Day 98:
C spent five months living in Nepal. Her gig there was working as a volunteer at a rural orphanage. But much of that time she spent hanging out with the hawkers who work the streets of Katmandu's Thamel district, selling junk to the tourists. So, here are a few facts that she learned which will interest no one save those who have visited Kathmandu:
One: The shops are almost all owned and staffed by Kashmiri people from India, not Nepali nationals. That common refrain of "it's from Kashmir" is actually an honest statement.
Two: Prices are marked up about ten times. The 400 rupee bag was purchased by the vendor for 40 rupees.
Three: During peak season, the shops sell only about three items each day, with a value of about 2500 rupees (60 bucks). Most of this goes back to the owner of the shop... who does not work as a salesman.
Four: The hotel bosses have a set rate for the rooms. The people staffing the place charge whatever they think they can get, and pocket whatever amount is over the set rate. The boss gets the rest.
Five: Before Nepal's royal family was mostly murdered, they hung out in Thamel during the off season.
Anyways. I've really grown to love Ladakh. It's a place of simple beauty, found in it's craggy mountains, dusty valleys, and even in its cities, made beautifully green by age old irrigation techniques. This is a place where I wish I could stay. I wish I could linger. But I cannot... this is a "long way home," not a expedition meant to find a new home.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Day 95, 96, 97
From Manali, I took a 2o hour jeep trip to Leh. Some of my seat mates suffered on that trip, but since such things are becoming rather routine for me, I fared rather well. Some of the high passes reached altitudes of more than 5000 meters, and I didn't suffer from alitude sickness either - clearly I am becoming some sort of Superman.
Leh is wonderful. The tourist crowd is a little less obnoxious than in Manali (and a bit older) and the backpacker ghetto encompasses only a portion of the town, unlike in Manali where it now covers the entire fucking place (I exaggerate). The city has a population of only 25,000, so it is nice that it has been able to resist that sort of takeover.
Leh's most noteworthy visual aspect is a collection of Gompas and Stopas that ring the city, all of the built on high hills and on the sides of mountains. I visited some of these places with C, a young German woman whom I have been travelling with since the jeep ride here.
The most fun that C and I had was visiting "Leh Palace," an old fort built on a high hill south of the town. It's a crumbling, ramshackle affair, once the seat of this region's "king," but now long empty and stripped of its treasures. While some basic restoration work has been done, it looks a lot like what Lhasa's Potala would look like if it has been left to rot for a century.
Sharing a room with C, each morning we have woken up around nine and taken a wonderful laissez faire approach to each day - the hours are filled with trips through the old town, unnecessary errands, trips to the post office, eating....
Truly these have been idle days, but idle in a relaxing way that was impossible in Manali, with it's horrible, horrible "scene."
Unable to get a jeep to Srinagar as planned (the road is closed to civilians today) I am spending tonight at a hotel in Thiska with C. Thiska is a small village just south of Leh, home to a stunning (and large) monastery... and precious little else.
I must describe C in more detail tomorrow.
From Manali, I took a 2o hour jeep trip to Leh. Some of my seat mates suffered on that trip, but since such things are becoming rather routine for me, I fared rather well. Some of the high passes reached altitudes of more than 5000 meters, and I didn't suffer from alitude sickness either - clearly I am becoming some sort of Superman.
Leh is wonderful. The tourist crowd is a little less obnoxious than in Manali (and a bit older) and the backpacker ghetto encompasses only a portion of the town, unlike in Manali where it now covers the entire fucking place (I exaggerate). The city has a population of only 25,000, so it is nice that it has been able to resist that sort of takeover.
Leh's most noteworthy visual aspect is a collection of Gompas and Stopas that ring the city, all of the built on high hills and on the sides of mountains. I visited some of these places with C, a young German woman whom I have been travelling with since the jeep ride here.
The most fun that C and I had was visiting "Leh Palace," an old fort built on a high hill south of the town. It's a crumbling, ramshackle affair, once the seat of this region's "king," but now long empty and stripped of its treasures. While some basic restoration work has been done, it looks a lot like what Lhasa's Potala would look like if it has been left to rot for a century.
Sharing a room with C, each morning we have woken up around nine and taken a wonderful laissez faire approach to each day - the hours are filled with trips through the old town, unnecessary errands, trips to the post office, eating....
Truly these have been idle days, but idle in a relaxing way that was impossible in Manali, with it's horrible, horrible "scene."
Unable to get a jeep to Srinagar as planned (the road is closed to civilians today) I am spending tonight at a hotel in Thiska with C. Thiska is a small village just south of Leh, home to a stunning (and large) monastery... and precious little else.
I must describe C in more detail tomorrow.
Day 93, 94
I'm in Leh now. I spent twenty hours in a jeep getting here. There were ten of us in that jeep, including the driver, and it would have sat perhaps seven in some comfort. But no problem - I'm becoming a real pro when it comes to dealing with long automobile rides, and spending another twenty wasn't much of a problem.
Some of the passes we crossed were as high as 5000 meters, and it would seem that I'm now pretty good with high altitudes, also. Great stuff.
Leh is a part of Ladakh, which is a part of the province of Jammu and Kashmir, which has been at the hear of India and Pakistan's "cold war" (and occasional shooting war) for many decades. This is a mostly Buddhist place, and I think that is is rather sad that it is included in this longstanding Hindu/Muslim conflict. I've learned a lot, however, about India's multicultural character in the past few weeks, though I'm left wondering how the government here manages to "pull it off." Obviously there are a lot of economic problems and standard of living concerns in India and in the minority regions, but I wonder how decision making is done? Is there a cadre of Tibetan legislators in the Indian parliament?
The ride here included a lot of stops at military checkpoints along the highway, all because of the security situation. My passport is still back in Delhi getting renewed, a situation that caused a few questions to be asked of me, but every time I was able to continue on my way. My original plan was to turn around and go back to Delhi from Manali to pick up the new passport, but since every checkpoint officer so far has told me that continuing on to Srinagar is possible for me, I might just do that instead.
Leh is not only part of Kashmir, but it is also close to the border with China. Because China occupied a swath of Indian territory some years ago, the Indian military presence here is doubly strong. And along the sides of the road leading to Leh we saw literally HUNDREDS of fuel tankers.
The crowd here does not have as many dreadlocks as in Manali, and that makes me very happy. I think I should like to spend a few days here.
I'm in Leh now. I spent twenty hours in a jeep getting here. There were ten of us in that jeep, including the driver, and it would have sat perhaps seven in some comfort. But no problem - I'm becoming a real pro when it comes to dealing with long automobile rides, and spending another twenty wasn't much of a problem.
Some of the passes we crossed were as high as 5000 meters, and it would seem that I'm now pretty good with high altitudes, also. Great stuff.
Leh is a part of Ladakh, which is a part of the province of Jammu and Kashmir, which has been at the hear of India and Pakistan's "cold war" (and occasional shooting war) for many decades. This is a mostly Buddhist place, and I think that is is rather sad that it is included in this longstanding Hindu/Muslim conflict. I've learned a lot, however, about India's multicultural character in the past few weeks, though I'm left wondering how the government here manages to "pull it off." Obviously there are a lot of economic problems and standard of living concerns in India and in the minority regions, but I wonder how decision making is done? Is there a cadre of Tibetan legislators in the Indian parliament?
The ride here included a lot of stops at military checkpoints along the highway, all because of the security situation. My passport is still back in Delhi getting renewed, a situation that caused a few questions to be asked of me, but every time I was able to continue on my way. My original plan was to turn around and go back to Delhi from Manali to pick up the new passport, but since every checkpoint officer so far has told me that continuing on to Srinagar is possible for me, I might just do that instead.
Leh is not only part of Kashmir, but it is also close to the border with China. Because China occupied a swath of Indian territory some years ago, the Indian military presence here is doubly strong. And along the sides of the road leading to Leh we saw literally HUNDREDS of fuel tankers.
The crowd here does not have as many dreadlocks as in Manali, and that makes me very happy. I think I should like to spend a few days here.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Day 89, 90, 91, 92
Manali is just about done for me; a taxi will arrive to take me to Leh in a few hours. Leh is a seventeen hour drive away.
(and I haven't even written anything about Manali).
I read in a 1990 Lonely Planet for India that even at that time there were droves of hippies living in the hills around town. They are all gone now, and the town is very commercalized. It's more of a scene now, with lots of dreadlocks and scruffy facial hair on display. Yuck. Tony Wheeler used the word "scene" back in 1990, though, so maybe things are exactly like they used to be.
It's a little sad, though, that the hippie sub-culture is just about dead now. I've been reading lots of Kerouac, these days, and it's sad to think that the beat generation, also, is long gone. Ginsberg's been dead for more than a decade now.
(by the way: the depiction of Ginsberg in "Dharma Bums" is pretty hilarious)
It dawns on me now that this journal is not what it was a month ago. I suppose I've stopped writing about what I've been doing. Perhaps this is because I don't really enjoy travel in India that much. I don't really DO anything except take walks and read books and eat decent food.
The walks in Manali are nice though. I have spent my time here with a nice Swedish guy, strolling around the three "villages" that constitute modern Manali. We saw a few decent temples and some residential areas, and even some trees and some water!
I found a copy of Kerouac's "Mexico City Blues" and read through it. I don't entirely understand K's meaning, and frankly, all of the references to Nova Scotia are particularly perplexing.
The Palak Paneer here is very well done. Spinach and cottage cheese... delightful!
My Swedish pal is nice. He's 30ish, and very new to travelling. He's a bit of a lonely guy, and works in a factory in a rural part of his homeland. His factory makes spare parts for forklifts: "not even a whole forklift," he told me. "Just a part. A single part. And they won't even tell us what it does."
Manali is just about done for me; a taxi will arrive to take me to Leh in a few hours. Leh is a seventeen hour drive away.
(and I haven't even written anything about Manali).
I read in a 1990 Lonely Planet for India that even at that time there were droves of hippies living in the hills around town. They are all gone now, and the town is very commercalized. It's more of a scene now, with lots of dreadlocks and scruffy facial hair on display. Yuck. Tony Wheeler used the word "scene" back in 1990, though, so maybe things are exactly like they used to be.
It's a little sad, though, that the hippie sub-culture is just about dead now. I've been reading lots of Kerouac, these days, and it's sad to think that the beat generation, also, is long gone. Ginsberg's been dead for more than a decade now.
(by the way: the depiction of Ginsberg in "Dharma Bums" is pretty hilarious)
It dawns on me now that this journal is not what it was a month ago. I suppose I've stopped writing about what I've been doing. Perhaps this is because I don't really enjoy travel in India that much. I don't really DO anything except take walks and read books and eat decent food.
The walks in Manali are nice though. I have spent my time here with a nice Swedish guy, strolling around the three "villages" that constitute modern Manali. We saw a few decent temples and some residential areas, and even some trees and some water!
I found a copy of Kerouac's "Mexico City Blues" and read through it. I don't entirely understand K's meaning, and frankly, all of the references to Nova Scotia are particularly perplexing.
The Palak Paneer here is very well done. Spinach and cottage cheese... delightful!
My Swedish pal is nice. He's 30ish, and very new to travelling. He's a bit of a lonely guy, and works in a factory in a rural part of his homeland. His factory makes spare parts for forklifts: "not even a whole forklift," he told me. "Just a part. A single part. And they won't even tell us what it does."
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