New Delhi for Christmas

Dec 22 - 30

I headed from Gorakpur to Delhi with the idea of having a few days to
find some new friends to spend Christmas with. I wasn't as home sick
as I thought I would be thanks to fewer reminders that Christmas was
indeed here. As you can see from the
picture, the Santa mask worn by the bar doorman would be better suited
to a bank heist. In the end it wasn't hard to gather a group of new
friends as many were in similar circumstances.

When I first arrived I stayed at
some of the limited cheap accomodation near "Connought Place"; a nice
tourst area with some newer western shops. I then moved the next day
to the more backpacker friendly area conveniently near the New Delhi
train station. It's more rundown but always interesting. I found a
fancy western coffee shop with free wifi access but expensive coffee
( 60 rp - still not bad ). I made a lot of great friends hanging out
at that coffee shop.

Buddah Stops - Lumbini, Nepal and Kushinagar, India

My new friend from Russia convinced me quite easily to make some short
detours to some locations important to Buddhism.
Lumbini is the birthplace of the prince who later became Buddha. The
bland brick building encloses the actual birthplace. There is also one
of Ashram's pillars here ( Kinda like a Kodak photo site marker but
hundreds of years older ;)

Kushinagar is where Buddha died. We had gotten up very early and it
was only when we were about to leave that the tour groups with
custom robes for the reclining Bbuddha started to arrive. One night in
each place and then onto New Delhi.

Pochara, Nepal

Dec 13 to 20th - Pochara, Nepal
Pochara is the Lake Louise of the Himilayas. It's the base
for treking in Nepal and has some of the most impressive mountains in
the country. It should be said though that while the Himilayas are
bigger they are necessarily more spread out whereas the Canadian
Rockies are denser and as a result more picturesque; but maybe I'm
biased ;)
I came across the two guys, Brice and Guillaume from France
who were with me much of my journey just up to and across the border
into Nepal. They were supposed to be trekking already but Guillam had
developed a stomache ulcer from the food in India and had to visit the
hospital here. I had a few drinks with them and they were treking the
next day. I (and the drinks) however decided my trip to Nepal was just
for reconaissance and any treking would be on another trip with more
time. A few recovery days later ( turns out the food from the bar
was worse for me than the alcohol ) I hiked up to a mountain village
nearby to get a look at the surrounding mountains. At the top I met a
Canadian couple from Toronto ( Mike and Kay on their Honeymoon ) and
they convinced me to stay overnight for the suunrise views. We had some
great conversation around the campfire and enjoyed the amazing night
sky. The next morning we were joined by a throng of tourists for the
mountain sunrise and then they risked their lives on an unmaintained
scooter down a partially paved trail and I hiked down. We were all
jealous of the paragliders way down! Some kids on the way down wanted
me to buy them a ping pong net.. I suggested they tie a scarf between
the poles ;) Had a good visit with them despite their frivolous
begging. I hiked up the other side of the valley to see the Peace
Pagoda and another great view this time of Pochara and the lake as
well as the mountains.

Kathmandu, Nepal !!!

Another marathon train, bus and and all day
jeep travel along with all the negotiations and the added border hassles
( three of us refused to pay the phoney India departure fee ) found me
in Kathmandu. I was hoping I had left the hassles of India behind but it
was not to be. At the end of my 5 hr treacherous mountain jeep ride I
learned from my trusty gps that I was being deposited on the furthest
ring road of Kathmandu and not actually in Kathmandu! When my luggage
was brought down from the roof rack I simply brought it inside and sat
expecting the driver to follow through on his sales-promise to drop me
in the tourist area downtown. A Nepalese passenger backed the driver up
which made me even more pissed off about my 'welcome' to Nepal. In the
end the driver took my suggestion to drop me at a mini-bus to the city
center. He had to walk me the last 5 min as he's not allowed to drive
into the city! My first choice for guesthouse was full so I took up a
suggestion frome someone I asked on the walk in - only problem was it
was a Korean guesthouse - Koreans only! After I described my welcome to
Nepal so far and given the late hour and a phone call to the boss I
was allowed to stay. Ended up there for 6 nights!
The tourist area in Kathmandu reminds me a bit of Bali, Indonesia... a
bit over the top. There are also many offers of illicit drugs on the
streets as well as glue sniffing kids rrunning around begging ( at
one point I saw them tearing down "Stop The Glue" posters
educating tourists on not giving to children begging - sniffing while
they ran around ) .
I spent my time in Kathmandu walking all over the city ( many signs
advertising a foreign education - Australia, Canada etc ) and up to the
Monkey Temple where I got a glimpse of the far away Mt. Everest. It
was suggested I take the Everest flight but after weighing the still
escalated fuel surchared price and seeing lame you-tube
videos of others flights I decided not to go. The 7am flight time
might've been a factor too ;) I had to take a 7am bus to Pochara the
next day anyways!

Bodhgaya

On my way out from Kalkutta on the train I read that the place
where the prince became enlightened ( and hence came to be Buddah ) was
in the vicinity.. so I decided I'd better make a detour.
Budhgaya is definitely the place to see all the varios robes assembled!
Many countries are represented with temples in the area. It was a good
stop despite the Dali Lama not being around to welcome me ;)

O' Calcutta!

Or as written in India: Oh Kalkutta!

Kalkutta used to be an amazing city. You can tell by what's left of
the immaculate old buildings that were constructed during their time as
a British colony. It's very sad to see the lack of care put into
the upkeep of those old buildings or even the once fancy sidewalks. Of
course there's a certain resentment here for those days of Imperial
rule but there is nothing Indian to stand in and instead there is a huge
inexpensive labour force just standing around amongst the litter and
grime.
I spent about 6 nights in Kalkutta and stayed in the backpacker area
despite a terrorist threat made to Sudder Street. It was
here in Kalkutta a mere 6 days after leaving Mumbai that I heard about
the terrorist attacks in the neighborhood I had been staying in there.
Kalcutta has what is said to be the busiest bridge in the world....
very hard to doubt given the sheer number of people and vehicles
passing over it. I've seen more vehicles on bridges but this is India
where each vehicle has on average 100 occupants.. I do exaggerate!

Picture from the Taj hotel

Here I am with some fellow travellers during our walk through the Taj
only a few weeks before the terrorists struck. All of us were staying
across the street. Florent from France (2nd from the right)
left after I did... only the night before the attack! He almost missed
his train too!
I ran around on my last day to take some pics of my 'neighbourhood'.
The first shows Leopolds looking east. Gokul, one of my haunts, is off
a little street to the left halfway back. You can see the NW corner of
the Taj at the end of the street. Next pic: The main part of the Taj
taken from the waterfront (east side). Main entrance is an annex just
off the right edge of the picture. The next pic is from the left
corner of the Taj pic and you can see the place I stayed.. back in tbe
trees kitty corner. My window is just in the trees. The last
building pic is a clearer view.. my dorm was the top floor. Last pic is
from the slums to the south and I understand was a terrorist boat
landing spot? It's the first non-walled access from the south. The Taj
and Gateway monument is hidden off to the left behind a
restaurant/wedding celebration jetty. You can see the naval shipyards
in the distance.

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