ganges River that Hindus use to bathe themselves for religious reasons. And there was a Hindu temple next door, so I got to hear prayers and music blaring over load speakers (you could hear it across the river) from 9am to 9pm. Every day. Never thought Ild miss the mosque's call to prayer. It's shorter and generally more melodic.
Rishikesh is also one of the Hindus holy cities, so, as I also discovered, no meat or alcohol in town. Well, there was a place to get alcohol, like anywhere, if you know where to look. But no meat, which I don't like. I also ran into my Czech friends, who arrived the day before and found a yoga studio, so I continued my lessons resulting in me being no closer to enlightenment and no more flexible than when I started. But I can do a headstand without falling over now, so that's progress.
The difference between Dharamsala and Rishikesh could not be more pronounced, largely owing to religious differences and the Beatles. Where Buddhism is generally a more solitary approach, Hinduism is larger on outward displays, resulting in loud ceremonies and a lot of noise. Additionally, after the Beatles visited many years ago, all manner of commercialized spiritual and yoga centers have sprung up. Though many are legitimate, many are also just aimed at making a dollar which definitely affects the feel of the place. There's also a very mixed bag of people: Westerners studying yoga for their teacher certifications, westerners legitimately studying and practicing spirituality, westerners embracing the "idea" of spirituality because they're running away from something, Hindu pilgrims visiting the sacred towns on the Ganges, legitimate Indian yoga teachers and yogis, and the assorted "spiritual" con-men and con-beggars. The most obvious scam beggars being the ones who wear the orange robes and dress like the legitimate sadhus and religious ascetics to con money off unsuspecting tourists. But at least they're equal opportunity con-artists, targeting western and Indian tourists alike. And then theres the guy all dressed up you tries to put the paint on your forehead with a blessing and then wants a "donation." But all in all, the town was a little to busy and noisy for me. But after being in the predominately Muslim and then Tibetan Buddhist areas of India, it definitely had that stereotypical Indian image to it, bright clothed people and all. But the worst part of all is damned monkeys. They actually haven't bothered me, I just don't like monkeys. They're dirty and mean. There was a festival in town, which involved a paper mâché goddess, loud bands banding drums and cymbals, and apparently very loud fireworks were called for during the day, which went over great with me. We all know I love loud, random explosions that I don't know are coming.
From Rishikesh I took the bus to Hardiwar, which is the major train hub in this region. Knowing what I know now, I would've pre-booked my train ticket to Agra or took the bus to Delhi and the train from there. After checking into a guesthouse, I went to the train station to get a ticket to Agra the next day. However, the trains were all booked, including Delhi, and as I already had a room I didn't want to pay for a night bus on top of that, so a bus to Delhi the next day it was. Hardiwar is another Hindu holy city, marking the spot where the Ganges leaves the mountains and enters the Deccan plain. So in the evening there is a big (and loud) ceremony at the temple by the river with people lighting candles on the flower boats they put in the river as offerings. This also means no meat. And as there are almost no foreign tourists in Hardiwar (everyone goes to Rishikesh), you also couldn't even get any eggs, taking the pure veg menu a little far for me, as I've been relying on eggs for my protein during my stay in the holy towns.
There was another uncomfortable bus ride to Delhi, but I did meet a man who wanted to practice his English that became a big help. As we were getting dropped off on the outskirts of the city, he showed me the metro system and which lines and stops to take to get to where I was going. So for the 18 rupees it cost for my token (about 28 cents), he saved me the hassle of dealing with the taxi and rickshaw mafia and I avoided the need to haggle with them after an 8 hour ride (did I mention we broke down twice, adding 2 hours to the trip and that the AC didn't work?). I headed to an area called Paharganj, a budget backpacker area close to the train station. Though not nearly as flashy or gaudy, the main road, Main Bazaar Rd, definitely struck me as Khao San Rd-ish (main backpacker rd in Bangkok that I can't stand). But, if you want budget options in cities, you're constrained by locale. So, unsuccessfully avoiding Delhi until the end of my time in India as planned, I decided to "upgrade" my lodging for 2 nights after the last few weeks to a place with a working fan, hot water (which didn't work), and wifi. The wifi was the important part as I'm trying to finalize some PhD applications. I have not been as efficient at working on these while on the road as I planned. And, after not having meat for a while, I set off for a late night diner. And, even though I am so craving a good BBQ (ribs, pulled pork, corn, and beans!), I settled for what i could find. And, as hard as this will be for most of you to believe, I had my first beer in 2 weeks. And I must say, it tastes so good when it hits your lips.