All of the Indians knew I was coming. I'm a bit famous here if you didn't know. Everywhere I go my adoring fans call out to me. They've come up with... well, a bit of a nick name for me. I am their beloved Miss Rickshaw. Everyone wants a piece of me:
"Excuse me, Miss Rickshaw! Miss Rickshaw?!"
People crowd around me in droves to get a good stare in at their dear Miss Rickshaw, they even ask me to take pictures with thier kids. Moving on.
Olly and I seem to be psychotic, we are psychotic because we willingly made the decision to take a 26 hour government bus from Pokhara to Haridwar. No AC, and once again no shocks in bus. My tailbone literally hurts. Also joining us on the bus were 2 delightful German brother's named Lars and Nick. I was so exhausted from the trip that once we actually got to Haridwar I slept for a day and a half. I felt like instead of riding the bus I had been hit by one. I finally forced myself awake and Olly and I took a cycle rickshaw to the Ganges.
View more photos The water there was loads cleaner than in Varanasi. I washed my arms and face in the freezing fast flowing water. I would have jumped in for fear of being swept away.
I wanted to be cold, cold and comfortable. We decided to split the cost of a car with the Germans to Manali, high up in the Himalayas. Another 15 hour drive and here I am, deep in the mountains, surrounded by hills and hippies. More stories of that soon.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Leaperosy
For photos related to this visit:
http://realtravel.com/member-m1765740-katie_the_gnomad.html
I heart Nepal.
It's like India but turned down a notch. I have finally arrived in Kathmandu after many days of traveling. Olly and I didn't last long in Varanasi. The heat there was enough to make even him want to high tail it out, and he's Indian. We stayed one night in a hotel overlooking the ghats. All of the other travelers there were trading stories of weird infections they had picked up in the city where cows are 1 to every 4 people. Apparently 1 night was enough for me to pick one up to. I think I need a shirt that says "I went to Varanasi and all I got was this lousy infection." Seriously, it's like the plague manifested on my neck. Seeing the Ganges was surreal, smelling the smoke from the ghats was even more-so. Our hotel had a great roof top terrace that overlooked the Ganges.
Our plan was to head to Darjeeling, but due to political situations tourists were not allowed to enter. So we curbed our plans and headed into Nepal. I am like a kid at Christmas when I get a new stamp in my passport. Upon entering Nepal I got 2 stamps and a new visa. My excitement was quickly killed by the bus ride to Kathmandu. No shocks, no rules, and a sick stomach. Ask me about this when I get back if you want a good story for now it is to close to re-live.
Kathmandu is a lovely city brimming with Tibetans. I have been to some beautiful temples and met some extremely helpful people. Today dearest Olly and I went to the monkey temple. We had to hike up a huge hill full of stairs as monkeys and dogs played together all around us. Tibetan prayer flags were waving in the breeze. The view and energy was incredible. This place is incredible.
As for the Leaperosy on my neck, it seems to be getting better. Check out the pictures, it was pretty nasty. It hurt me to turn my head.
Anyway needing some good fresh music? Check out "Amit Chaudhuri" Sounded pretty rad.
The adventure of Craig
A Couple of years back when I last frequented India my brother Craig asked me to keep an eye out for a tool that the Buddhist monks use to make the sand mandalas, I was unlucky. upon arrival in Kathmandu I began asking every stand if they had seen this instrument, nobody had a clue what I was talking about. Finally I found a little Tibetan shop brimming with turquoise and good energy. I was sitting discussing the politics of china with the owner when I thought to ask him. next thing I know he was waving in a Buddhist monk and explaining the item to him. The monk proceeded to write out detailed instructions and drawing illustrations of the tool.
The owner of the shop offered to take me to a monastery by his house to request the item. We were off!! We zipped through the streets on his motorcycle until we reached the giant Stupa, a dome shaped temple with a cone and eyes on top. Once in the monastery we showed the item to monks who gave us directions to the local smith who could make an exact replica. We walked around the temple spinning the prayer wheels until we reach a small shack filled with Nepali's banging out designs on copper plates. My friend handed the design to the smithy and he agreed to have it done the following morning for 150 NR (about $2.50 if that)
The next morning the shop owner picked it up for me and met me at his store with it. The tool was then passed between monks who were very happy with the precise design. They took turns mocking how to use it. This tool should have some pretty good energy.
Nepal is amazing, I hope to come back here someday and take the 25 day trek to MT.Everest. Wanna come?
http://realtravel.com/member-m1765740-katie_the_gnomad.html
I heart Nepal.
It's like India but turned down a notch. I have finally arrived in Kathmandu after many days of traveling. Olly and I didn't last long in Varanasi. The heat there was enough to make even him want to high tail it out, and he's Indian. We stayed one night in a hotel overlooking the ghats. All of the other travelers there were trading stories of weird infections they had picked up in the city where cows are 1 to every 4 people. Apparently 1 night was enough for me to pick one up to. I think I need a shirt that says "I went to Varanasi and all I got was this lousy infection." Seriously, it's like the plague manifested on my neck. Seeing the Ganges was surreal, smelling the smoke from the ghats was even more-so. Our hotel had a great roof top terrace that overlooked the Ganges.
Our plan was to head to Darjeeling, but due to political situations tourists were not allowed to enter. So we curbed our plans and headed into Nepal. I am like a kid at Christmas when I get a new stamp in my passport. Upon entering Nepal I got 2 stamps and a new visa. My excitement was quickly killed by the bus ride to Kathmandu. No shocks, no rules, and a sick stomach. Ask me about this when I get back if you want a good story for now it is to close to re-live.
Kathmandu is a lovely city brimming with Tibetans. I have been to some beautiful temples and met some extremely helpful people. Today dearest Olly and I went to the monkey temple. We had to hike up a huge hill full of stairs as monkeys and dogs played together all around us. Tibetan prayer flags were waving in the breeze. The view and energy was incredible. This place is incredible.
As for the Leaperosy on my neck, it seems to be getting better. Check out the pictures, it was pretty nasty. It hurt me to turn my head.
Anyway needing some good fresh music? Check out "Amit Chaudhuri" Sounded pretty rad.
The adventure of Craig
A Couple of years back when I last frequented India my brother Craig asked me to keep an eye out for a tool that the Buddhist monks use to make the sand mandalas, I was unlucky. upon arrival in Kathmandu I began asking every stand if they had seen this instrument, nobody had a clue what I was talking about. Finally I found a little Tibetan shop brimming with turquoise and good energy. I was sitting discussing the politics of china with the owner when I thought to ask him. next thing I know he was waving in a Buddhist monk and explaining the item to him. The monk proceeded to write out detailed instructions and drawing illustrations of the tool.
The owner of the shop offered to take me to a monastery by his house to request the item. We were off!! We zipped through the streets on his motorcycle until we reached the giant Stupa, a dome shaped temple with a cone and eyes on top. Once in the monastery we showed the item to monks who gave us directions to the local smith who could make an exact replica. We walked around the temple spinning the prayer wheels until we reach a small shack filled with Nepali's banging out designs on copper plates. My friend handed the design to the smithy and he agreed to have it done the following morning for 150 NR (about $2.50 if that)
The next morning the shop owner picked it up for me and met me at his store with it. The tool was then passed between monks who were very happy with the precise design. They took turns mocking how to use it. This tool should have some pretty good energy.
Nepal is amazing, I hope to come back here someday and take the 25 day trek to MT.Everest. Wanna come?
Monday, June 23, 2008
AmsterDam!
The past few days haven't made much sense really. What with the ridiculous time changes, massive amounts of walking, and partying it up as only Amsterdam knows how, I'm kind of whooped. You see, in Lancaster, PA it's 10:30 AM, in Amsterdam it's 4:36 pm, and here in sunny India it's 8:06 pm. Quite frankly my body doesn't know what to think. Now for stories of Amsterdam:
ORANGE, Orange, everywhere. Orange hats, banners, shirts, troll dolls, ties, wigs ect... Holland's futbol team is kicking it's way to the finals. There was such a great sense of teams and unity. It got me thinking about how divided the USA is, we don't even have a decent national team. In fact our idea of sports is fighting against ourselves, the rest of the world isn't even invited.
I stayed at my new usual hostel "The Hans Brinker." Their motto is "It can't get any worse, but we'll try". This slogan actually got Nancy into a bit of confusion ala Absolutely Fabulous. One day after frequenting a coffee shop we decided it would be a good idea to draw on the walls with crayons. I kept mine fairly small and simple, Nancy went a lil' ape shit on the walls. All the while Derek sat on his bed looking at us in awe of out idiocy. The next morning the cleaning lady came in and it went a little something like this:
Lady(in dutch): Yadda todadda yadda yadda yadda!! No!
She said this as she pointed towards Nancy's bed. We looked around playing confused, like we didn't know what she was talking about. Then she made a gesture of writing in the air and yelled NO! Nancy apologized profusely while I continued to play the confusion card. Then she started counting us on her fingers,
Lady: 1. 2. 3. Yes? us: Yes mam...3 of us Lady: Oh, so sorry sorry, so sorry. She walked out of the room, and we never heard a word about it again. I'm still none to sure what happened.
My birthday was AMAZING. It started with our new roommates singing to me at 12:01 am "happy Birthday" In Finnish. The next day we were all pretty exhausted so we spent hours in a cute little cafe, called saloon, near the hostel. There we drank numerous coffee delights, and played board games. We also met Mike and Jo (yo) the most beautiful young bartenders you are likely to find. Later that night my old friend Lex took me to see an improv group called "Boom Chicago". It was hilarious!I even got a big birthday shout-out from the cast. We ended the night at our favorite falafel place. Speaking of falafel, it's pretty much the only thing we ate in AMsterdam, mmmm falafel. Afterwards I headed down to the hostel nightclub to meet with Nancy and Derek. At which point we tried to teach the Finlander how to speak some American slang. "I'm hella hungry Yo" He sounded mildly like he had down syndrome.
And now here I am in India, one day earlier than expected. I sometimes struggle with dates and times. My ride here thought that I arrived a day later than I actually did. Last night I got off the plane, took a rickshaw to the general area that I thought their apartment was at, then wandered the shanty towns of Mumbai. I had all of my bags and it was HOT and HUMID. I eventually had to cave and get a $100 hotel room nearby, so much for my budget. I'm not positively sure how long I am staying here. I figure I'll stay til' it's time to go, then I'll leave:)
Miss you all!
ORANGE, Orange, everywhere. Orange hats, banners, shirts, troll dolls, ties, wigs ect... Holland's futbol team is kicking it's way to the finals. There was such a great sense of teams and unity. It got me thinking about how divided the USA is, we don't even have a decent national team. In fact our idea of sports is fighting against ourselves, the rest of the world isn't even invited.
I stayed at my new usual hostel "The Hans Brinker." Their motto is "It can't get any worse, but we'll try". This slogan actually got Nancy into a bit of confusion ala Absolutely Fabulous. One day after frequenting a coffee shop we decided it would be a good idea to draw on the walls with crayons. I kept mine fairly small and simple, Nancy went a lil' ape shit on the walls. All the while Derek sat on his bed looking at us in awe of out idiocy. The next morning the cleaning lady came in and it went a little something like this:
Lady(in dutch): Yadda todadda yadda yadda yadda!! No!
She said this as she pointed towards Nancy's bed. We looked around playing confused, like we didn't know what she was talking about. Then she made a gesture of writing in the air and yelled NO! Nancy apologized profusely while I continued to play the confusion card. Then she started counting us on her fingers,
Lady: 1. 2. 3. Yes? us: Yes mam...3 of us Lady: Oh, so sorry sorry, so sorry. She walked out of the room, and we never heard a word about it again. I'm still none to sure what happened.
My birthday was AMAZING. It started with our new roommates singing to me at 12:01 am "happy Birthday" In Finnish. The next day we were all pretty exhausted so we spent hours in a cute little cafe, called saloon, near the hostel. There we drank numerous coffee delights, and played board games. We also met Mike and Jo (yo) the most beautiful young bartenders you are likely to find. Later that night my old friend Lex took me to see an improv group called "Boom Chicago". It was hilarious!I even got a big birthday shout-out from the cast. We ended the night at our favorite falafel place. Speaking of falafel, it's pretty much the only thing we ate in AMsterdam, mmmm falafel. Afterwards I headed down to the hostel nightclub to meet with Nancy and Derek. At which point we tried to teach the Finlander how to speak some American slang. "I'm hella hungry Yo" He sounded mildly like he had down syndrome.
And now here I am in India, one day earlier than expected. I sometimes struggle with dates and times. My ride here thought that I arrived a day later than I actually did. Last night I got off the plane, took a rickshaw to the general area that I thought their apartment was at, then wandered the shanty towns of Mumbai. I had all of my bags and it was HOT and HUMID. I eventually had to cave and get a $100 hotel room nearby, so much for my budget. I'm not positively sure how long I am staying here. I figure I'll stay til' it's time to go, then I'll leave:)
Miss you all!
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