Tonight Deb and I take the night bus to Shimla...it leaves at 9:30pm and should roll into shimla at about 7am. our fingers are crossed that it is more comfortable than some of the other buses we have taken...that have seats like school buses without any sort of cushion at all. We were spoiled on our way here as there was a deluxe tourist bus that was very similar to Greyhound buses in canada with reclining seats and all...but sadly no deluxe buses travel to Shimla.
We went to the teaching of the Dalai Lama yesterday which was a pretty incredible experience. We were seated about 40 feet away from him, in an area that was almost 100% monks...I wish that i could have brought my camera in (but it was not allowed due to security reasons) because every direction I looked there was a photo just waiting for me. Some of the monks have some weathered faces filled with such kindness that it turns them into real characters. The teaching itself was interesting...hard to follow at some times because the dalai lama would speak and then he would stop and the interpreters would speak (we listened to english on a radio with headphones) so sometimes there was a 10 minute delay from point to point...which made it hard to follow sometimes. He is here all week and Deb and I might go again this afternoon if the rain lets up.
I have never in my life seen rain like this. the monsoon has started here now and yesterday it was raining so hard that you could not see 5 feet in front of you. Our room has a balcony that overlooks a ravine and then the rest of the town is perched on the hillside across the ravine. Well it was raining so hard that the town completely disappeared. All we could see was water driving down. It was incredible. No wonder so many places here flood, I can't imagine a drainage system that would be able to handle that amount of water.
Deb is off getting another thai massage and I will follow her shortly. We had to check out of our hotel room at noon and our bus doesn't leave until 9:30, so we have a few hours to kill and wonder about...so a massage seemed like a really good way to spend 1.5hours of that...wouldn't you say. Especially when it is raining.
Well this could be my last post for a few weeks. The cottage we hope to rent outside of Shimla isn't really near an internet cafe...so we could be out of reach for a while...
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Thursday, June 22, 2006
How quickly things change
Just the other night, Deb and I made the decision to join a group from our guest house and travel north to Kashmir. The trip would have had us riding ponies, camping, sleeping on a house boat in Kashmir...we were so excited. Then we sat down and talked about the 14 hour ride north and then the 14 hour ride back south...and then the 10 hour ride further south to Shimla where we are renting the cottage and then the 12 hour train ride to Delhi...and decided just to stay put and save ourselves 24 hours of travel...a good decision me thinks.
Today we woke up early, had breakfast and had planned on a 6-8 hour hike...but Deb woke up with raging allergies and I woke up with Delhi belly...so we decided not to go. Well actually that is not true. We got dressed, hiked for about 30 minutes straight up hill and then I had to pull the plug due to lack of energy. So we returned to the guest house, had a nice long nap and then made our way out for some lunch and now email.
Had a thai massage yesterday. It was 1.5 hours of twisting, contorting, stretching where everything from my baby toe to my ears was massaged (minus a few vital areas in between :)). It set me back $10 and it was GREAT. I am trying to convince Deb to go for one tomorrow...because I am definitely going again. It was great. My hip loved it...probably the only thing in India my hip has loved...because the beds here are ROCK hard. Like sleeping on the floor with a bag of flour as a pillow.
Rained a little today which cooled things off nicely...it was getting a little humid here...and I left Toronto to escape humidity...
Today we woke up early, had breakfast and had planned on a 6-8 hour hike...but Deb woke up with raging allergies and I woke up with Delhi belly...so we decided not to go. Well actually that is not true. We got dressed, hiked for about 30 minutes straight up hill and then I had to pull the plug due to lack of energy. So we returned to the guest house, had a nice long nap and then made our way out for some lunch and now email.
Had a thai massage yesterday. It was 1.5 hours of twisting, contorting, stretching where everything from my baby toe to my ears was massaged (minus a few vital areas in between :)). It set me back $10 and it was GREAT. I am trying to convince Deb to go for one tomorrow...because I am definitely going again. It was great. My hip loved it...probably the only thing in India my hip has loved...because the beds here are ROCK hard. Like sleeping on the floor with a bag of flour as a pillow.
Rained a little today which cooled things off nicely...it was getting a little humid here...and I left Toronto to escape humidity...
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
A perfectly lovely day in Dharamsala
Well today was one of those days where everything just clicked. I woke up when my body was ready and not when an alarm clock told me to. I had a very nice breakfast of Mueslix with fresh fruit, toast and my favourite...masala tea on the rooftop restaurant of our restaurant. The view from there is of the rolling hills and the snow peaked mountains. Then Deb and I went and registered with the Tibetan World Office because as luck would have it...in a few days the Dalai Lama will be here (in his home town) doing a week long visit with public teachings. So we can attend any of these teachings now and have been told that we are guaranteed to meet him and shake his hand. My knees get weak at the thought. (Kim L I will be thinking of you on this day).
After completing that, Deb and I began a 4 hour hike up the mountain where the views were simply stunning. There was a restaurant at the top of one of the peaks where we took a moment to rest and take in all the splendour. Ahhhh...this is what travelling is all about.
We made our way down (only getting kind of lost once) and had lunch at another rooftop restaurant with a gorgeous view. Fresh salad, potato parantha and spinach momo were on the menu. Nummies! I love my momo's!
Now night has arrived and we prepare ourselves for the biggest decision of the day...where to have dinner and what beer will accompany it? Our room in our guest house has a balcony where if you sit long enough you will see eagles flying almost directly in front of you as you are perched high up on the cliffs. It is wonderful to watch them float past. Such stunning animals.
So as you can see...slowly I have fallen in love once again...this time with India.
After completing that, Deb and I began a 4 hour hike up the mountain where the views were simply stunning. There was a restaurant at the top of one of the peaks where we took a moment to rest and take in all the splendour. Ahhhh...this is what travelling is all about.
We made our way down (only getting kind of lost once) and had lunch at another rooftop restaurant with a gorgeous view. Fresh salad, potato parantha and spinach momo were on the menu. Nummies! I love my momo's!
Now night has arrived and we prepare ourselves for the biggest decision of the day...where to have dinner and what beer will accompany it? Our room in our guest house has a balcony where if you sit long enough you will see eagles flying almost directly in front of you as you are perched high up on the cliffs. It is wonderful to watch them float past. Such stunning animals.
So as you can see...slowly I have fallen in love once again...this time with India.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Soaking in the tub
You can't wipe the smile of Deb and my face right now. For the past 3 nights we have been staying in a glorious hotel. We have 2 rooms...each with king size beds and a bath tub where we have been soaking every night. Deb's room has a fireplace and with the nights quite cool in the Himilayas, we have enjoyed room service and a fire for the past 2 nights. Nothing quite like cold beer, wood oven pizza and a fireplace to make 2 travel tired canadian girls glow.
We were joking that we have hardly seen any of Manali and the surrounding country side because neither of us wants to leave the hotel room because it is so nice to have some luxuries.
We have gone on a couple of nice walks here...the mountains are lovely and remind us both of Alberta. Even though the shape of the mountains and the vegetation is quite different here. WE plan on doing a nice long hike tomorrow (if we can drag ourselves out of our comfortable king size beds in time :)).
On Saturday we take an overnight bus to Dharamsala...and then we have decided to not go to Rhajasthan because the papers are reporting temperatures in the high 40's...and we are not so sure we can handle that. So our friend Munnir is looking into a cottage in the mountains for us. We hope to rent one for a couple of weeks. Unpack our backpacks, cook our own meals and feel like we have a home even if it is only for a few weeks.
We were joking that we have hardly seen any of Manali and the surrounding country side because neither of us wants to leave the hotel room because it is so nice to have some luxuries.
We have gone on a couple of nice walks here...the mountains are lovely and remind us both of Alberta. Even though the shape of the mountains and the vegetation is quite different here. WE plan on doing a nice long hike tomorrow (if we can drag ourselves out of our comfortable king size beds in time :)).
On Saturday we take an overnight bus to Dharamsala...and then we have decided to not go to Rhajasthan because the papers are reporting temperatures in the high 40's...and we are not so sure we can handle that. So our friend Munnir is looking into a cottage in the mountains for us. We hope to rent one for a couple of weeks. Unpack our backpacks, cook our own meals and feel like we have a home even if it is only for a few weeks.
Monday, June 12, 2006
Some Hampi and dirty delhi
Well once again it is proving difficult to get images onto the blog...sigh...because I have so many photos to post. Patience Christine...patience
From Shimla to Manali
Well let see...there seems to be so much to tell. We spent about a week in Shimla which is a cute little city built on the side of a hill...reminded both Deb and I a little bit of Positano in Italy. We had planned on staying there only for a few days and then going further north to Manali. But a few days turned into over a week when we met some wonderful people. We even ended up checking out of our room and staying at their house. Got to see how an Indian family lives...it was nice. Also had our first home cooked meal in 3 months which was lovely.
It reminded me a lof of when I met my friends in Spain. We were spoiled rotten by Munnir and Aftab...they didn't let us pay for a thing or lift a finger. We had dinner made for us, bought for us, they did our laundry, drive all around the city trying to find us a bottle of wine when we mentioned that we liked it. They hired a car to drive us to Manali so we wouldn't have to take the bus and then we had to fight them to even let us pay for that. It was hard to leave...I am sure they would have kidnapped us if we had allowed it.
We got to Manali yesterday and found a guest house to stay in which cost us about $6/night. But it wasn't quite what we wanted. The room was small, we were tripping over one another, we had to ring a bell in the morning so that someone would bring us a bucket of hot water and we had to have a bucket shower. So today we said screw it. We have been roughing it for 3 months. So we are now safely tucked away in a gorgeous room (still only costing us $45/night but that is loads here in India). It has a sitting room, a huge king size bed, a bathroom that is bigger than the room we were in last night and a TUB. Yahoo. There are towels, shampoo, soap...Ahhh. All the things in life that seem simple but are missed dearly when they are not around. The room even has hardwood floors and I feel like I can walk on it without my shower flip flops. These are gonna be a good few days!
It reminded me a lof of when I met my friends in Spain. We were spoiled rotten by Munnir and Aftab...they didn't let us pay for a thing or lift a finger. We had dinner made for us, bought for us, they did our laundry, drive all around the city trying to find us a bottle of wine when we mentioned that we liked it. They hired a car to drive us to Manali so we wouldn't have to take the bus and then we had to fight them to even let us pay for that. It was hard to leave...I am sure they would have kidnapped us if we had allowed it.
We got to Manali yesterday and found a guest house to stay in which cost us about $6/night. But it wasn't quite what we wanted. The room was small, we were tripping over one another, we had to ring a bell in the morning so that someone would bring us a bucket of hot water and we had to have a bucket shower. So today we said screw it. We have been roughing it for 3 months. So we are now safely tucked away in a gorgeous room (still only costing us $45/night but that is loads here in India). It has a sitting room, a huge king size bed, a bathroom that is bigger than the room we were in last night and a TUB. Yahoo. There are towels, shampoo, soap...Ahhh. All the things in life that seem simple but are missed dearly when they are not around. The room even has hardwood floors and I feel like I can walk on it without my shower flip flops. These are gonna be a good few days!
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Friday, June 02, 2006
Down and dirty in Delhi
Our last few days in Goa were waterlogged. Our beautiful ocean view was tainted by endless monsoonal rains, our room leaked (only a little) and it was amazing to watch the beach disappear. When we arrived the there was probably about 40 feet of beach before you hit the water...on the day we left the waves came right up to the restaurants and many of them were starting to tear down and close up shop for the monsoon which can last several months.
Our decision to fly to Delhi was wonderful. A 2 hour flight is much more appealing than a 40 hour train ride. We arrived last night at around 8pm. Deb was getting a little panicked as she has been dreading Delhi since our arrival. But it all has been quite smooth and not so bad. We got a prepaid taxi that took us to our hotel (which is expensive for India...but still cheap when you consider we are in a city of millions and barely baring $15/night for an airconditioned room with tv)had some dinner, went to bed. We have been out on the streets of Delhi all day...it is a crazy place but not as bad as either of us had imagined. Cows, people, rickshaws all seem to cohabitat in one place without too much confusion or anger.
Tonight we are getting on an overnight train north to Shimla and the Himalayas. It is cooler there (as Delhi was 33 when we arrived last night) and it is supposed to be spectacularly beautiful. Things are not really looking like they are going to work out for volunteering in Cambodia...so we are not sure when we will leave India or where we will go next.
Our decision to fly to Delhi was wonderful. A 2 hour flight is much more appealing than a 40 hour train ride. We arrived last night at around 8pm. Deb was getting a little panicked as she has been dreading Delhi since our arrival. But it all has been quite smooth and not so bad. We got a prepaid taxi that took us to our hotel (which is expensive for India...but still cheap when you consider we are in a city of millions and barely baring $15/night for an airconditioned room with tv)had some dinner, went to bed. We have been out on the streets of Delhi all day...it is a crazy place but not as bad as either of us had imagined. Cows, people, rickshaws all seem to cohabitat in one place without too much confusion or anger.
Tonight we are getting on an overnight train north to Shimla and the Himalayas. It is cooler there (as Delhi was 33 when we arrived last night) and it is supposed to be spectacularly beautiful. Things are not really looking like they are going to work out for volunteering in Cambodia...so we are not sure when we will leave India or where we will go next.
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