I've found god!

Hey everyone! I've just got back from my trek (Annapurna sanctuary). I'm in Kathmandu again, trying to fatten up before I head over to Pakistan, Iran and then Turkey.

The trek was absolutly amazing! Sara (my sister), James, Tom (both from England) and I had the best time ever! We turned a 10-12 day trek into a 7 day trek, simply because we are ALL ninja's!

The views were stuning and we all felt closer to god the higher we climbed. As it turns out God lives at MBC (Machhapuchhre Base Camp) about an hour and a half from ABC (Annapurna Base Camp)! His name is Ram and he owns a guest house there, the cosy lodge.

On the third day of the trek we got stuck in a cloud (they come in fast) and couldn't see the path (we were walking on a glacier). By the time we got to MBC we were all cold, tired and hungry, so we stayed at Ram's place (it was the first G.H. we saw). As soon as we sat down we all felt at home, which is rare out there. After we ordered a couple of meals each we directed our attention to Ram, who was sitting at the far side of the loooong table. I made a coment on how good his food was and how cosy his G.H. really was, but he seemed way to composed. I knew he was hiding something and I was right.

He told us some stories about how fast he used to get to Pokhara from his guest house. It takes three days for mere mortals, but 8 hours for him. That made perfect sense too and was my first clue. Then, that night, the craziest, coolest, most intense lightning storm I've ever watched came into the narrow valley directly below us. We all watched in awe as clouds (lit up by the moon and the lightning) flew between the narrow mountain passage below and came right at us. Amazingly enough, we could still watch the light show (through the clouds) and it (the lightning) seemed to start from one tip of a mountain and end across the valley at another peak, not far from us either. Second clue, yeah, he made that happen (this too)!

It was then that I had my first good idea of 2005. I pulled out my sisters mag-light and went to war with Tom and James with my new cloud powered light saber! That was excellent! All the while Ram was witnessing my awsome skills and I think he approved..

Anyway, the next morning Ram ended up going down to the next village for some sort of religious festival and came back that night. He mentioned the sacrificing of a goat, so I didn't think it was a Buddhist ceremony (not supposed to harm any living thing), even though most of the mountain people are Buddhist (the high majority of Nepal is Hindu though). I asked him if it was a Buddhist or Hindu festival, since I was highly suspicious of him at that point. He told me it was a little of both and so was he. Gotch yuh! That was a huge mistake on his part, but it made perfect sense to me. At that point, we were all convinced that he was indeed a god and I immediately thought that he may very well be one of the 900,000 Hindu gods. The fact that he chose to live in the Himalaya's also made perfect sense to all of us as well. On top of all that, only one woman is allowed to live above the temple in the village below and you guessed it, she was Rams lovely wife Bindu.

I can go on and on about the unbelievable things that Ram has done and the three of us had witnessed, but frankly I don't think I would have the energy to type it all and still you all would have to find God for yourselves. At least you all know where to go if you ever want to meet god. He lives in Nepal, in the Himalaya's, his name is Ram and he owns a Guest House by the name of Cosy Lodge. Go there, find him and be at peace...

Back in Kathmandu!

I'm back in my favorite city again and just being here has put a smile on my face (I needed that...).

The last week has been pretty crazy! As you all know I took a bus from Kolkata to Dhaka (Bangladesh) to get a new Indian visa and the bus was actually nice and cool inside! Wow! Anyway, everything was going welly (had to put that one in) untill I got to the border. Trying to leave India was everything I imagined it would be.

First some scumbag offical told me I have to pay a 300rs. (Rupees) road tax fee to leave the country. I told him that I hadn't heard of that in the whole six months I spent in India and I always travel by buses. He told me that it was a Bangladesh road tax, then all of his friends surrounded me. I asked him who's in charge? He said he was, so I wispered in his ear "since you're in charge, you should change your scam." He didn't quite understand, so I wispered some more. "Why would I pay India a road tax from Bangladesh?" I saw defeat in his eyes, but he tried one last time by saying "you need a road tax receipt from us to get into the country." I said thanks for the tip and I'd be right back if he was telling the truth, then all his friends started laughing. OK, first hurdle cleared.

Second hurdle - Across the street from there was another Indian building where they check your bags before leaving. I put my backpack on the x-ray thing (that no one was watching) and was all set to leave when an offical asked what country I was from. I said America and he told me to put my backpack on his table. I always put my dirty clothes on the top of my backpack (in a bag of course), just in case someone gets into it and steals the first thing they touch. So, when they pulled that out I told them it was dirty laundry. They asked what it was (because they're in control!), so I said again, dirty laundry! He opened it and couldn't help but smell them, then gave me a dirty look. I don't need to tell anyone that I don't wash my clothes every day any more, so I kind of enjoyed that one!

Anyway, everything on me was legal, so before I was cleared to leave, they asked how much American money I had. I told them $80. How many Euro's or Pounds? 50 Euro's and no Pounds. How many Rupee's? 1,000! I had about 8,000, but didn't feel like telling them that. Anyway the guy started grilling me! It is illegal to take Indian currancy out of the country do you hear me? Yah, I hear you. He repeated again, but in my face! I'm not deaf! Luckily his friend could see me bitting my tongue and he actually defused the situation! I can't believe it!
He told me to go back out side and exchange all my rupees for Taka (Bangladesh money) and then come back.

So, of course I went outside to the furthest money changer and sat down next to it and ordered a chai. When I was done with that I stopped by the bathroom and switched my Euro's and $ for my Rupees (incase they wanted to see the $80 and 50 Euro's I told them I had, I didn't want them to look for a money belt), from money belt to wallet. I had a bunch (2,000 rs. worth) of Taka already, so I wasn't worried about that. When I got back, they checked my wallet and told me that Americans think they can do what they want all over the world! YOU have to listen to us when you're in our country! "Of course, that's why I changed the rupees like you asked." That was all and I got through fine. I had my money belt way up on my thigh, in case they checked, but they didn't.

On the bus I met a nice guy who is studing law. He lives in Dhaka and was very friendly. He asked where I would be staying and I told him Old Dhaka. He said no, it's to dirty there, what hotel will you stay at. I told him I'd look around when I got there (like I always do) and he got all nervous. NO, NO, you may get kidnapped! I started laughing, but didn't want to hurt his feelings. He didn't say another word for a couple of minutes untill he invited me to his home. I thought about it for a couple of hours and then when he asked again I accepted. Good move!

Besides the fact that his 12 flat mates were Ricky Martin look-a-likes (the only draw back), They were very friendly and had a killer house! Their "servant" cooked me some killer food (I ate for free!) and they had a mat on the floor for me (much better than the crusty bed I had in the dorm in Kolkata)! They treated me like family and begged me to stay for as long as I wanted, but I had to get my visa and get back into India soon, so they were a bit disappointed.

The next day I went to the Indian Embassy to get a new visa. As soon as the official saw my passport, his face dropped. He looked at my visa and told me it would take couple of weeks. I told him I only had a 7 day Bangladesh visa and my sister would be flying into Delhi in a few days. He told me that that's a family problem, my problem and not his or India's. Oh well, I tried one more time as nice as I could, but it wasn't happening. I thought I might have one, maybe two more chances of still getting to Delhi by the time Sara (my sister) arrived, so I took the next bus back to India, that night.

When I got back to Kolkata, I tried to get an emergency extension on my visa, but tourists can't extend their visa's in India any more. There goes that idea, so I tried my last idea. I asked what the penalty was for over staying your visa (in Nepal it's only a dollar a day). They told me it was a big fine and probably jail time! That settled it, I wasn't going to make it to Delhi in time to meet my sister. I still had to get out of India before my visa expired! The Bangladesh visa would take to long (because of the weekend and costs way to much) and trying to get to Nepal and then reach KTM by road was a mission and pretty risky, since the Maoists have been strikeing more often. I decided to fly for the first time in about a year (since Lhasa), just to make sure I got out of India and into KTM, not just some border town (shit hole) in Nepal.

Flying turned out to be a good move, since the Maoists DO have an 11 day travel ban in effect untill the 13th of April! I would have been stuck on the border till the 13th, not fun! Anyway, the political situation has deteriorated here since the King declared a nation wide state of emergancey and placed almost all of the Parliament (or equivalent to Paliament) under house arrest in Feb. Tourists are still safe here, but battles, shoot outs and bombings are more common than before. It's sad that this is happening to a country like this...

Alright, time to see what kind of trouble I can get into here, shouldn't be hard!

Interview with a cannibal

I've got to put this in my blog, it's to weird not to. This first part took place at the end of march when I was in Darjeeling with Sarah, we met an American guy who had been living (teaching English) in India for a while. He was a pretty cool cat and was very informed on many local issues. We went out for a few beers and thanks to the beer, he ended up telling us the freakiest story ever. I can't remember a lot of the details, but I remember enough to identify the psycho he told us about.

Our friend (of course...I can't remember his name) started telling us about one of his trips to Varanasi. One day he was approached by a Sadhu (holy man), that's pretty normal there, but this one was holding the top of a human skull (like a bowl) to collect money (Baksheesh). He started talking to the Sadhu for a while, since the Sadhu spoke perfect English. Eventually the psycho admitted that he was a cannibal, so was his teacher! He said that he eats the flesh of the people that are burned on the ghats (on the Ganga river). He also said that he lived in San Francisco, but he's originally from Hawaii.

Needless to say or friend was a bit tweaked out! He went back to his town (in India) to work again, but returned about a year later. This time he met a journalist who was writing something about the cannibal dude. My friend said that it sounded just like the cannibal he had met a year before! The journalist gave him a link to check out on the internet and when he checked it out for himself, not only did he see the same cannibal that he had met, but he was on a most wanted list! Not just for murder either, but serial murder! Crazyness! The journalist said that he went to the phsyco's lair and found a pile of human skulls inside!

Anyway, at the time (we were in Darjeeling) our friend told us that the cannibal was in Darjeeling begging for money! He had shaved his head (used to have dreadlocks down to his waist) and has a brace on his leg and also needs a cain to walk with. He was pretty freaked out of course and so was everyone at the table! After that, every time Sarah and I would give money to the beggers there, we would check to see if they had a leg brace and a cain before we gave, but we never saw him.

I forgot all about him untill I came back to Kolkata (from Bangladesh) and stayed in the same dorm as before. I saw an old guy laying down with a bunch of strange tattoo's all over him. I broke the ice and asked the usual traveler questions, where are you going/coming from etc. We talked for a while and I knew he was a weirdo, but had no idea. He ended up telling me he was from Hawaii! As soon as he told me that, the hair stood up on my arms and I must have gone pale! I could see the top half of a human skull on the floor next to his bed, but didn't know what is was untill he told me he was from Hawaii. Then the cain and his leg brace was a dead give away!

Two of my friends were in the dorm at that time, so I figuered I spill the beans. I told him staight up that I had heard a lot of stories about him while he was in Hawaii and Varanasi. He asked who told me and I just said some travelers. He didn't seem to care one way or the other, the only thing he said was "you never know who you're talking to!" I really wanted his picture, but he was up and gone before most of us woke up. He didn't go far though, he stayed on the same street and checked into the Salvation Army's Dorm. I happened to hear some whitey's talking about him (not the cannibal part though) while we were drinking chai on the street. I told them the whole story and after having seen him, they believed me.

That was the first and last I've seen of Hanibal Lecter (spl?)! Crazy huh! True
storie too!

Check this out! After I put this story on my blog, I made a comment about it on bootsnall. One guy gave me a link and asked if it was the same guy, It is, so now you can all see the Cannibal man (I didn't even need a photo!).

http://www.alligator.org/edit/news/issues/stories/030603cannibal.html

Bhutan

It doesn't really count, but it looks cool to have "Bhutan!" in my blog...

Actually, I wanted to go in for the day, but they stopped the free day pass thingie from Jaigon (India) to Phuntsoling (Bhutan).
I had to use 25% of my Ninja skillz to talk them into letting Sarah and I in for just two hours. Even though I didn't get a nice beautiful stamp in my passport, I was still happy.

We wandered around, took a few pictures (that had an address in Bhutan visible, yeah, to show off), had a chai, a conversation with a local and got some currancy. We were only there for about an hour when I thought it would be a good idea to check a local market. We walked through a little gate with some guards minding there own business (we didn't really notice them) and checked the place out. After a few minutes, we continued in the same direction and we both started noticing the signs on the stores. They had Indian addresses! We came to the conclusion that we must have somehow left Bhutan, with out even knowing it!! Never seen a boarder like that in my life!

Anyway, we went back to the REAL boarder crossing and told the immigration dude that we wanted to go back through, since we did have half an hour left (he said we could stay for 2 hours). He had our passports in his hands and gave us a stressed out "NO"! Guess he wasn't to happy about us passing his guards unnoticed. Does that mean that we were kicked out of Bhutan? Patting myself on the back...

It's been a while (boring)

Where do I start? We've (Sarah and I) covered a lot of ground since then. I'll quickly run off a bunch of names (of places we've been since), but no details or I'd be here all day (OK, maybe a few).

We headed south from Hampi to Bangalore, did a pub crawl there with a few friends and ended up head banging at a metal bar (long funny story). Hey, it just ended up that way! Then Sarah convinced a rickshaw driver to let her take his rickshaw for a spin at 1AM, pissed!. We headed further south to Mysore (ass) after that. That's where we both had stool tests done, so romantic...

After that we headed to Ooty, a hill station, nice and cool, then to Kerela to do a back water (over night) cruise. I've got to mention that one a bit, only because it was one of the worst nights sleep I've had on this 15 month trip.

The daytime was great, nice and relaxing and beautiful. By the time he were ready to sleep though we realized that the tiny fan in our tiny room wasn't going to help much (it was VERY humid and pretty hot). Besides that, they would have to keep the boat running in order to power the fan (wasn't gonna happen). We decided (we thought we were the smartest people on earth, by the way) to put some mats on the upstairs deck, under the roof and hang Sarah's mosquito net. That way we'd catch a nice breeze all night and we wouldn't have to worry about mossies since we had a net. Brilliant!

Little did we know the mossies called their friends (some tiny little green bugs) and they came in force! When we decided to go to sleep, our sheets weren't there anymore. Instead there was just a layer of green! Honestly! There were 10's of thousands of those little Bastard-o's on our mats, the bugs were small enough to get through the net! Good thing Sarah was there, because she killed all of them by rolling a bottle back and forth over them. Murderer! Well, we didn't sleep at all that night, since we had to keep covered all night (which made it to hot to sleep) to avoid the bugs! See, you all think it's fun and games out here, but it's tough! ;-)

We decided we needed some R and R after that, so went back up to Palolem (spl?), Goa. That was nice and well... relaxing. We were on a mission after that though and took a looong train back into Rajasthan (again). We tore that state up, went to six different towns and then checked out the Taj (again). After a quick stop in Delhi, just long enough for a nice long bout of Delhi belly, we jumped over to Veranasi (again). That was great and we met up with an old friend (Jacques, who I'll be travelling through Pakistan, Iran and Turkey with later on) from the pushkar camel fair and another from our house in Goa. We even got to celebrate Shivatri there, a Bhang induced festival. Varanasi was already getting hot, so we sought refuge from the heat in the form of Darjeeling.

It was nice there, cool but cloudy. There supposed to have some of the best tea in the world there, but we couldn't find any. We arranged our permits for Sikkim from there and headed up there to do some trekking. It turned out the trekking route that we heard about was all on roads (no fun), so we scrapped that idea and took jeeps from town to town. We checked out Gangtok (the capital) and stayed there for three days do to the killer pizza and coffee. Sikkim was nice, although the clouds and the Indian government (won't let you go anywhere without an expensive permit) took away from it a bit. I'll have to go back some other time and do a real trek.

That's pretty much where I'm at now. Sarah took a train down to Mumbai two days ago and should be there today. She flies home on Monday. :-( I'm in Kolkata right now doing a boarder run to Bangladesh for a new visa, since my visa is about to run out on me. I've got a bad case of the backpacker blues though and I've been entertaining all ( 7 ) of my dorm mates, by singing them (I sound like Stevie Ray...).

I can't believe I've been in India for 6 months already! Koltata is actually much nicer than I expected and I''ve been walking a good 10 kilometers a day to check it out. The problem is that my already hammer shaped index toe (that's definitely not the right name for it) is now permanently touching my middle toe (must have broke it again recently?) and now I've got a nice fat blister in there. Nice and comfy!

Well, my sister Sara will be out here to join me in 11 days (I'm counting the days, can you tell I'm excited?). Hurry up Sara!

Lost and found

It's been a while, but it's been good! 2004 was the best year ever and my New Years resolution is to have a better year this year than last! I must say 2005 is gonna be tough to beat!

After a year on the road, I've lost some things and found some. I didn't come out here (my trip) looking for love or any answers to life, but it turns out that I've found a bit of both. The things I've lost were great, but I wouldn't trade one of the things I've found for all of the lost!

Here they are...


Things I've lost -

MY pickup truck, my job, my home, a few thousand dollars, a stable, safe, easy, predictable life, about seven inches of hair (thanks to a Tibetan lady I stayed with in Dharamsala), the fear of REALLY living, a few pounds (didn't know I had any weight to loose), health, a few more brain cells, a semi-normal life and um, well, can't think of anything else off the top of my head!

Things I've found -

Total freedom, complete happiness, adventure, confidence, self reliance, faith in humanity, the beauty of the world, liberation, and my soul mate (a soul you were ment to find, no matter what. Man or Woman.)!

The last one is the best and least expected! I met her (Sarah) in Pushkar for the camel fair, but we didn't realize we were soul mates till the "Pushkar family" had a re-union in Goa for New Years! We've been travelling India together for a while now and now I'm really wondering if life can get any better? I plan on finding out, that's gonna be fun! No matter what happens between us, it was ment to be.

Anyway, this New Year was lots of fun! We were partying in Goa (vagator) till way after the sun came up! Vagator sucked, but our "family" made it great! After that we headed to a nice and quiet beach, but still lots of fun, in Arambal (also Goa). We stayed there for about a week and decided that if we didn't start moving soon, we might never, so we headed inland to Hampi.

Hampi is an ancient (ruined) city, with temples and caves scattered everywhere! The landscape looks just like the Flintstones, but with banana plantations and rivers for contrast. Huge boulders stacked impossibly on top of each other, as far as the eye can see! Everyone wonders how the rocks ended up like that and the Hindu's have the answer. They say Hanuman (the monkey god), as a show of strength, went off and started dropping gigantic rocks from the sky (he can fly) till he felt better about himself and that's how Bedrock came to be. Bet you didn't know that! ;-) Every now and then you'll seen rice patty's or banana plantations with a big old temple shooting straight up, kinda like the jungle book teaming up with the Flintstones! Killer! Hampi was great! We killed about a week there as well and got the same quicksand feeling, so we knew we had to start moving again, or else!

We've been taking local buses everywhere to save $ and we're finally in a proper city, Bangalore. We're trying to meet the last remains of the " Pushkar family" here for an out of control pub crawl. Bangalore is an expensive city, but they actually have a bit of a pub culture here, unlike anywhere else in India. It's gonna be fun, hope I can remember it, if so I'll let you all know how it went.

Enjoy 2005! Make it a ridiculously good year! I honestly can't say when I'll be home, but I'll be enjoying myself...

Going to Goa

I'm in Varanasi right now, chillin with the Baba's and watching the body parts float down the Ganges. I met a couple of cool Ausi dudes and have been traveling with them for a while now. We're gonna split in a few days, they're heading to Chenai and I'm heading to the beach in Goa, my Pushkar friends have an apartment there and there is a spot on the roof with my name on it! That's gonna be nice!

I've been covering more ground than normal lately. I did a camel safari (yeah, yeah, I'm a tourist) in Jaisalmer and that was sweet! The town of Jaisalmer its self is killer! It's an old fort with walls still surrounding it and 2,000 people still inhabiting it. The travelers get to stay inside and it's a unique feeling sleeping in such a mid-evil place!
My guide on the camel safari was a little fruity though. On the second day he was bragging and bragging and asked me if I was jealous of him. I said hell no, not at all, and I guess he was offended. He ended up telling me that he can get anyone into bed with him (man or woman), all he needs to do is speak and there is "something about my voice that no one can resist!" I assured him that my three Aussi friends wouldn't let me jump into bed with him and tried for a few more minutes to sample his bullshit. Soon after that he told me (out of the blue) that if he and I were to fight each other (?), "I may think I would win, because I'm bigger, but in reality, all he would need to do is flick me with his finger and I would fall (unconscious) into the fire!" Of course I begged for a sample of that B.S. as well, but he said there is a risk of me dieing! Okay!!!! I think I've said enough! =)
Anyway, I hit up Jodhpur (the blue city) after that and the view of the old, blue city from the top of yet another fort was sweet! Every home and building (almost all) in the old section of the city is painted blue, pretty cool and different. The fort in Jodhpur was also the coolest that I've seen yet! From Jodhpur I headed back to Pushkar to leave my cold weather stuff at the killer GH (Nanu's) I was staying at for the camel fair. It was cool to be there again, but not the same without all my friends.

I stayed only one night and took a bus to Jaipur in the morning, most people go there to buy wholesale junk to sell back home. I wandered around though, ate some meat (pretty hard to come by here), sat down and drank chai and talked to some random people. One of which was a taxi driver who approached me by saying " hello, I look like John Travolta!" Woohoo! It's impossible to get bored in India. Jaipur wasn't for me, so I headed to a couple of National Parks trying to spot some tigers, but no such luck. After the National parks it was Taj time and it was b-e-a-utiful, but expensive! Agra was great, I had too much fun on the roof tops drinking beer (also pretty rare in some city's) and bang Lassie's with my Aussie friends.

We kicked back in Orcha after Agra, a killer little village (shanti-shanti) with an old palace and ruins scattered around. There happened to be a festival there (Orcha) at that time, I think Rama got married to Sita there and every year they re-enact the whole thing. People from all the villages around come to watch and participate (just walk in the narrow streets following the 3 gods leading the whole thing) in the festival and then they all just sleep on the ground outside Rama's temple while some old dude is yelling and preaching all night till 6 in the morning! Really cool and perfect timing fore us.
Then we jumped to Khajuraho, the erotic temples... and some were erotic! Cool place, but very touristy. Finally we took a shitty bus ride here, Varanasi. For some reason Varanasi reminds me of Kathmandu a bit??

Oh, and just so you all know, a "holy cow" just wandered into this internet cafe...what? I must admit that I've been in denial since I've been in India. I see sidewalks in most towns, and for some stupid reason I think they're meant to walk on? I'm finally coming to terms with the fact that sidewalks are for everything but walking on! Stupid me! Oh, and another thing, I've been really nervous (the last two days) lately, I think I've eaten 7 or 8 meals in a row without a hair or bug in it, somethings gotta give! Anyway, India is the most schizophrenic country that I've been to. You're ready to flip out on some touts one minute, but then you swear this is the coolest country on earth the next! Pigs, cows, dogs, monkeys, rats and chickens all over the streets, along with enough trash to feed them all and then some! This place is crazy, perfect for me and all that (plus a lot, lot more) is just normal life here...

Anyway, I finally got train tickets to Goa from here, that was a mission! I'm leaving here on the 24th, arrive in Mubai on the 25th, depart for Goa at 11 at night (on the 25th) and arrive in Goa on the 26th, in time for the full moon party and the New Year! So, I know I'll be enjoying myself for the next couple of weeks, I hope you all do the same! I can't believe I've been gone for almost one year already! Life's to short, if there is something you want to do, go out and do it! WE are usually the only one's stopping us from doing what we truly want! Well, I'm outta here, more bang Lassie's to drink! ;-)