My debut

I'm writing from Goa now. It's nice here but hardly the paradise that I've heard so much about. I guess I've been spoilt at an early age in regard to beaches. Anyway, I'm shifting from the north to the south end tomorrow in search of white sand and blue sea (as opposed to brown on brown).


Mumbai, on the other hand, was much better than I expected. It has a very cool mix of history, yummy food, ocean front walks and interesting people. It's very clean and developed compared to Delhi and I spent a lot of time just walking around and taking the city in.

But the coolest thing was that I made my (small) entry into Bollywood. Okay, it may be a trashy film without any A-list stars but it does star the ex-wife of a very famous actor.

I was rounded up on the streets of the tourist district with a bunch of others who were were mostly European. We all started out very excited but the group grew restless as the day went on without anyone except me being filmed (I had a silent part as a security guard).

At 6pm (alleged finishing time) we were still waiting for a scene in which we were all supposed to play reporters and journalists. When it became clear that the shooting was going to run way overtime the Polish and Norwegians had an argument with our casting agent and ended up storming off without pay.

That just left me, a couple of French girls, two Canadian guys and an English lady. At 8:30pm our shot started, a scene where we burst in on someone's house at night. Because our number had decreased, our group was supplemented with several local extras who were supposed to stand at the back as we burst in through the front door.

I actually had a line to utter but I didn't even get to say it. The local extras were very keen to get their big bollywood break and most of the foreigners got pushed to the back of the crowd. It was funny really, we'd waited over twelve hours to be filmed and then didn't even manage to get on camera.

Anyway, I'm in Goa three more nights and then back to Mumbai for almost a week before flying to London...

Changi

I'm in Singapore airport, about to fly to HK. Singapore being Singapore there's not a whole lot to tell. Everything smells of frangipani and jasmine and the food is delicious.

And it was cool to see my friends Joan and Saz again.

Oh! and there was chewing gum stuck to the bed sheets in my hotel room.

I'll be in HK for several days and then I'm flying to Mumbai.

Some more mountain photos

Here are some more photos from my own trip up to Kedarnath before Mim arrived. I still can't believe I did the trek twice!

The route I took up to Kedarnath was the same one that Mim and I came back on. There were some horrifying landslides along the way.


At one landslide our bus had to stop because bits were still falling. This was the same spot where a guy appeared selling 'softee' icecream.


14km from Kedarnath the road ends and the sheep are sorted from the goats. Pilgrims have a choice of going by foot, pony or palanquin.


An old man and lady on my bus from Rishikesh had advised me to stay overnight in a village half way up the 14km trail. I took an upstairs room in this guesthouse and had dinner with the staff and other guests, crowded around the kitchen fire.


The next morning I woke up early and continued to follow the river higher into the mountains.


Finally Kedarnath came into sight. I was disappointed that the mountains behind were covered by cloud.


Close to the top I met the couple who had been on my bus. We walked the rest of the way together and the sky started to clear as we arrived in Kedarnath.


We stopped so that they could wash in the water at the top. I dipped a toe in and it was freezing!


By the time I reached the temple sky cleared and the view was incredible. While my friends went inside I sat out in the sun with some sadhus, politely refusing offers of marijuana.

Almost over

Mim and I are back in Delhi. She flies tomorrow and I fly the day after tomorrow (why does English not have a word for that?).

We've spent most of her trip in the mountains. It was quite a journey from Delhi but every step was beautiful.

Our first stop out of Delhi was Nainital, a popular Indian holiday spot in the mountains. The lake is set among steep hills. It was misty for the whole time we were there but stunning nevertheless.


From there we went to Kausani, a favourite holiday spot of Gandhi. Again, clouds blocked our view of the Himalaya range but the sunsets were incredible.


We had a whole day free in Kausani so we walked down through into the valley below, through some farms and small villages. This tree was a perfect resting spot.


From Kausani we took another couple of buses, climbing further up to Guptakashi. This was just a place to stay overnight, a little village stuck on the side of a mountain. Still, the view from our 100 rupee hotel window was good value!


Early the next morning we got on a bus for Gaurikund where the road stops. From there we did the 14km trek up to Kedarnath on foot, stubbornly refusing offers of porters and horses. It was misty most of the way up and I was worried that I'd dragged Mim such a long way without yet seeing any snow capped mountains.


I needn't have worried because when we woke at sunrise the following morning the view was stunning.


Keen to take advantage of the good weather I scouted around for a guide to take us on a day hike even further up the mountains. We found one named Raul and started off, loaded up with biscuits and water.


We were heading for a mountain lake called Vasukital at 4,300m. As we climbed, it begain to cloud over and we ran into a Sadhu who shared his appropriately coloured supply of orange lollies.


When we finally made it to the lake we were exhausted. We had climbed 800m on a goat track in very thin air. It doesn't show in this picture but the lake had an incredibly eerie beauty.


We didn't stay long because Raul (aka Mountain Goat) was worried about the weather turning bad. He raced back down the mountain with us struggling to keep up.

Mim and I then did the 14km trek back down to Gaurikund and managed to find a shared jeep to Guptakashi where we had left most of our belongings. After a night there we caught a couple of buses back down the mountains to Rishikesh.

Our last couple of days have been filled with sightseeing and shopping in Delhi. At a pavement stall selling old coins we met a hero, a short old man without any fingers. We were browsing coins when he started to yell and scream at the crowd that had gathered around:

"Look, if any of you are going to buy anything step forward. Otherwise please get lost. These people are nothing different from you, infact he probably speaks Hindi better than you do. There's absolutely no need to gawk, you've all seen white people before and these ones are fully clothed. Now get lost all of you before you scare away my customers and ruin my business"

So many moments to treasure!

The condensed version

After several blogging attempts have been foiled by powercuts I've given up hope of writing a long narrative (yay for you all). Thus the following lists, highlighting the most memorable moments of the trip so far.

Best transport moments:

- 19 people in a regular 4WD on a very precarious mountain road. Okay, actually 16 people and 2 small children in a 4WD and one man standing on the the ladder at the back.

- Missing the bus from Rishikesh to Delhi and then chasing it on my friend's motorbike wearing all my luggage on my back. I've noticed that many of my friends with bikes have been influenced heavily by 'Dhoom', the Hindi motorbike version of 'The Fast and the Furious'. Some Indian girls seem to have been influenced by 'Bride and Prejudice', judging by their increased confidence in approaching foreign male tourists.

- Catching the above mentioned bus and then having to sit virtually on the dashboard for seven hours, centimetres away from the front windscreen.

- Watching a landslide occur in front of our bus on a mountain road with a several hundred metre drop to the Ganges. The bus stopped and I tried allay my panic by contemplating the karmic value of death at that particular juncture. It was then that a local entrepreneur arrived crying 'softee, creamy icecream, softee, creamy icecream'. I didn't feel like one.

Best overheard Hindi conversations

- (a restaurant owner chatting up European lady who was showing off her stilted Hindi)
'Actually, your Hindi is better than Sonia Gandhi's'
"Thank you"
'Have you been to Nepal?'
"No but I hear it's quite beautiful"
'You are quite beatiful too'
(It was then that I snorted and betrayed myself)

- 'Quick, he's getting away! Quick, try and think how to say tea in English, I'm sure he wants to drink tea. English people like tea'

- (one guide instructing another on how to deal with foreigners) 'He's English. To English people you should say "hello". It's better if you say it loudly "HELLO!", and you should say it at least three or four times "HELLO, HELLO, HELLO!", then you can be sure that they have heard you. They like it when people say hello to them'

Pilgrim toughness rating on the 14km hike to Kedarnath

1. (you rule) Walking barefoot and carrying your luggage on your head
2. (yay me!) Walking and carrying your luggage yourself
3. (mild blessings for you) Riding on a mountain pony
4. (shame) Being carried by four boys/men on an open palanquin
5. (may you be reincarnated as a working mountain pony) Walking burden free while your exhausted wife carries all your luggage on her head. Telling her she can stop for a rest and then asking her to make you lemon water with the lemons she has carried from your fields. Showing off to a foreign tourist 'look how well she serves me'. Oh the shame, for I also partook of that lemon water. It was very good.

Tranquility moment

- Staying two nights in a 'Lord of the Rings' style mountain village with no electricity. Getting into my warm sleeping bag exhausted from walking after a glass of warm buffalo milk.

Sister's first day in India

- We step out of the hotel and she sees a malnourished baby cow. 'Oh, it's so cute!'. We then see a dog eating a smaller dog. It's already finished on the head and it making a go of the neck. I'm glad she could see the humour of the situation.