O man

April 15-18
Oman... it was such a covenient bus ride away I couldn't resist.
Immediately after I bought the bus ticket an American woman coming the
other way recognized me from Calcutta last November and gave me some
info.. expensive and almost non-existant public transportation. Off I
went anyways. Arrived at 10pm and stayed up all night at a 24hr
restaurant... made a bunch of new friends.. pic.. all Indian expats
working here ( but not as many as Dubai ). The 'Lonely Planet'
guidebook budget choice was still 'budget' at 10 Riels (27usd) but my
first room had bedbugs. I've already lost one battle with bedbugs in
Mumbai and was very happy there was another room available - switched -
whew.

I walked to the Sultan's palace. Above you see a picture of the back of
the palace on the water.. you might notice the red anti-aircraft guns
if you click on the picture to see the large version. He has a large
boat docked near my hotel as well.. I think it's his personal yacht but
it's maybe 6 decks and looks more like a small cruiseliner.

Dubai !

On April 3rd I flew to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates! Arriving late
I stuck it out at the airport until morning then headed into Sharjah
and then to the youth hostel in Dubai. This city is nuts.. it doesn't
make sense. So when I missed my flight out 4 days later ( horrible
traffic.. idiot taxi driver.. checkin after security.. and me only
giving myself 4.5 hours.. earliest I've ever left! )I didn't feel all
that bad and am still here trying to make sense of this city. First of
all... 80% of the population are 'visitors' most of which are workers
from India here to construct the city. The construction is hectic; for
example, the transit system is being constructed all at once... all the
huge elevated stations as well as downtown underground stations seem to
be at the same stage of construction! It's like they hire and train 50
crews at once and then lay them off or more likely hire them into other
projects later... (except many projects are being slowed, stopped or
cancelled due to the world economy). There were 10,000 one way
tickets out of here in the past while... and to try to take their
mind off of their 10 billion emergency loan from Abu Dabi the paper had
a story about "the bottom of the oil barrel" in Edmonton! Ok.. well,
the Edmonton story was just a neat coincidence.

The worlds tallest
building is here as well and just last summer surpassed the CN tower in
Toronto as the worlds highest freestanding structure period! It's
opening December '09 but get this... a Spanish guy in the hostel snuck
in and climbed all 162 stories! He didn't get spotted by security until
the top ( and by then he was on floors without outer walls.. keeping up
against the inside wall to keep from being blown off! The security
didn't actually aprehend him until he got back down to the bottom. At
the police station they erased all his pictures ( but I recovered them
for him.. then he decided not to share them with me ... grrr -
understood - I saw them though.. wow)! I'm not sure if he's been
extradited or is in jail... he had to go back to the police to get his
passport the next day.. no response yet on the internet!

Pics...
tallest building, 7-star tallest hotel, indoor ski hill etc. etc. etc...

Back through Delhi

I had trouble buying flights online for Airarabia.com so hopped on an
overnight train to Delhi and went to their office instead!
I was surprised my British friend Peter who I had met in Mumbai quite a
while ago now (November) was still in town. I had heard a month ago that
he was in jail in Delhi and then released a few weeks ago. They threw
his case out when they finally got before a judge after 3 months in
Delhi jail. Supposedly the Delhi jail is quite a healthy place and Peter
certainly looked better for it. He's back drinking and whatever else so
he'll be his rundown self again soon. It was very interesting to catch
up with him and I was relieved that no assistance was required nor
trouble lingering. My Australian friend Stewart was around as well
collecting older scooters he imports and fixes for Australian
collectors.

pics: dessert from Rishikesh - Canadian and Japanese friends enjoying
"Hello to the Queen" dessert.
Peter - quite a character. Mumbai,Bollywood and
now Delhi.

Rishikesh

March 14 - 30
I headed down to Rishikesh to catch Faith while she was
still there. Faith is an older traveller from Australia. She's been
coming to India every year for a long time and has many friends here.
I've hung out with her in Delhi ( we got our pictures in the paper )
Pushcar and now Rishikesh. One of her friends showed up a day after me..
another Canadian. Liza has been running an eclectic shop in
Toronto's hip Kensington neighbourhood for a long time. Two
other Canadian girls recognized her from her store.

Sittin' with the Dali Lama in Macleod Gange

March 9 - 13
A French couple in Amritsar mentioned that now would be a
great time to visit Macleod Gange as the Dali Lama would be presenting a
teaching and it was also the 50th anniversary of the uprising and his
'move' to India. I took the bus with 3 Canadian women and one American
husband all the way to Macleod Gange. It was a great group and it's the
first time in a long time I've been around so many Canadians at once!
Two of the women and a German woman we met and I ended up hanging
around much of the next 3 days.
The Dali Lama's teaching was translated and broadcast to our fm
radios. He mentioned the Chinese rulers occasionally as examples of
those who lack qualities he was teaching. Security was quite high at
the event and we weren't allowed to bring cameras.. so I have a
picture from the next day inside the temple from where I was sitting
and where he was speaking ;) As an added complication it has "Holi" in
India. This is a celebration which involves bombarding people on the
street with bright dyes and water. A Japanese man walking between
myself and my American Friend was bombed from above with green dye on
the walk back from the teaching. I've heard that Holi is getting a bit
out of hand... seems so. I didn't get hit but did threaten some kids
the day before who were mobilizing early.
ps - writing this from all nighter in Dubai airport... half asleep :o

Attari... border wth Pakistan!

March 6th
Friends from the morning train hopped on the afternoon train
back to Delhi - quick trip!! I went the other way and hopped on a
short local bus followed by a quick walk to the border with Pakistan.
The daily closing ceremonies have been tamed down recently but are still
very much oer-the-top.. as the lonely planet says - reminiscent of
Monty Python's "ministry of silly walks" .
As you can see from the pictures it seems more
like a football game than a flag
ceremony. It's much easier to get a good seat on the
Pakistani side which makes it all seem physically unbalanced as well.
I came back to find that I was supposed to leave something on my bed to
reserve it.. ended up spending the first night in a row of beds in the
larger hall mainly occupied by exotic european women... oh
well ;)

For more on the border click here to check out wikipedia's entry.

Amritsar - Staying at the Golden Temple!

March 6 - 9

Yet another overnight train.

The Golden Temple is the holiest of Sikh temples. As a tourist site it's on par with the
Taj Mahal in my opinion.. maybe even better. Historiclly, this is where
Indihra Ghandi sent in the troops to seek out Sikh
seperatists/terrorists killing hundreds of innocents in the process.
She was then asassinated by two of her own Sikh bodyguards which then
led to persecution of Sikhs in India and the exodus of many to
other countries including Canada. In Canada some Sikh terrorists
bombed an Air India flight which is seen to be celebrated by the Sikh
community in Canada resulting in ongoing issues in Canada. Does it ever
end? From paintings in the halls of the
Golden Temple it would seem the Sikhs put some effort into remembering
all of the persecution they've endured over the centuries. There are
many paintings of Sikh Gurus being tortured to death.. reminded me of
the torture museum in London!
The Golden Temple houses and feeds anyone who shows up...
including many backpackers. We seem to get preferential treatment and
put in our own little hall ( with a newer machine clothes washer..
which I fixed ;) . Many people sleep out in the marble foyer on the
ground and even in the walkways to the temple area itself. The
cafeteria is amazing... feeding 8000 a day open 24 hours. You get
herded past the utensil/plate area into a hall where you sit on the
floor as volunteers practicaly run by you refilling your plate from
buckets. If you don't finish in time you
risk being run down by the 'zamboni' floor washing tractor before the
next horde of people come rushing in; it's quite an experience! It's
all by donation too.

pics: 1&2 are 3D of the Golden Temple pic 3 is at
the end of my 3rd or 4th refill. Mmmmmmm Dal Fry!