Lazy Leh

Not been up to much since I got to Leh, partly due to recovering from the mad minibus ride from Manali, but I do like the place so far. Have met some nice people here already, and hopefully going to some kind of full moon party in a couple of nights. In the day time I've been doing lots of reading and writing again, going for little walks and checking out the more local sights. Yesterday I climbed up to Leh palace and explored the inside of the building, including one corridor with an open doorway at the end with a sheer drop back down to the town below it. Then climbing right to the top for amazing views over Leh and the rest of the valley.

After the palace I went to the Ladakhi Women's Alliance, where I saw a film called Ancient Futures - Learning From Ladakh. It was certainly thought provoking, though I also thought it was overly negative. The film was by a westerner observing the effect of modernisation on Ladakhi culture and ecology. I've had similar arguments before about modernisation and whether traditional cultures should change/be changed. I think given the nature of the world and how it's virtually impossible to be isolated or insulated from it (North Korea being the exception perhaps), it's a losing battle to prevent the spread of culture - for better or for worse - across national or traditional boundaries. All you can really do, in my opinion, is with a lot of things - "harm reduce"; attempt to mitigate the worst effects of modernisation and the spreading of other cultures. For example, the film was very critical of the education system in Ladakh (in the 90's), because all it was teaching children was foreign languages and how to get jobs in an industrialised society, whereas Ladakh was a completely rural/co-operative society traditionally.

Like I said, it's a thought-provoking subject!

Today I kept things a bit lighter and walked out to the Donkey Sanctuary outside town, which was excellent. In Ladakh, donkeys are used as beasts of burden but often when they get older and lose their strength they're just turned lose to wander the country or the streets of Leh, where they're often attacked by packs of stray dogs; the strays sometimes will eat baby donkeys too. I met a couple of other travelers there, despite it being in the middle of nowhere, on of whom had brought 1.5kgs of carrots and apples to feed them.

I can't help feeling sorry for the dogs too, though. I guess this is common in many parts of the world, but there's so many strays wandering the streets of the towns and cities, surviving by scavenging the waste of humans.

Conversely, I wonder what people who insist pigeons are vermin think about stray dogs in places like this? Are stray dogs also vermin? This is one of the things I love about traveling, it makes you think about things you never would normally, and blurs the lines a lot with domesticated animals. In the west we have these very clear lines about what gets eaten (and usually cruelly intensively farmed), what gets shot or poisoned because it's clearly vermin, and what we take home, look after, share our family lives with and are outraged at bad treatment of. Traveling in countries that don't follow these rigid boundaries can be quite eye opening.

Personally the only conclusion is that all animals should be treated fairly, and we should take fucking responsibility for the "vermin" in our towns and cities: it is there, and behaves as it does, because of us being the filthy, disgusting, polluting animals we very often are.

"A nation can be judged by how it treats its animals." - Gandhi

Laid back in Manali

Manali is pretty awesome. Sal, if you read this, imagine a cross between the laid back / hippy spot / mountains of Sana and the resort feel of Pipa, though without the beaches and with the most spectacular mountains I've seen in a long time. The place is in this really narrow river valley (the River Bea I think it's called), the mountains on either side, covered with pines, leaping high into the sky all around, with snowy peaks in the further distance.

The place I'm staying at has a roof you can get onto, so I can chill up there and soak up some rays away from the noise of the main road (of which there is one here in Old Manali). Or I can read or write in my nice little room with the windows open and the curtains half closed to let in some breezes. In town it's mostly small restaurants, cafes and guest houses, with scatterings of shops selling Pashmina shawls and other clothing, or New Age stuff. There's a music shop on the corner where the path down from my place meets the road so I can always hear some music playing in the background. Yesterday I wandered back down to New Manali, which is a bit more Indian - more people here on holiday from other parts of India, more shops and general bustle. This has its good side - I found a small bookshop and a copy of the Hobbit, which I'm now reading after finishing Perdido Street Station and State of the Art (both great books).

The Aussie couple in the room a few doors down have gone on their medium paragliding flight today, in preparation for the long flight tomorrow I think. We watched Australia V. Ghana together last night which was fun, and I've done a book swap with them... no more lugging heavy books that I've read around with me. Got to keep traveling light.

Still haven't decided where I'm going next, but pretty sure it's between Dharamsala (where the Dalai Lama lives) or Leh (even higher in the Himalayas; the road's only just re-opened after the snows melting). Not in a rush though, am happy here for now.

Manali!

Have arrived in Manali after an incredible bus journey from Delhi. It feels so good to be here, with snow capped mountains around me, people that are normal instead of scam-merchants (so far) and some nice prices... my room is now costing me 300/night down from 600 in Delhi, and they do food too :D

I had a long think about my experiences and impressions so far on the bus ride, which was good. My first impressions of Mumbai and Delhi are still fairly negative... though I didn't really give them a chance, the sheer hassle of doing anything (particularly in Delhi) just drove me away in the end, along with the heat. People will lie through their teeth to get you to pay them, then pass you on to their friends who will also do the same, so you get caught in a pretty unenjoyable tourist rinsing conveyor belt of rip off after rip off. It's also the only place I've been where they'll demand a tip for EVERYTHING, and then shout at you that it's not enough no matter how much you give them. I even had a Jain priest do this - even after handing me the "rules for entering the Jain temple" list which included "donations are voluntary". It riled me to be honest, I almost wanted to drag him downstairs and make him read his own stupid rules. Especially with Jains being supposedly among the richest people in the city, with their temples stuffed to the ceiling with gold and silver...

So, Manali! Daunting bus ride through very winding mountain roads above some pretty big drops; crazy overtaking; cows, horses, monkeys in the road; sunshine and snow and snow topped mountain peaks beckoning in the distance. It's also pleasantly warm with a slight breeze, instead of roasting hot.

Internet is quite expensive here so probably won't post much, but I'm planning on staying for a bit I think, maybe go on some long walks and just enjoy the place hopefully.

Delhi

Arrived at Delhi around 7pm just as the sun was going down over the dusty roads and sprawl of buildings on the skyline. After some bargaining I've found a half-decent room and am about to head out to get some supplies (water, always water). Train was uneventful and fairly comfortable, ended up taking a different train as the one I was still waitlisted on the original ticket, but it didn't cost much more in the end and I should hopefully get an automatic refund back into my account of the first ticket.

Not much to report yet really! Going to check the city out tomorrow, then consider whether I want to stick around and maybe head to the Taj Mahal from here, or head north into the mountains :)

Am not feeling 100% health wise - I seem to have been predictably enrolled on India's #1 weight loss course, though so far it's just my bowels, the rest of me is still OK and food is going down fine. Am making sure to keep drinking plenty of water. Feeling just a tiny bit dizzy at the moment but I think it's just the heat... I don't want to think about what temperature it is here, but it's hot, and I've made sure to get a room with AC this time ;)

That's it for now!

One man in Mumbai

After we checked the train times yesterday Sam decided to catch the train to Udaipur this morning, so he left for Bangra station just after midday. I've booked a train for New Delhi leaving tomorrow night, I'm slightly anxious about whether I'll get on it or not as I'm on the wait list - in fact, after checking today, I'm still at wait list 18. Now what I think this means after reading up on it all, is the train is overbooked, so I might not get on it unless 18 people cancel their tickets before the day. I will get a partial refund. It seems a bit crap, as all the trains I checked for the next 4-5 days were waitlisted, not sure what to do if I don't get on it. Oh well, I've got lots of time so will have to wait and see what happens. I might just try and get on anyway, though the thought of a 23 hour journey with no seat/bed isn't too appealing...

Yesterday we visited the Haji Ali Mosque, at the end of a long causeway out into the Arabian Sea. It was quite an experience - the constant stream of people heading to and from the Mosque, the causeway lined with poor people (who are fed by the Mosque), the hundreds of little market stalls selling all sorts of crap, the goats (an entire family, including a tiny kid about the size of a kitten), and even a solitary sheep wandering aimlessly up and down the causeway. The Mosque itself was falling down a bit, but the sheer amount of people made it feel like it was a real local centre of... something. I would say religion, but there were lots of Hindu and western dressed people there too, and many of the people were just hanging out on the rocks or standing in the waves around the sides of the Mosque. Plenty of Muslims were there to pray, but it seemed as if a lot of people were just there to hang out. It was quite reassuring in a city where you read about there being lots of tension between Muslim and Hindu communities to see everyone mingling and generally looking quite happy. It was also rare to see everyone being fed:the people browsing the stores for kebabs or sweets, the poor people with their food from the Mosque, even the goats had some fresh greens to chew that someone had given them.

I spent today just wandering around Mumbai. Some of the architecture here is really incredible - the High Court building is pretty staggering, the scale of buildings here is just on another level to most other countries I've visited. Also managed to find a supermarket, so I now have my own toilet roll (my current place doesn't supply it) and some probiotic yoghurts and pills which were highly recommended by Ben, a guy we met in the Sports Bar a couple of nights ago, for staving off Delhi belly. So far my stomach's been coping reasonably well - about as well as can be expected when most food you eat is spicy ;)

Think I'm going to wait till I get to Delhi before planning the next leg of my journey, as I don't know if I'll get on the train tomorrow night or not... seeing as the waitlist hasn't decreased since yesterday, it's looking a bit unlikely. I'll check again tomorrow and figure out what to do.

Peas.

Mumbai

The dead dog's body flopped awkwardly in the road as the bus wheel rode over it. The free transfer car was driving me from Mumbai airport to my hostel a couple of suburbs over, and I was getting my first sights, smells and sounds of the city. A wave of heat had hit me leaving the airport, but the car had AC so I was fairly comfortable inside, compared to the chaos of the city rising and falling outside. Welcome to Mumbai.

Been here two days so far and it's a pretty interesting place, though not unlike most other big, dirty, busy cities. The area we've been staying in, Anderi East, is particularly chaotic and crowded - so much so that when the rickshaw dropped us off at the station earlier today we couldn't actually see it for all the people, market stalls, traffic, rubbish, random part finished bits of buildings, oh, and people.

I've already met some cool people here and received more travel tips and information than I can keep track of. My main man at the moment is a dude called Sam, from near Reading (UK), though I've had some really good conversations with a couple of other people staying at the hostel too, and we met a guy in the Sports Bar tonight (we watched the first World Cup match there) who we've found a cheaper place to stay from.

Spent yesterday and today exploring some parts of Mumbai, including a visit to the Gateway to India and the Mohatma Ghandi museum (the museum was probably the highlight so far, incredible how much he achieved in one lifetime through non-violent protest. It gives you hope that so much is possible through peaceful means). Tomorrow we've decided to move hostels to the cheaper place (here is 720 INR/night, there will be 300, and it's a lot more central).

We're also looking at booking train tickets soon, as everyone we've spoken to has recommended we head north, and I was thinking that anyway. Probably going to skip Rajasthan though as it's supposed to be baking, roasting hot there, and Mumbai's heat has got to me already a few times (it's not even that hot really, but very humid). Even if it was dry heat, the thought of cool mountain breezes and snow capped summits is incredibly alluring... so, going to have a proper dig in the LP tomorrow and figure out what's next.

Stay tuned! :)