Town of His Holiness The XIVth Dalai Lama

As bad as the ride was the accommodation totally made up for it. And I'd be lying if I said that his Holiness Himself the Malai Dama greeted us, nevertheless we got a beautiful room to comfort our troubled tummies for 4 nights – for which Ems was more than grateful. The first thing was to hit the beds and zzzz...

Our tent from inside

 In the afternoon we went for a short walk and to grab something to eat. We realized 3 things:

1. The majority of the population was lighter skinned and had “differently-shaped” eyes – to be politically correct (Tibetan refugees and their descendants). 
2. Our shelter was quite an uphill walk from the town, and were closer to the next village, Bhagsu
3. An apple a day keeps the doctor away... If you throw it hard enough.

McLeod Ganj from upper entrance

The general impression about the town was a quite positive one: 2nd cleanest during our visit promoting recycling and living for a cleaner environment. On the bad side (but this has more to do with Mr. Monsoon): the air humidity was un-bear-able. Our clothes were always moist. And the clothes that we washed on the 1st day might have been more wet after 3 days then right after washing.

Keep it cool & green guys

The 2nd day (on Monday) was the weekend for the locals, therefore we could only visit the Buddhist Temple Complex of His Holiness the 14th Ladai Mala, and watched several Tibetan apprentices clap hands, tap their feet and shout at each other. As it turned out, they were Tibetan Buddhist students learning and debating in orange/red robes continuing ancient customs/rituals. But we're telling you: “There was definitely some monk-ey business going on in that temple”. Trapped by the rain for an hour or so, we just read more info, and replanned our trip, and even after that we couldn't visit anything else so we just strolled around the center, had a pleasant dinner – which was literally a whole lot that we've bargained for – and the first shared Kingfisher beer in weeks (since we were constantly overdosing ourselves on antibiotics).

JABT - Just Another Buddhist Temple

The Meal - that deserves a capital M - and the beer

After dinner we rolled up to the Dhal lake, that was 3km outside McLeod Ganj. On the way back we passed the Tibetan Children's Village. All in all it was nice little exercise before strolling home and crawling into bed.

The third day opened our third eye, and we've learned about the sad history of the Chinese occupied Tibet, the oppressed Tibetan culture, and about a population forced to flee their country over the Himalayas on foot and to live in exile in Nepal, Bhutan or India. All this through a nicely organized museum and revealing documentary.

Pipty years of resistance

 This was also the memorable day when we set aside our fears and gathered courage to try out any food that we came across on the streets. Some of them were tasteless stuff, but others were a tasty & cheap treat. Fortunately none of them resulted in diarrhea.

Kind lady offering 4 momos for less than "pipty rupee" - 10 rupee (0.12EUR)

The same day we hiked to a nearby waterfall that ended up in staring more at a pack of goats than at the waterfall itself since the rain trapped us on the way down in a small cottage. Interestingly enough the goat family found the same spot a welcoming shelter as well. It is good there are no laws in goat-land, because we witnessed them committing public affections of love while repeatedly hitting our legs.

On the way to the waterfall

The Bhagsu Nag

Go-at-tack

However the evening took a sad turn, we got bad news from home which forced us to end the journey and head back to Romania.

The replanning took us from McLeod Ganj directly to Delhi, where we boarded the 1st plane to Doha. Though we had almost a day layover time, without a visa we were trapped in the international zone of the airport. Next stop: Bucharest/Home.

Rooftop sunset before leaving, and after a hands-on tutorial about the using of the photo machinery

Illegal picture of Doha while landing

Toy Train To Little Brittain

The Ambala-Kalka train was 2^nd class, but quite comfy with fans installed overall the ceiling that moderated the climate. 

Ambala-Kalka - The underestimated 2nd class

After 1 and a half hour we changed trains in Kalka, boarding the so called Himalayan-Queen toy train between Kalka and Shimla. This is an old little diesel that runs on narrow tracks curving up the mountains at an average of 20km/h speed. The total distance to Shimla was only 94kms that took us 5 and a half hours, from 400m to 2100. It was an amazing ride over 102 tunnels and a lot of smaller / bigger viaducts with astonishing views over valleys and surrounding settlements that were spread over the mountains. 

Hialayan Queen aka.: Toy Train

Upon arrival we found out that Shimla is not just a little town up the mountains but the ex-capital of the state Himachal Pradesh numbering over 1.5 lakhs (150.000) of people, and it is like a piece of Europe thrown on a mountain. The town was developed and ran by the Brits until the independence of India in 1947 when it was declared the president's official summer retreat. The town is also the home of north India's oldest church – a catholic one – and the first building with electricity and self-triggering fire extinguisher dating back to the end of the 19^th century. Almost all the buildings residing in the old city wear the fingerprints of the European architecture, having a mixture of an Anglo-Germanic style with a touch of the decaying Romanian mountain resorts' look. Overall it is a very pleasant mountain town after the rush of the “low lands”. Moreover, preserve the heritage littering, spitting, plastic bags and smoking are prohibited all over town (public places) therefore maintaining a much cleaner look than that of an average Indian town (at least in the central area).

Christ Church & Library at The Ridge, Shimla

We were kindly guided by a tout to a more affordable accommodation than the one we previously looked up and despite our initial doubts the place turned out to be OK, with the friendliest staff we met until now (City View Hotel). One of them even invited us to into his room for a friendly chat about the area and possibilities to explore the Himalayas – which we had to turn down due to lack of time. For the first time during our travel we had to reach to the bottom of our bags and pull out the warm sweaters to make the evening walk pleasant. And during the night we used both our thin sleeping bags and the blankets provided by the hotel. After waking up to the disturbing fight of the neighbors – Mr. Monkeys – we set out to a short hike to the hilltop Jakhu temple at 2460m – 85m less than Romania's highest peak the Moldoveanu.

Jakhu statue at 2460m

Note though: due to the climate the vegetation here is still lush with high pines and a lot of monkeys. Near the peak we were advised to take wooden sticks with us to fight off the attacking monkeys that are said to steal everything that is edible or glitters, even spectacles (the Indian glasses).

Arriving back in the center we circled around the amazing brick buildings and sat down for a dinner. Interestingly, though Ems ordered European meal: fried chicken with French fries it still tasted very much Indian because of all the spices used. The evening ended with a soft drink on the balcony of our hotel that had a gorgeous view over the lights of Shimla. Afterwards we dozed off du­ring the 15min commercial break of a movie on the telly.

Evening walk - in front of the State Library

The next day started with a dizzy head and running noses for both of us – seemingly our bodies couldn't handle the cold waters and quick climate changes, including stepping in an ac-d ATM from the 36C of the outside world. But the 4.5km walk to the amazing Viceregal Lodge (currently Indian Institute of Advanced Studies) got everything out of our system and we enjoyed the remarkable Neogothic style of the Victorian era building, where at most 50 Indian and international bright minds can apply for a 2 year post-doctorate scholarship to research in the field of social sciences.

Ex-Viceregal Lodge

Having had a small pizza dinner in a cozy little café, we collected our backpacks and after a delicious masala chai we set out to find the bus station, from where a 10hr long bumpy way would take us to Dharamshala / McLeod Ganj – the home of His Holiness.

Rainy walk to the bus

For both of us this was the first, and rare chance to puke in the laps of an Indian, which we almost did, due to the bumpy curves going up and down, at a speed that was manageable (We guess) only by the driver and his co-pilot – after a 15 year long experience. Fortunately – for the Indian companions at least – Ems had some magic pills (and not those Es you take in the D. I. S. C. O.) that forced every goodness that we ate in the other direction at a much slower pace. In the end all of our prayers were answered, the morning came, flowers blossomed, birds sang and monkeys stole cookies from foreigners in the monsoon rain and we arrived to McLeod Ganj.

Thieves in Haridwar

Haridwar's dusk welcomed (if this word does not exist, then it does from now on) us with soft rain, and a big Ganga Arti fest, with lots of people bathing, singing, clapping their hands – though we thought we will miss it, because of the mysterious ways the traffic works in this country. The paparazzi was present here as well, and we were photographed with a dozen of Hindi strangers. After paying our contributions to Lord Vishnu (God of all good deeds, from whose feet the Ganges emerges) and to some government officers dressed in blue we walked until our accommodation through a never-ending (2km long) bazaar.

Ganga Arti fest Haridwar

River side bazaar view

 

Photo-shooting session #148

Side info: Haridwar is considered a holy city, ever since Mr. Vishnu all mighty left a footprint here. Therefore a lot of people & pilgrims visit it, because it is said that the fast current of the Ganges washes away sins (like watching dirty movies, when nobody is around). So we are forgiven. Thank God! – whoever that is around here.

 

The Third Tallest Lord Shiva statue in the World(100 feet high)

The night passed by quickly and after a Supernatural episode in the morning, a quick breakfast and checking out we set out to see two mountaintop temples, that were approachable by foot (duh!) and cable car (for the lazies). Since we both felt a bit out of shape, after a week of going here-and-there, always on the move, we opted for the cable car. The sight was breathtaking nice, and on the top we got into a line of people chanting and going from statue (?) to statue giving them little baskets of flowers / food / money and at every statue an orange robed guy gave us a pat on the back, a dot on the forehead and might as well baptized us again while urging us to pay some r€$p€ct to the Gods (they seem to run pretty low on cash and food nowadays). Some priests kept us on our knees until the amount of the donation pleased the upper neighbors. The temple in itself wasn't that much of a beauty, nor were the people rushing from statue to statue like sardines on a conveyor belt. After descending to the city, a quick bus ride and a rope-car (rest of the world: cable-car) hike we were on the other mountaintop, from where we had a better view over the whole town of Haridwar. Accompanied by several monkeys we walked until both entrances of the temples, but after seeing that the ritual is the same as before we decided that we will only enjoy the view and the sunshine.

Matyas: While I stopped to snap some photos of the monkeys, I've lost Ems for half a minute, only to find her in the center of a 20 person+ Indian group, all of whom were fighting over who to take a picture with her.

Paparazzi attack #216

 

Ems: Now I guess I can imagine how stars feel when going out in public. At first it is overwhelming, but after you get stopped in every 10 meters for “Just one photo please!” then it starts to get on your nerves since you can't enjoy whatever sight you went there to see.

According to our travel guide (lonelyplanet India book) the main attractions of Haridwar were checked on our list, therefore after a “Big Ben Special” Indian meal – that was hard to swallow at the end, we headed to the railway station, to catch the 7pm ride to Ambala. At the station we had our first encounter with a thief, that stole our bag of bananas that we stockpiled for the ride. Unfortunately we couldn't catch the little bastard, because Mr. Rhesus Macaques was too fast climbing up the closest tree. Yes, you might have guessed: it was a monkey. Up until this moment our reaction to them was a “touristy” one: “Oh look at that, how cute, let's take a photo to send to mum put it on Facebook, I bet my friends will like the monkey”. 

Sneaky bastard

The train ride to Ambala was a usual one, if you find a couple of cockroaches and a mouse as travel mates nothing out of the ordinary. But hey: they didn't bother, so neither did we. We arrived pretty late (11pm – compared to the nightfall that occurs at 7:15pm), and just crashed into the bed in the previously booked room. The 20 minute walk from the train station to the hotel was a bit scary, because some of the streets were totally empty, and sometimes only the bypassing cars shed lights on the road. But all went well and in the morning after waking up the receptionists we managed to check out and board the train to Kalka.

Heaven after Delhi

After Delhi we hopped on a night bus, and after a bumpy 8 hour journey we arrived to Rishikesh to see the sunrise over the great Ganga. Rishikesh is basically a yoga and meditation center and became famous due to the Beatles, who came here with Maharishi in the sixties. After that it grew rapidly, and now it's full of people from all over the world. Compared to Delhi it's a nice and peaceful little town spread on the two sides of the river, connected by two hanging bridges. It's full f ashrams, temples, yoga and meditation centers and it's fully vegetarian (there's only one restaurant where you can eat meat).

Laxman Juhla Bridge with 2 temples in the background

 Our hotel was on the hillside, we had an amazing view from the balcony over the valley. After a short walk among the bazaars and ashrams we quickly found our favorite restaurant/café right over the Ganges. We sat there for hours admiring the river, listening to chill music while eating garlic nan (it's kind of a pancake bread) with lassi (salty/sugary kind of milk) and banana shake. Unfortunately we totally forgot about the time, and we were late to see the ganga arti, which is a religious ceremony performed at sunset on the riverside, so we went home and listened to the chants coming from the riverside, while admiring some kind of glowing bugs on the tree right in front of our balcony.

Waiting for Matyas to pack / unpack his cr*p

The next day we rented an Avenger motorbike and set off to Chamba, a small town in the mountains 60 km from Rishikesh. The ride took about 2 hours, and it was legen- ... wait for it. Oh, and while in Romania the traffic is halted by passing through cows, here we had to slow down because of monkey herds sitting around on the road. The first section of the road was surprisingly good, with little traffic and we enjoyed the a 1000m ascent through the jungly side of the mountain. Then we hit sections where waterfalls were almost on the road, with water flowing across it, and where landslides damaged the way, and mud took over the pavement. Putting aside one little slide, where I let down the bike on its right side (while almost standing... in the mud), everything went smooth. Moreover the trip taught me how to use the honk properly:

1. If you see a pedestrian / cow / goat / rickshaw / monkey / anything that moves : HONK
2. If you start to pass by a car / bike etc. : HONK
3. If you don't see what's around an upcoming corner / curve: HONK
4. If the road is too narrow, allowing only one car to pass, then HONK, and step on it !
5. If you're happy and you know it, and you really want to show it, if you're happy an you know it HONK-HONK !
   
   

   

   220ccm of joy (Note: the most powerful bikes here are 550ccm, majority are <=250ccm)

    

Back to the trip : we arrived to Chamba(1645,294m), and as a good tourist had a coke, and since we had other plans headed back to Rishikesh. Krishna helped us wash down the dirt of the road, and we had a warm 30min monsoon shower, but nothing that we couldn't handle (at 15km/h). The last 15kms dried up our clothes, and we got back to Little Buddha Cafe, where we shared a plate of tasteless veggies – but the view & accompanying music made up for it. … -dary!

The awesome view from Little Buddha Cafe

The evening ended with us falling asleep. Good night !

But ! Before we got to that desired part of the day (evening) or of the room (the bed), we were eyewitnesses of a Hindu evening ceremony : Ganga arti, that took place at sunset, in the Ganges. During it, we clapped hands and nodded to whatever they were singing, and some people let candles and flower baskets down the river. Though my guess is that very few people really knew what was going on, it was a heart warming experience (we didn't, but our heart was warm ~ 36.5C warm).

Ganga Arti Ceremony in Rishikesh (Clap your hands everybody! Everybody just clap your hands! This is Curtis Blow and I want you to know that these are the breaks!)

On our last day in Rishikesh we set out to go trekking to a beautiful waterfall on the steep mountain side, which at first was a quite tiresome walk, but the resulting bath under it deserved every teardrop Ems shed during the climb. The explorer in us suggested that we should look for a second, even more beautiful waterfall, that is even further up the mountain. The hike was tough, and all in all a total failure, because after 30mins we met a baba (holy dude in orange pajamas), who said “[Indian accent] No waterfall mister. No no. Here no.”. On the road (both up & down) we were blocked by fighting ibexes which we found pretty cool until we noticed (on the way back) how afraid Mr. Orange Indian was of them. We returned to the lower waterfall, where we bounded with another Indian shaman, that told us how he knows about Nadia Comaneci and Ilie Nastase for some change, and with other locals & backpackers and had a great shower. Then we descended to the main road, where a local whom we met earlier took us in his already full car, and gave us a ride home and mumbled a something about drinking in different countries and dog sex, while having some watery whiskey. Anyway thanks random Indian for the 4km ride back to Rishikesh.

The well deserved shower after the hike

Having arrived back, we got our backpacks, and after a short meal and a 15min wait for the monsoon rain to stop, we bargained a rickshaw from 200INR to 80INR to take us to the bus stand from where we headed out to Haridwar, the next stop in *le journey.

Delhi:first,second and third impressions

After a really comfortable flight with Finnair (dinner,breakfast,pillow,blanket movies and what not all included) we arrived to Delhi. The airport was like every other one. It was air conditioned, but somehow we were sweating after 10 minutes. The metro took us from the airport right to New Delhi train station, which was near to our hotel. The metro was also air conditioned, and modern, probably the best one I've ever seen. So the first impressions of Delhi were not too different from the 'European' experience.

The first moment when we got out of the metro station into the buzz of the city was quite a shock. First of all, it was around 6:30 am, and it was already f`kin warm. But I think the humidity is even more shocking than the heat. Imagine that you`re just standing and not doing any physical work, and you instantly begin to sweat, your clothes get wet and clingy. Plus the air is full of smells you didn't even know existed until now. It`s suffocating, but exciting. You hate it and love it at the same time. We still don`t know where those smells come from. Some of them are probably incense sticks and flowers, garbage burning on the streets, dog shit, piss (which smells totally different than at home, it`s much more intense – believe me we're experts), charas (which is also much more intense than the weed smell we are used to), and car gas. After you get used to the fresh air of Delhi, you look around and see that the streets are full of people, cars, rickshaws, old bikes, carriages  and everything you can and can`t imagine. There are people standing, sitting, sleeping, spitting, eating, pissing, shitting on the streets. The cars and rickshaws are honking constantly since most of them don`t have rear-view mirrors and there are just a few traffic lamps. You always have to look around not to get hit by something (the honking helps a bit).

If all this was not enough for our sleepy morning eyes, there were people coming to us constantly trying to sell us something, take us somewhere or just get some money from us. I think this aspect was the most bothering of all. And still is.

Anyway, after a hard struggle with Delhi`s crowd we found our way to the Main Bazaar, which is a long road packed with shops, we finally arrived to the hotel in a narrow side street of the bazaar  which was a bit scary at first, since everything smelled of piss, and there were a lot of street dogs everywhere. The hotel was as nice as it could be in the middle of Paharganj. The room had no window (in this crowded city it`s not easy to find space for everything, the houses are all built over-under-near-inside each other). The room was clean, but smelled of some kind of disinfectant (the smell of naphtalin combined with petrol). Anyways, we were really tired, so we went to sleep for a couple of hours, and then we set off to explore this crazy city.

Random overcrowded bazaar 

The high-tech part of the city

I guess if you're new in a city people can see that you're lost, and usually they try to help you out. Well, in this case, Delhi`s populations was also trying to be really helpful... by trying to screw us over in every possible situation with a huge smile on their faces. The funniest guy stopped us when we were trying to get through the train station, and told us that we can`t go through for some unknown reason, and started chatting with us. He appeared to be really friendly, stating that he works for the government tourist bureau, the only official tourist office in Delhi. He took our guide book, showed us the building on the map (which was truly the official office), and hired us a rickshaw to take us there to get free maps and some info. All of this happened so fast, that we didn't even have the time to realize that he might be lying. So we went into the office, it was modern, air conditioned with a lot of computers. The guys inside were kind and helpful. If it wasn't for the holy gps, we wouldn't have realized that we were part of a nicely arranged scam. But luckily Matyi quickly checked our coordinates and realized that we are not in the right office. So we thanked them for their kindness and left as fast as we could. This was the most elaborate scam we've come across till now, but there were many-many others as well.

Jama Masjid - Largest indian mosque

After the first day we started to get used to how things work in Delhi, and it was easier to find our way. We got used to the heat and the smells, and to the fact that we couldn't trust anyone. We got used to being constantly stared at, and we took hundreds of photographs with Indian people, like some Bollywood soap stars. The most demanding were young boys and families with little children. We have a picture with me (Ems) holding a 6-7 month old baby.

Preparing for photo-shooting with indian family and guest Bollywood star: Ems

We survived Delhi without food poisoning or getting hit, and by the end we came to enjoy the hassle of the bazaars. We will definitely go back for 2 more days at the end of our trip.

Red fort

Qutub Minar - Tallest stone tower in India  & 1st Muslim minar (72.5)

Main Bazaar - view from nearby rooftop cafe (our favorite)

Lotus temple - Bahá'í House of Worship
Baha'i is a very modern & interesting mono-God religion

So it begins...

En:

Heyhey!

We finally left Romania, and after an adventurous bus ride we arrived to Budapest. Our advice so far: the OrangeWays bus company is not the best option if you want to travel comfortably and arrive on time. I`ve already traveled with them several times, but this one was the most...well "interesting ride". Matyi, who started off in Miercurea Ciuc had to change buses 4 times, 2 of the buses were the so called "maxi taxis", the third one appeared to be a something like a city-bus, and the last one was a normal, comfortable long-distance bus. We changed this last one in the middle of nowhere at a gas station. The fun part was, that no one checked our tickets. Not once :D. 

Luckily we arrived to Budapest today morning, got to one of our friend`s place and after a short rest we went out to explore the city by bike.

Here`s a typical must-have tourist picture of us on the "Heroes Square".

Our flight tomorrow leaves to Helsinki at 11:40 am. By Thursday morning we should be in Delhi.

Cheers to everyone! 

Hu:

Hali!

Végre elindultunk Romániából , és egy igen kalandos buszutazás után az Orange Waysel(párszor átszállitottak a semmi közepén maxi taxikra, városi buszokra és végül egy kényelmes buszra, és egyszer sem ellenőrizték a jegyünket) megérkeztünk Budapestre.

No de szerencsésen megérkeztünk Budapestre egyik ismerősünkhöz, és egy rövid pihenés után elindultunk egy bringás felfedezőútra.

Itt egy tipikus turista kép rólunk a Hősök terén.

Holnap 11:40-kor repülünk Helszinkibe, csütörtök reggelre meg már Delhibe kellene legyünk.

Üdv mindenkinek, jelentkezünk Indiából :D

Greetings!

En:

Hi everybody!

Our journey to India starts on Monday, 26th of August. We have to go to Budapest by bus, and then from there off we go to ... well, still not India. We fly to Helsinki first, and from there a 7 hours flight awaits us to the land of curry. Our planned route so far is: Delhi-Rishikesh-Haridwar-Chandigarh-Kalka-Shimla-Dharamshala/Mcleodganj-Amritsar-Pushkar-Jaipur-Agra-Delhi. Hopefully we`ll have time to see everything.

Our past week was a bit hectic, since we left pretty much everything for the last minute. Now almost everything is arranged. We got the visas this week, I (Ems) got two vaccines (typhoid and hepatitis A)...Matyi the brave decided that he can fight the laws of medicine, and doesn`t need any immunization, but he is not brave enough to fight malaria, so we`ve bought large amounts of doxycycline, since the magical Malarone is not available in our beloved country. It will be fun to take antibiotics for two months :).

So what`s left to do is packing and enjoying the journey. As far as the packing is concerned we have to bring some light clothes, mostly long pants, and t-shirts, since it`s not polite to wear shorts and tank tops (especially for women). Other than that we`ll have a lot of medicine for diarrhea, plenty of hand sanitizers, sun creme, raincoat, belt pouch for money and passport, snacks and of course toilet paper (in India people use the left hand to wash their private parts with water).

So follow our adventures and see you in October, if everything goes according to plan.

Hu:

Szépjónapot mindenkinek!

Hétfőn, augusztus 26-án indulunk Indiai utunkra. Először Budapestre buszozunk és onnan majd tovább repülünk Helszinkibe, majd a curry országába. Egyelőre ezt az útvonalat szeretnénk bejárni: Delhi-Rishikesh-Haridwar-Chandigarh-Kalka-Shimla-Dharamshala/Mcleodganj-Amritsar-Pushkar-Jaipur-Agra-Delhi. Remélehetőleg mindenhova elérünk a szűkös 3 és fél hét alatt. 

Az utóbbi hét elég zsúfoltra sikeredett, mivel mindent utolsó pillanatra hagytunk. A héten megkaptuk a vízumokat, én (Ems) kaptam két oltást (tífuszra és A hepatitiszre). Matyi úgy döntött, hogy ő kemény és nincs szüksége oltásokra, viszont a maláriával nem szeretne megküzdeni, úgyhogy felpakoltuk magunkat egy jó nagy adag doxycyiclinnel, mivel a Malarone csodagyógyszert szeretett országunkban nem forgalmazzák. Fasza lesz 2 hónapig antibiótikumot szedni :).

Mostmár csak a pakolás és a mókázás van hátra. Ami a csomagolást illeti, egy pár vékony pólót és hosszú nadrágot viszünk, mivel ott nem illik rövidnadrágban és majóban az utcára kimenni (főleg nőknek). Ezen kívül viszünk egy csomó gyógyszert hasmenésre, egy halom kézfertőtlenítőt, napolajat, esőkabátot, polóalatt hordható övtáskát pénznek és iratoknak, egy kis rágcsálnivalót és persze budipapírt (indiában az emberek a bal kezükkel mossák meg a hátsó fertályukat).

Kövessétek kalandjainkat és ha minden a terv szerint megy akkor októberben találkozunk.