Journal Entry 21

June 29th, 2003

"The End of India"

 

So I'm still in India...for a bit. My narrative left off in Kathmandu. Highlight of that city was some brilliant American-style pancakes at a restaurant recommended by some Peace Corps volunteers...topped with some homemade maple syrup sent to me by a friend back in the States!

I left Kathmandu, Nepal on May 27 at 5.15am after a paltry 4-5 hr sleep. By 1pm, I had driven a few hundred kilometers, exited Nepal illegally (something to do with a motorcycle), and entered India illegally (something to do with a passport stamp).

It is hard to describe how hot it was, driving a motorcycle in northern India, except to say that I know how it feels to be inside a hair dryer. The combination of a dust storm and having an open-face helmet ensured that my eyes would take a week to recover as well.

As the day wore on, I decided to say hell with it and just drive till I hit Delhi instead of stopping halfway. First meal was at midnight in Kanpur. Lots of chai-stops during the night to keep awake as I followed the famous Grand Trunk Road from Kanpur to Delhi. I noticed that India wakes up at the first tinge of dawn, around 4.30am, and the first item on the agenda is to shit on the side of the road. I later confirmed this on an early morning train ride.

Of course, the 1200km trip wouldn't be complete if my motorcycle weren't to take one last shit on me. So, at 9am the next day, merely 100km from Delhi, three teeth busted off the rear sprocket and the chain broke. Fortunately, I was 50 meters from a mechanic. I slept on a cot for 2-3 hours while he found a spare part and fixed 'er up.

In all, I made the Kathmandu-Delhi voyage in 33 hrs, including the mechanic stop. I don't recommend this, and actually I think/hope my memory may selectively delete this episode over time. When I arrived in Delhi, my eyes were blazing red, infected from the dust storm, and I could no longer open them all the way. When I got to a hotel, bloodshot eyes and black face (from pollution), the clerk asked, "What happened to you?!". I received almost celebrity status as the guy who drove from Kathmandu to Delhi without stopping among the Indians there.

Two days in Delhi saw me: (1) run out of fuel one last time, (2) send home the last of almost 30kg of extra stuff I was hauling around, and (3) sell the motorcycle. Funny...when I bought the cycle, as I drove off, I thought, "Ahh....freedom." When I sold it, I walked off and thought, "Ahh....freedom."

Then I headed north to the Indian Himalaya. Via train. One that broke down for 6 hrs, putting me in Shimla at midnight, during their 3-day annual festival. Hotels were full, and the supposedly Christian organizations of YWCA and YMCA would not even allow me inside to sleep on the floor. I slept outside the YWCA, on a sidewalk under a street lamp. The employees came out to look at me...cold-hearted bastards. I got up at 4.30am when it started getting light, and caught the first bus out of that hell-hole.

The next week and a half saw me making my way east and north to the Kinnaur and Spiti Valleys. This involved a healthy combination of bus breakdowns and landslides. I visited Nako (a few km from the Tibet border) and hiked to a point where you can see across a valley into Tibet...and Tabo (where the Dalai Lama plans to retire)...and Kibber (a small Tibetan village)...and Kyi (stayed in a Tibetan monastery perched on a hill below a cliff)...and Dhankar (another monastery with a stunning location atop a pointy hill). Had to do a fair amount of walking as public transport doesn't connect all these places. Cold here as well, as these villages are around 3500-4000m.

The landscape was very similar to what I saw in western Tibet--dry desolate brownish-red. It was interesting to see it on this side of the border...but I liked the real Tibet more. To me, two things stand out about Tibet in my mind. (1) The pilgrims that come from the countryside to visit the holy sights. A lot of times, they seemed to not have seen foreigners before and are so smily and happy and dirty...amazing people! (2) The smell of the monasteries...incense and grime and burning butter candles. Very unique. The Tibetan areas in India lacked these two characteristics.

Anyway, a couple days, another restricted-zone permit, some walking, some hitching, several buses, and lots of waiting around...and I was back in civilization.

Are things always peachy? No. Example: A day in the Sangla valley...Started by getting 500 rupees ($11) stolen at my hotel. Waited 2 hrs for a bus, loaded my pack on top, then found out they told me the wrong bus. A long ride later saw me arrive in the village of Chitkul. All places to stay full and most not friendly. Pondered walking 15km to nearest village. Started raining. Tripped and fell, tearing a new hole in my newly-patched pants. Finally found a place in a damp and mildewy room with a water-soaked floor. Sometimes you almost crack...

I met my friend Kris (from the USA) on June 13. Chilled out a couple days in the Parvati Valley. Did a long day-hike to an isolated village called Malana where you can't touch the people or any buildings or possessions. If you buy something...say, a Coke...they set it on the ground (can't hand it to you). And vice versa, you pay them by setting your money in the dirt.

I was quite ill from menicoccal meningitis (well, okay, it felt like it anyway), so we scooted over to Manikaran, where there are hot springs that supposedly heal all sorts of ailments. One day and three blazing-hot baths later, and I felt pretty good, so I guess they work.

A full day on Indian public transport put us in Dharamsala at midnight, where we were chased by a horde of wild dogs and all the hotels were full except for a really shady one where I got ravaged by bed bugs during the night. Morning, took the bus to McLeod Ganj, home of the Tibetan government-in-exile and the Dalai Lama. Didn't see him...would've been nice to hang out a bit, but didn't work out. Ate at a killer Japanese restaurant though, and snacked on brilliant walnut bread with honey...and ate the sommer sausage that Kris brought from the States.

Left the north (and the cool weather) and descended to the plains. Hit Amritsar, near the Pakistan border. Stayed at the Golden Temple, the holiest place for the Sikh religion. Pilgrims stay for free there, and eat for free as well--they serve something like 50,000 free meals every day! The Sikhs are amazing people...India's best. They're polite, friendly, they don't try to rip you off.

Also went to the Pakistan border to see the daily gate closing. Interesting. Both India and Pakistan have bleachers set up so that thousands of spectators can wave flags and jeer at each other while the guards high step and try to outdo each other during the gate-closing and flag lowering ceremony.

We were wait-listed on the 22-hr train ride to Varanasi, and that didn't work out too well. We ended up getting platform tickets and repeatedly getting told to get off the sleeper cars by the ticket dude. One nice Indian and his son sweet-talked the conductor and let us have one of their berths to share, while they shared their other one. That worked out nicely for us, as we got to Varanasi for about $4 each. I ended up sleeping on the floor of the train again, which was cool except when it started raining through the window on my head.

Three days in the Hindu wonderland of Varanasi: Indian river bathers, burning bodies, drugs, the highest cow-to-human ratio I've seen, a Bollywood (Hindi) film at the cinema. Here I learned that it is not advisable to wear sandals in a city covered in cow shit, when the power often goes out at night so you can't see it.

After seeing the home of the Tibetan government in McLeod Ganj, and Amritsar-the most holy city to the Sikhs, and Varanasi-the most holy city to the Hindus, we rounded out our "religious tour" by visiting Bodhgaya, where the Buddha is said to have gained enlightenment.

Left there two days ago and arrived in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). Here, we've eaten a lot of street food, relaxed a bit, and seen the Matrix sequel at an English movie theatre. If all goes well, we're seeing X-Men 2 tonight. It's somewhat shameless, I know, but I've been gone a long time and it's awesome to see these movies, especially for 20 rupees (40 cents) over a 5 rupee bag of popcorn!

Well, you know you've been in/around India a long time when you can drink the tap water for a few weeks straight--including in sketchy lowland places like Delhi, Varanasi, Kolkata, and Amritsar--and not get sick from it. Too long. So tomorrow I leave India, for good this time. Well, for now anyway. It's hot here...and about to get hotter.

"And like that, he's gone." (--Kevin Spacey, in 'The Usual Suspects')

 

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