This is it

The poet Amir Khusrau once wrote, inscribed on the walls of the Red Fort in Delhi,
"If there is a paradise on earth,
this is it, this is it, this is it!"
(Agar firdaus bar roo-e zameen ast,
Hameen ast-o hameen ast-o hameen ast.)
Now he may have have been talking about the breathtaking marble wonderland in the country's capital, but the same can be said for where we are at right now.
Yes me, cassandra and now nick, have not been keeping up with our posts lately, but surely not because there has been nothing to talk about. We have travervsed the northern half of the country now, having been to Delhi, Rishikesh, Chandigargh and Udaipur these past few weeks only now to find ourselves in the picturesque paradise, heaven on earth, of Goa.
We spent our time in Rishikesh with Gary and Marika (cass' parents who joined us for a week long holiday) meditating on the peaceful surroundings, doing yoga, tuning in and tuning out at classical sitar shows and a rafting adventure in the Ganga with Gary. We had such a blast with them and it was truly sad to see them go. I cant tell you how nice it is to see a familiar face after such a long time.
And being here with one of our best friends, the incomparable Nicholas Luchak, has been a dream for me and cass. We've been doing a pretty good job in my opinion in not driving ourselves nuts, but having Nick around has kind of brought us back to real life. And its truly great just having another set of wide eyes and an open mind to see all the wonderfully crazy things we have the past few weeks.
And seeing the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ashram in Rishikesh, where The Beatles visited in 1969, was the perfect way to start it off.
We spent the following weeks introducing nick to the indian railway system and general way of life. The Nek Chand Rock Garden in Chandigargh was like being able to walk through ones weirdest dreams and taking in the serene surrounding of Udaipur, the setting of the 1983 Bond-flick, Octopussy. Mixing with locals, taking art classes and being invited over for dinner,it was really just a swell time.
But now we are in Goa and have been for the past week or so. Its paradise. We've become friends with an unreal indian jam band, truly the most legit cool dudes in the entire country, who love 12 minute full out jams on classics and hate bollywood and typical mainstream india. nick even got the chance to jump on stage with em and pound out a couple zeppelin staples.
i also got treated to lobster dinner for my birthday which was pretty excellent.
We'll tell you more about Goa soon enough though, today we've embarking on a trans Goa scooty adventure. We'll show you what life looks like next time, the cameras already packed up. till then
love love love
this is it, this is it, this is it

Delhi to Goa

I have been advised to write a new post for this aging travel blog I have now become a part of.

There is apparently lots of ground to cover since the last post here, so i'll just add a fine story:

Whence i was dropped in Delhi, merely two days later i was shipped off to a beautiful highly religious tourist hippy city known as Rishikesh (also known as the Beatles' Indian stomping ground and home of Transcendental Meditation). Cassandra paired off with her parents for the majority of the week we spent there. Stef and I got into our own escapades dodging monkeys and fresh, frequently made prairie oysters. The amount of cow excrement in the streets was astounding.

I digress. One eve during our supper, within dusty one room restaurant, we were approached by a man who had been sitting next to us, also eating and previously trying to sell something to someone, which is in no way unheard of. He began to introduce himself as Mark Metcalf and ask where we were from, as we were obviously. He told us of his time spent in India, and how he had been living in India for quite some time (i forget exactly how long), and had lived in Canada, as well as the states, as well as Germany (playing in the Nina Hagen band which apparently made him millions of dollars).

After all the formalities, he began talking about his books. One which he published in the United States, and two which he published in India. The first was about his ingenious science experiment with ionized silver in water, which apparently solves nearly all disease and mental illness. He then ordered a glass of water, poured pure silver into the glass, and hooked up batteries to metal rods, which ran into the water. He insisted on drinking this every day.

As a side note, this man looked as if he had been smoking opium for 42 days on end, and spoke the like.

After the water experiment, he tried to sell us on his new book, which he wrote entirely based on information given to him by God through meditation. Because of this, he wrote it under the moniker of "St.Mark", because it would have been self indulgent of him to put his own name, since it was the word of god. Because calling yourself a saint is not self indulgent.

Long story short, i bought his books that he had burnt to a CD-R in microsoft word files, and had a sip of ionized silver water. Stef and I googled him the next day, and the only information on him was a faded image of him from the Nina Hagen band (he's the guy in the back right of this photo), and an online cease and desist from an ionized silver research group in the States, revealing that he had been accused of fraud and various other money making offenses. Also, apparently he used very very unhealthy amounts of silver in his drinks. Cool, huh.

India Rulz

From the Ganga, into the clouds...

a sort of "evening mass"

So we made it to Darjeeling, finally, from Varanasi and life couldn't be better. The cool, intoxicating mountain air is just the refresher we needed from the polluted, overpopulated yet blissfully typical India that was Varanasi. The peace of the mountains, and some long uninterrupted walks, have given us our first chance to really debrief and look back on our trip.

Varanasi was really quite special. The Holy City is supposed to be as old as other ancient cities like Jerusalem, Mecca and Athens (according to a postcard, an ever reliable source) and it feels such, walking through the narrow labyrinth of corridors known as the old city. The Ganga and the entire buzz around it is truly beautiful. We saw a nighttime service, with the Brahmins performing puja on the riverside at night. We also took a couple boat rides which gives you the true sense of how important this river really is to the people. They do it all in there. At any time of the day you have people swimming, bathing, brushing their teeth, doing their laundry and of course, cremating their dead, all in the same 6 km stretch of fresh water. All of this makes for one hell of a murky, dirty, milky brown holy river! There have been efforts to revive it, but as long as all of this continues, it seems hopeless. Which nevertheless seems to be OK with the people of Varanasi, so try to argue that.

We still dipped our feet in.


We took an evening boat ride to one of the burning ghats to watch the riverside cremation, which is honestly more somber and low key than weird or whacky as it sounds. I once even had to side step a funeral procession through the streets. Only the men of the family participate in the ceremony, where they carry the body to the ghats, make a fire with logs provided, slather the body in ghee (animal fat) and place the body in the fire. After that they seemingly just stand around chatting and remembering the deceased. The whole procedure is quite peaceful and eerily tranquill and serene and lasts a total of a couple hours.

The city also proved to be the most draining of all we’ve encountered so far, which may be why Darjeeling seems almost Zen like. But even with what seemed like every second person trying to usher you into their shop, sell you some hash or get you in their rickshaw, or all the, pardon my french, shit everywhere! (as cows run and roam free through every little street) the city truly had a cool vibe, with lots of little hippie café’s and music shops and hippies and cheap clothes everywhere.

Getting out of the city was another story though, one I’ll leave up to Cass. Til then...

PS these pics were supposed to be on cass' post but the camera died, i feel bad taking credit for the them. Thanks again uncle bill for letting us borrow yr digi! its really quite nice and great.
in the clouds...

HOLY MOTHER GANGES

hello all!
This week we have surfaced in Veranasi the home of the famous ghats that lead into the holy Ganges river.
The ghats are steps leading into the water where people from all over India come, to do pretty much everything. It is amazing how much is going on at one time in the same river. At one end there is the cremation ceremonies where the ashes are then released into the water. Then down that same river the city's sewage pipes are being dumped as well as many factories depositing toxic and other types of waste. Then further down the river there are people bathing, drinking the water and doing laundry. It is pretty crazy.
Also note to future travelers you should not get your laundry done in Varanasi or open your mouth in the shower.

As amazing as the action on the river is I found the state of the river extremely sad. I think the people have this feeling that because this is their holy river there is no need to protect it. Which is clearly not the case because from what I have read since being here is that most of the animals that live in the river are becoming endangered. So even though seeing the pilgrams pray and do puja in the river is enlightening, you feel saddened by the state that the river and city is in. It is full of pollution and garbage and it is ruining the sacred feel that this place should and once possessed. There is some notion around that people want to clean the river but in such an ancient city with strong tradition, I could see that kind of change would be difficult to encourage.

This thursday we will be trading in our prayer beads for hiking boots and heading to Darjeeling. Darjeeling is a little mountain town with amazing treks and white water rafting. I think it will be a really nice quite break from all the hectic places we have been.

Until then,
Namaste

UPDATE!!

shot of our evening camel journey in Pushkar

It has been forever since our last post. Sincerest apologies!
We encountered computer crashes and lack of time and technology at the camp and everywhere else we've been. Just wanted to say we are alive and well! Its only been 2 weeks but so much has happened its tough to know where to begin...

We went on a couple weekend trips to Jaipur, and a sleepy hippie mountainside town, Pushkar, completed our volunteering at the camp and in the slum school, have seen the Taj Mahal and now the Golden Temple in Amritsar, our current stop.

Pushkar was amazing! It was such a nice break from the hectic hussle and bustle of city life. The fact there was no rickshaws and you could get around on foot was blissful. It was such a peaceful, quiet and serene atmosphere, with lots of tourists and plenty of em hippies. The merch was super cheap and we climbed a mountain and went on an evening camel ride where we rode back into town under the moonlight.

We also finished our volunteering at the camp where for the last two weeks we taught in the slums at a makeshift school in the center. Kids would drop in everyday and we taught them the rudimentaries of the english language, math and played games with them. I can probably say it was the most amazing and rewarding experience of my life. We taught kids from the ages of 2 to 14, who would show up and just soak up as much as they could. They have nothing these kids. Some better off than others of course, but you had kids in rags, children bringing in their naked baby brother, their pet goat, etc. The people there live in huts made of sticks and tarps and held together with twine or plastic bags. Its hard to put into words the magitude of feeling one goes through being there. But there is also a sense of pride amongst them. They are happy and smiling and doing their best to get by. Their houses were all swept and tidy. There is alot more to say about our experiences there and I assure you, we will.
slum school group photo

In the end our time at the camp was well worth the experience and we made some good friends and travel partners as well. Our last week at the camp, 3 new volunteers showed up (from UK, Australia and Belgium). All girls naturally. It was like a week spent in silence for me, being the only dude amongst 6 chicks, but i must say, if anything, I learnt alot... Our friend Bhavani (aka Bini) is with us now in Amritsar and making the journey to Varanasi as well. She is a total blast to travel with and such great company.

We've now seen the Taj Mahal and the Golden Temple here in Amritsar which will have to be discussed in greater detail soon, and went through a 3 hour hell trying to catch a train in Delhi. Never go to Delhi. We make our way to the Holy City of Varanasi now to catch the end of the Diwali festival, a sort of Hindu Christmas, as descibed by Bini. Just wanted to update everyone that all is well and we will now continue regular posting. So long!

Ps Happy thanksgiving Canada


chillin

our first taste of bollywood

Last night in Sikar was a real night on the town. Cassandra, Beanie and I went out for dinner and a movie and got our first real taste of Bollywood. The theatre was an experience in itself. Men and women buy their tickets to the movies in seperate lines and there is arranged seating. Fortunately there was only 15 people in this massive one screen theatre so we sat where we pleased. There's also different ticket prices, like Deluxe, Super Deluxe and some sort of coach seating. We munched on Mirinda (Indian C-Plus) and chips.
We wanted to see "Love Aaj Kal", which is this huge movie here with the main theme being old and new love. But the flick we got to see was "Dil Bole, Hadippa!", which is essentially the Indian version of "She's the Man", about a woman who's an excellent cricket player and has to dress up as a funny little punjabi man to make the national mens team. Men, women and children of all ages to go see this stuff and love it!


It of course had all the requisite over the top song and dance numbers typical of Bollywood, and was pretty entertaining. Chaos and hilarity ensue of course, and although there were no subtitles, we got the gist of it. It even had a positive uplifting ending with a strong message about equality and peace between India and Pakistan. Essentially, the ultimate Indian film. ****/5

escaping the delhi belly

I am currently writing this from atop a rooftop restaurant enjoying a beer and some fries at the Moonlight Palace Hotel in Jaipur. We have now spent roughly over a week in fabled India and are now finally battling our first bouts with "Delhi belly". It looks like we are going to spend the day not sightseeing (not only cause we have seen everything in Jaipur) but instead in the hotel. Which isn't a bad thing. It will be a nice break from the chaos that is India. Our hotel is so fresh and so clean, compared to our grungy digs in Sikar.
So while Cassandra is keeled over in our room, I have to make my own fun (hence the beer and fries). Two of our volunteer friends (a South African named Beanie and an Aussie name Shoni, both of Indian backgrounds) are meeting us in Jaipur for dinner so we'll relax till then. We are at the moment in a state of reflection and reassessment. The trip is amazing thus far and going well, but our time at the camp, although nice, is a tad frustrating. The kids are so nice, but we dont always get a translator for our classes which simply makes some days spent teaching a waste. We are looking at maybe going WWOOFing or trekking for the next couple of weeks.
The food here (roadside and restaurants) generally doesn't make us sick and is actually really good. The food at the camp however is a little less tasty and has had a more adverse effect on our systems. But we'd rather spend our times being sick in the clean, beautiful and surprisingly cheap (500 rupees/$12 canadian a night) confines of the hotel. Rather than the cozy-yet-dingy atmosphere of Bajaj Trust in Sikar.
Uploading videos has proved to be tricky but I'm working on it. We will try to keep up our blogging as much as we can (the power does cut off in Sikar like 5 times a day unfortunately). But we will spend these next few days in rest and out of the hot sun. We're not due back at camp till monday night. Monday is the islamic festival of Eid, so schools are closed. But we will be back on our feet soon enough. Watch Out India!
Oh PS, the tourist friendly Jaipur is also a nice change from the constant stares we get in Sikar. Its as if the locals have seen an alien and don't mind standing looking at us wide eyed, mouth open or snickering or pulling our their cellphone cameras for a few not so impromtu shots. Sometimes 5 or 6 people huddling around the rickshaw we are in. But I'll let Cass tell you more about that.
Cass at the moment is halfway through Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums while I picked up the alternative theory book called Jesus Lived in India for like 2 bucks.
--elephant on the way to Amber Fort

--snake charmer on the way to the Monkey Temple in Jaipur

--this is Cass with our good friends, Jackit and Ali (the rickshaw driver) in Jaipur. We still hope to see him again.