Been through the desert on a camel with no name...




Jaisalmer is an amazing town about 100km East of the Indo-Pakastani border in the Great Thar Desert, renowned for it's stunning hill top fort. Amongst the backpacker community however it's best known for camel safaris, and missing the peace and tranquility of the mountains I was in town looking for some quiet and calm and hoping to find some in the desert.

The heavy rainstorms that were hitting Mumbai and Gujarat brought cloudy skies to Jaisalmer as I squashed into a jeep with Amanda, (who i'd met on the train), Christine (who I met in Jodphur and turns out to be a neighbour in Paris!), and a couple from Oz & the UK. After a couple of hours of rough roads and a side-trip visit to a Jain temple we climbed aboard our camels and set off in a train across the barren desert.

Climbing aboard is much easier when they're sat down ;-)

Once I'd got used to being up so high, the sway of the camel's gait and their smell I started to relax and take in the scenery around me. Finally, there were no horns honking, traffic noise or pollution. Just huge skies and calm; that is until panic broke out at the rear of our camel train.

All our camels were roped together with the last camel being a young female in training and carrying all our food for the next 2-days. This young novice was now quite literally untrained having broken free of her rope and cockily trotting off across the desert, evading all attempts to be caught and deaf to the guides cries and whistles. The whole thing would have been quite comical had it not been for her precious cargo and it took a good 10-minutes to capture her and rope her securely back to the pack, where she spent the rest of the day stamping and snorting.

'Johnny' sets off at a trot to capture the rogue beast (and our supper)

Around midday we stopped and whilst the guides cooked up a lunch of veg curry, dahl and chapati and we stretched and snoozed, grateful that the sky was still overcast and we were spared the midday sun. Lunch over we hopped back aboard our desert ships and continued on, the scenery sometimes rocky, sometimes scrubby but always arid. Although this wasn't the great peaks and rugged hills of the Himalayas, as the hours past I slowly found that inner calm and space to think that I seek in the mountains, and, surprise suprise, I discovered my 'inner Bedouin' was just as at home in the desert as in the hills. Having tweaked America's lyrics to suit my situation, I had 'A camel with no name' on my 'inner ipod' as the day's soundtrack and despite the chaff of the saddle and aching inner thighs I was loving every minute of it!

Sleeping off lunch

Late afternoon we entered a region of soft undulating dunes and found ourselves in the deserts of Hollywood with the wind etching patterns in the sand. As the sun set we unloaded the camels and set up camp and the animals, hobbled with knotted ropes , lopped off across the dunes in search of scrub and trees to eat.

What most of the desert looks like

What we expect most of it to look like

The evening meal was pretty much the same as lunch, although accompanied with cold beer brought in by a jeep, along with a group of people who wanted to skip the saddle soars but bed down along side us under the stars. Despite the feeling of remoteness the beer delivery and distant lights indicated we were not that far away from civilisation, and the occasional fly-by from a military aircraft served as a reminder that we weren't that far from the Pakistani border either.

Dinner over, camel handlers transformed themselves from chefs into musicians and with one guy drumming on a plastic water container and another playing 'high-hat' on a tin plate the third started singing local songs in a high warbling voice; a haunting melody desert, a lulling tune to sing to a woman that's just given birth and a fast, funky number to play at weddings, the catchy chorus of which we were soon all joining in with.

Music proving once again it can fusion all of languages and cultures,
especially around a desert fire with a couple of beers ;-)

As the fire burnt down the temperature dropped and the padded blankets that had cushioned the camels back against the wooden saddles were unfolded to become mattresses and pillows on the sand. Although I'd mailed home my Gore-tex jackets and fleece I'd kept my down sleeping bag with me and was grateful it would now protect me from the chill air and the reek of camel! Cocooned in my bag with just my eyes and nose peeping out I remembered how much I loved camping like this, without a tent, without a ceiling, walls or floor, and watched the sky for a while, tracking the progress of the Seven Sisters,Orion and the Great Bear across the dark night before falling asleep.

The good life

I woke early the next morning to find our camp enshrouded in fog. The cold air confronting the warmth of the sand formed a thick blanket of mist that hid the camels legs so they looked like they were swimming and left everything about us damp. Once sunrise came though the brume quickly burnt off, and without yesterday's clouds to protect us we were soon at the mercy of the desert sun. Scarfs were wrapped around heads Lawrence of Arabia style and shirt sleeves were rolled down as just three of us (the rest having succumbed to saddle soars and hopped in the jeep) saddled up again and lopped off West for another day in the wilderness.

They really looked like 'ships of the desert' as they swam through the mist

Sunrise, with camel saddles

With the sun on our backs and a vast array of nothing in front of us I once again 'zoned out' and found the peace and solitude I seek when I travel, and before the day's end I'd promised my inner Bedouin we'd be back in a camel saddle and once again in the desert just as soon as I could make it happen.

At peace with my inner Bedouin ;-)

The future, in the palm of my hand (no, this is not a post about iPhones...)

Those of you that know me well know that, despite growing up near Glastonbury, I don't subscribe to the 'hokey pokey' science of astrology. Ask me my star sign and I'll answer "Marmite", and if I've a dominating earth element I'd bet it's chocolate, so I'm the last person I expected to get my palm read during my stay in Jodphur.

Maybe it was because I'm expecting 2010 to be a year of change or maybe it was just that this particular palmist happened to carry a maharajah's accreditation (and in a country that attaches huge importance to such interpretations that's no small thing). Whatever the reason, at the end of my visit to the fort I skipped the gift shop and headed for the royal fortune teller's office, hoping the Rs350 clutched in my right hand would liberate whatever secrets the lines around it had to say

Giving the guy only my name, date of birth, place of birth and right hand I sat back, somewhat skeptical, somewhat scarred, and suddenly aware that maybe I didn't want to know my future!

First came my character analysis.

"You're highly adaptable, analytical and intuitive" he said, turning my palm over and peering at the back of my hand. OK, I thought, we're off to a good start. Not only is he coming up with positive traits but also, I feel, pretty accurate ones. I start to listen attentively, my confidence and curiosity replacing the earlier fear and anxiety. "But you prize accuracy so you'll use your analytical skills to validate your initiative before making a decision, even if it takes more time" he observed. Yep. That's true too. What next?

"You hate conflict and discord; you want to make everyone happy" and with this phrase he hit a chord. A trait I'm unsure whether to classify as negative or positive from a professional perspective and one i'm hoping to learn how to play to my advantage as part of my 'change strategy' in 2010. Needless to say he now had my full attention.

I'll not bore you with all the wisdom that was imparted to me that day, but despite popular belief I am apparently going to get married and have kid(s) and should come into either money or property (both?) around the age of 39 or 40. I'll believe the later, but not the former! Around 39-40 I will also have an important and positive career change - so i'm probably now the only woman on earth excited about turning forty :-)

I also apparently don't like spicy food (which is crap, based on my definition of spicy), am re-energised by being outdoors and amongst nature (aren't we all?) and will meet my soul mate, who'll share my passion for travel and adventure, later in life (a phrase which leaves plenty of room for interpretation).

So there you have it, my destiny in a nutshell, or rather, the palm of my hand!

'Que sera sera' remains my take on all this. RDV back here in 5 years though to see if that cash, property and career change have made an appearance as predicted :-)

Perpetual Motion

I reluctantly left Varanasi in the evening time and loitered for as long as possible on a terrace cafe watching the colours change as the sun set and the hundreds of kites attached to hundreds of small boys on the surrounding rooftops.


After such a chilled out end to my stay it was with a harsh jolt that I got onto the night train to Jaipur that was full of loud drunk indian guys, each with their mobile phone playing music at full volume. Frankly though even if it had been a quiet train I don't think I, or the other 4 backpackers I was in the carriage with, would have got much sleep having been scared silly by the railway police before getting on the train. They made us each read a leaflet stating that the train was rife with criminals that would try and trick us or drug us in order to steal our bags and so they advised us not to eat or drink anything and to sleep in 'shifts' if possible so there was always someone on guard. Needless to say it was a long 20-hr train ride, but apart from the noise and lack of sleep, a totally uneventful one.

I'd visited Jaipur back in 2000 so got off the train and straight on to a bus to Ajmer, then another bus until eventually, 26-hrs after leaving Varanasi, I arrived in Pushkar where I went straight to bed. After the lush green hills of Nainital & Rishikesk, then the plains of Varanasi I was now in the landscape of the arid and rocky deserts of Rajasthan.

Pushkar is famous for it's lake, ghats and camel fair which happened about a week before I got there. It's also a place that quiet a few westerns seem to have trouble leaving and there are quite a few that have 'gone native' and are experimenting with various forms of dredlocks and facial hair.

Unfortunately I was sick for most of the 48-hrs I had there (bottle of bad mineral water I reckon) but what with it's lake being dry after the poor monsoon and the only other major activity being shopping the town had little that was of interest for me. Given that just a short while ago I was wondering what on earth i'd do for a month here if I wasn't going to trek I suddenly had only 2-weeks left and so much left still to do and see!

Where there should have been a lake... not very attractive is it!

Having already visited the 'Golden Triangle' (Delhi, Agra, Jaipur) back in 2000 i'd decided I was going to see the rest of Rajasthan and had put together a non-stop agenda for the next 2-weeks. The next morning at first light I hopped on a public bus to Jodphur and had myself a 'logistical planning' day in which I organised bus, train and an airplane ticket that would allow me to make the most of the time I had left, starting with an early train the next day to Jaisalmer. From here my Rajastani adventure would start!

Up with the sparrows to catch the first bus outta town

Finally the milkman arrives, now we can cook up that first cuppa chai...

Varanasi

Apart from being a great place to hang out for a few days one of the advantages of being in Rishikesh was the abundance of other travelers in town making it easy to get tips and info on trains, buses, and hotel and restaurant recommendations.

Looking at the map of India my 3 previous visits have enabled me to see quite a bit of the country but there were some gaping 'holes' in my travels, the most noticeable of which was Varanasi.

Listed as one of India's oldest cities and an 'must see' in every guide book I'd never got around to working it into my itinerary for a number of reasons; it's in a region i've not visited or transited through and i'd heard some horror stories about how filthy it was and the constant hassle some travelers had experienced there. There was no doubt however that at some point i'd have to work it into my schedule, and that time had come. First though I had to get out of Rishikesh, and with a festival happening further down the road in Haridwar all trains out of town were booked solid. Two days later I climbed aboard the night train to Varanasi and settled down for the 20-hour journey.

I was traveling 3rd class sleeper which is about the lowest class you can take and involves sharing a compartment with seven other people. This is how I met Anu and her family who where making the trip to Varanasi to see a famous swami (holy man) speak.



Anu was bright, confident and spoke pretty good English so the time passed quickly as we played games, drew pictures and her parents quizzed me with Anu acting as the translator. The family bore all the traits of a middle class India family; the father and uncle were dressed in Western clothes, both had mobile phones and the Auntie, like so many other affluent Indians these days, was horribly obese; not surprising as she ate constantly throughout the journey.

I arrived in Varanasi after dark and took a rickshaw as close to the hotel i'd chose as possible, but with the streets of the old town becoming too narrow the final 200 metres had to be made on foot so I jumped down and followed the driver on foot.
From this point on I felt like Alice having fallen down the rabbit hole, snaking through the streets, twisting and turning left and right, having to squash past the occasional cow and tread gently not to trip over a sleeping dog. At times we'd pop out into a well lit bazaar, only to dive down another dark alley which finally led us to the guest house someone had scribbled the name of in my notebook. After checking in and taking a much needed shower I headed up to the rooftop restaurant and caught my first sight on the Ganga and town. The view was serene with the moonlight flickering off the river and small row boats appearing, then slipping away from view through the mist. With the absence of traffic and horns my first impression of Varanasi was bewitching.



So why does everyone come to Varanasi?
Consisting of more than 85 ghats (stone steps down to the river) in just a couple of hundred metres it's a great place to people watch and see life played out before you. Bathing, puja, a game of cricket, washing cows, meeting friends and of course, death, as Varanasi is the place to die and be cremated if you want to give your soul a chance of a better deal in your next life.
Being in Varanasi and not witnessing death is impossible with more than 350 cremations a day at the main ghat. Wondering the narrow streets you're often forced to squash to one-side as another body is carried down to the ghats on a bamboo stretchers, some wrapped in cloth and silks, others not.

The stretchers are carried by four male family members and when they arrive at the river the body is submerged then carried back up to the cremation ghat. Here the family buys 450kg of wood, sandalwood being the most expensive, required to burn the body and the pyre is built.
The body is then placed on top, more wood is stacked on, leaving the head uncovered and the oldest male, having shaved his head and dressed in a simple white robe walks around the pyre four times, followed by the 3 other members and a holy man, scattering sawdust and some kind of powdered fire starter as they go. As the fourth pass is completed the holy man thrusts a burning log beneath the feet and the flames spread quickly to consume the body. The women stand and watch from the steps above and whilst the ceremony is fascinating to watch it's painful to do so with their grief and pain so close and I quickly found myself avoiding the cremation ghats for this reason.
It takes about 3.5 hours for the body to be burn't at which point the oldest son fills an earthenware pot with water from the Ganges and throws it backwards over his head to extinguish the flames. The Ashes are swept into another pot whilst everything that was not consumed by the fire is swept down the bank where its first picked through by cows before being panned through by men of the lowest possible cast seeking gold teeth, bracelets and anything else of value. Needless to say the body is not always entirely burnt and it's best not to look to closely at what they're sifting through.

There are 5 types of bodies that cannot be burnt and receive a slightly different treatment.
Those that have died from cobra bites are placed on small bamboo rafts and floated downstream so the poison can seep slowly into the river. Children under the age of 5, pregnant women, along with holy men and smallpox victims are wrapped in cloth, have heavy stones attached and are sunk out in the middle of the river. I'd spent a good 5 minutes sat by the river until I realised the rock i'd seen earlier was moving downstream and as it turned in the current was obviously the head and shoulders of a body of an adult that had bobbed back up to the surface.

With it's labyrinth of narrow streets knee deep in rubbish and shit, and it's river a soup of effluent and corpses it was clear why Varanasi had the reputation of one of the filthiest cities in India, but as I'd come expecting the worst it failed to shock me and my initial impression of it being a bewitching city remains.

Becoming a happy 'drop-out' in Rishikesh

Despite Nainital's beautiful suroundings I quickly tired of sitting by the lake and drinking chai, and having accepted i'd not being able to trek I was beginning to wonder just what I was going to do with my remaining 4-weeks in India.

I'd had the vague plan of spending 3-weeks in the Himalaya then a week in the state of Gujarat as my flight home leaves from Mumbai rather than Delhi. Now I had 4-weeks and a blank agenda in front of me so I started to explore the map and read up on some of the places around me.

When I was in Sikkim 2-years back I met, Daphna, an Israeli girl, who told me what a great time she'd had in Rishikesh. Looking at the map Rishikesh was 250km North West of Nainital, and if the Lonely Planet's description was correct it sounded like the perfect place to kick-back and relax for a while whilst I sorted out what to do with the rest of my trip.

Sunrise as I left Nainital

The local travel operators in Nainital we're all determined to send me back to Delhi (on their delux bus) to catch a train to Hardiwar that would enable me to bus to Rishikesh, but there was no way I was going to string the trip out to 24hrs or more when it really should be no more than 10 or 12. The next morning I got up at 4.30am and set off for the bus station. I caught a small bus down the hill to Haldwani, the regional transport hub, then wandered around the bus station shouting "Haridwar, Haridwar, Haridwar" and following the fingers of the people that pointed directions. After a couple of minutes I got to a bus with a man shouting "Haridwar, Haridwar, Haridwar" hanging out the door and I hopped on. After 20 minutes the bus was full, the driver jumped in and we set off.

I love traveling like this. The bus has no windows, the suspension gave up years ago, the seats are rock hard and there at twice s many people and bag as there is space, but it works! I know many of you think there's something seriously wrong with me for actually enjoying this but when you travel like this you get to meet people and have conversations that you'd not get traveling in a ' delux' bus with other westerners or affluent Indian's screaming into their mobile phones.

Riding the government buses

My first conversation was with a female lecturer from a local university. She asked me all the usual questions, Where was I from? Where was I going? Am I alone? Where is my husband? What is my job? and I asked her the same. During the 11-hour trip I met 5 or 6 different people, all of them curious and eager to share stories and tell me as much as possible about their home town or state. The time passes quickly and I learn a lot as I have the opportunity to ask questions about what i'm seeing around me, or about that strange food they were selling at the last place we stopped.

Having come down from Nainital at 2,200m and crossed the plains for a number of hours we finally crossed the Ganges river and for the first time I got to appreciate just how enormous it really is. The monsoon was poor and there is no snow melt at this time of the year so much of the river bed was dry but it was easily 0.5km wide, more in places, and you could see it snaking away for miles into the distance.

The mighty Ganga

Straddled across the Ganges a little higher up into the hills Rishikesh was put on the map back in the 1968 when the Beatles came to spend a month in an ashram here, the result of which was their White album. Since then its been a centre for yoga, meditation and healing, and also a common place to come and kick-back, relax and 'drop out' for a while, and this, I decided, was exactly what I was going to do.

Having found myself a great little guest house with some friendly neighbours and a great view I quickly settled into a routine of early breakfast with the English edition of the local papers, a wander down to town to people watch for a while, lunch somewhere quiet with my book dthen meeting up with Joy, James & Mike (my neighbours) for a stroll out of town to the 'beach' in the afternoon.

It's a tough life being a backpacker !

It was on one of these strolls that as a motorbike passed by us a voice called 'Kristen!' and I looked up to see Selina, a colleague from work! What on earth was Selina doing here! and what are the chances of us running into each other an a rather remote road somewhere North of Rishikesh?! I knew that Selina had taken a year sabbatical and at some point was going to be doing some volunteer work in Delhi but it was just by chance that she happened to be having a couple of days break and was staying at an ashram just outside of Rishikesk. How totally bizarre and wonderful to have run into her! It seems chance meetings were becoming a theme on this trip and honestly after running into Selina I would not have been surprised if i'd got back to my guesthouse to see Doug and Cama drinking chai in the garden or bumped into Matt, Katherine & Kaia wandering over the bridge or outside of a temple. How wonderful would that be. It is after all a very very small world.

Chance meeting with Selina (No matter how far you run you never escape the IHT!!)

A couple of nights in Nainital

By the time we'd snaked our way up the mountain and arrived in Nainital it was 7.30am and the town was starting to wake. The cycle-rickshaw drivers were pulling their blankets around them as they hussled for customers at the bus station and the shared taxi drivers were co-ordinating people into clumps based on their final destination.

Like many Indian hill stations Nainital is home to quite a few boarding schools, the parents and pupils of which were now pouring back into town for the return to school after Divali. I'd sat next to a school boy on the journey up and managed to squeeze a few phrases out of him in English.

Where are you from? " Gujarat" he said, "It's a long way from here." I know it! I replied, I'm hoping to go there soon, hoping to use this as a springboard for a conversation about his home state but he shrugged and looked down.

How old are you? I tried. " I am 9-years old" came the replied in textbook English before he turned and looked out of the window gloomily. This wasn't an easy conversation.

Do you like school? I said. "No, I HATE IT!!" it replied loudly looking straight at his father sat in the seat in front of us. Hmm, no wonder he's not such a happy chappy. As we nearer Nainital fat tears rolled down his cheeks and the last I saw of him he'd put his blanket over his head and was refusing to get out of the bus. Poor kid.

Rather than taking a shared taxi to the other end of the lake I walked along the shore watching the changing light on the water and the early morning mist receed up the hills as the air warmed. Nainital was a beautiful town that was becoming more and more popular with middle-class Indian's on their honeymoon and it was easy to see why.

I found myself a guesthouse, threw down my pack and after a quick wash headed back down to the waters edge and found myself a chai stand and some breakfast. My original plan had been to hole up in Nainital for a couple of days in order to quiz as many other trekkers and guides as I could before deciding which of the two glacier treks to the North i'd set my sights on. Of course Chris' verdict was fresh in my mind and I was now going to have to decide whether to heed his advise or ignore it. I'd come here to trek, my backpack was full of gore-tex clothing, thermal underwear and the Himalaya where just beyond that ridge. If I didn't trek what the hell else was I going to do here?

In most towns there is a cafe, restaurant or bakery that becomes the regular backpacker hang-out. There's usually a noticeboard where folks post recommendations and information and sitting around here for an hour or so will guarantee you'll meet someone and be able to start up a conversation. These places are usually a good place to find fellow trekkers as they're either preparing for their trek (look for a group huddled around a map, splitting up food and equipment between their backpacks and buying all the cookies and chocolate they can get their hands on) or they're just back from a trek (in which case they'll be the grubby group looking tired yet elated who have ordered every item on the menu, twice already!) I hug around the most likely looking cafe for an hour and didn't see another westerner. Hmm, i'm not in the right place I thought and wandered down the road a little to bakery that smelt great. By now it was 9.30am and place should have been buzzing with folks like me ordering banana porridge and omlettes but with the expection of a couple of newly-weds the place was deserted. Hmm, I knew this was the end of the trekking season but the weather was still great and all roads North were still open according to the sign outside the police station. Where was everyone?

There are only so many cups of chai you can drink in a morning so I left the strip of cafes along the shore and wandered about the backstreets and lanes behind the main street. The place was a hive of activity at this time of the morning and I spent a good hour watching the trading of fruits, vegetables, meats and grains before I realised i'd not seen a fishmonger in town. How strange given that we're next to a giant lake thats obviously teaming with fish as you can see them below the water! Obviously there was either something wrong with the water or the lake was sacred and so the fish couldn't be eaten. I never did find out which it was but my money would be on the former rather than the later.

After a while I found the office of the mountain guides association that the Lonely Planet was recommending, and inside I met Rik, a yound but obviously knowledgeable guide who was able to answer all the questions about the two treks I'd read about, and even advise some interesting alternatives to the standard route in some place.

"So Rik, where are all the other trekkers?" I asked, having a sneaking feeling I'd know his response.

" It's after Divali now and the shepherds have come down from the hills so the season is pretty much over already" he replied.

With Divali being so early this year it seems the shephers had taken the opportunity to come down off the hills a couple of weeks earlier than expected. Especially as the monsoon had been poor and so the grazing on the hills was not great.

Rik assured me that if I really wanted to trek he'd organise a couple of mules, tents and food enough to enable us to do any of the treks I wasnted, but I didn't want to trek with him alone, not only from a safety perspetive but also from an enjoyment and cost perspective as its always better when you can share the experience and cost with a couple of others.

So, it seemed the odds were staked up against me doing any trekking on this trip and whether I liked it or not I was going to be following Chris' advise and resting up for a couple of days. Oh well, I thought. There could be worse places to spend a couple of days than Nainital I thought, sitting back in my chair, pulling out my book and ordering a hot masala chai as I looked out over the lake.

Down, but not out.

About a month before I left for India I fell and hurt my ankle. Whilst ice was being packed around my foot I blubbed like a baby, not at the pain, but at the unthinkable thought that if my ankle was broken i'd have to postpone my trip. An x-ray showed that all the bones were intact and after a week or so of hobbling around on crutches and resting as much as possible I was pleased with the speed at which the swelling & bruising had gone, and how slowly, but surely, it was getting better.

The fortnight before my flight life was crazy though. At very short notice I had to find a new flat to rent which had Dad & I racing around Paris for a week, then I had to move and unpack, run around organising change of addresses etc and catch up and say goodbye to everyone before I left. All of this left little time for resting my leg or getting to a physiotherapists, but I felt confident I would be able to hike in a good pair of strong boots and with not too much weight on my back. I purposely packed the least amount of kit possible and was pleased when my pack weighed in at just over 8Kg at Charles de Gaulle. My first few days in Delhi however prooved me wrong.

Streets here in India are haphazard and crazy; not just with the mass of people, traffic and trading that' s going on but also the trash, animals and broken ground that are underfoot. Walking down a busy street requires you look up to make sure you don't run into anyone, simultaneously look left and right to ward off potential hagglers and keep and eye out for yummy street food, glance back from time to time to move over and let cows or motorbikes past and constantly look down so as to navigate the broken pavements, rubbish and sleeping dogs. It's an exhausting exercise until you get the hang of it, which usually takes a day or two.
As I slowly ' found my feet' on my first day in Delhi the less I had to concentrate on navigating the more I became aware of how I was walking over obstacles; unnaturally leading with my left leg putting me slightly off balance but 'saving' my right ankle from a potentially wobbly landing. Looking down I realised why. My right ankle had puffed up like a poppadom and was starting to hurt. Damn. This wasn't supposed to be happening, but still it was hot and humid, i'd spent all day yesterday immobile in an airplane and was now tramping around in flip-flops. Maybe it wasn't so surprising my ankle wasn't happy.

The next day I sent off in my hiking boots and walked a lot less, but when I pulled off my boots in the night train the result was the same as the day before. Giant swollen ankle starred back at me, inflamed and angry.

"Ouch, that looks nasty", said the westerner in the bunk across from me. "Let me take a look" said Chris, introducing himself as an orthopedic surgeon from Cambridge.
He agreed with the x-ray from Paris but frowned when I mentioned I was going to trek.
"Nothing major's broken" he said, "I'll take a look again in the morning when the swelling has gone down" and handed me some anti-inflammatories.
"Thanks!", I said, thinking how chance meetings had already had me run into Tathania in Delhi, now a drug-totting doctor on a train. My travel karma seemed to be functioning well at the moment!

As ever the night on the train was peaceful and I slept well. Traveling overnight on these old sleepers is something I always look forward to when I think of coming back to India and I often wish we had something similar in Europe.
" Chai, Chai, Chai!" yelled the tea-wallah as he made his way down through the carriage. I was wide awake and as Chris was still under his blanket I bought a couple of hot, sweet brews for the both of us. It'd didn't sweeten his verdict any though.
" You see how it's swollen at the back, and how it hurts you here when I press here". I yelped.
" That means some of the small bones in your ankle are probably broken or fractured and that's what's causing the pain and swelling. You need to rest this rather than trek if you don't want to do more damage" he said looking me squarely in the eye. " That's the only treatment there is. Rest." I tried to hide my disappointment but obviously didn't do it well. "Sorry" said Chris, looking down into his tea.

I thanked him, laced up my boots tightly, swung my pack over my shoulders and jumped down off the train trying to come to grips with what i'd just been told. My ankle sent a sharp pain up my leg as I landed as if to help hammer the point home and I trudged up the road from the station in the dark, looking for a jeep or bus on up the 36km to Nainital.

As the sun rose and we raced around the switchbacks up the hills my spirit soared at again being back in India. I love this part of arriving in the mountains and no bad news from Chris was going to change that. For now I'd found what I'd dreamed of and be scared of missing when I fell 6-weeks back- being back in the foothills of the Indian Himalaya. One of my favourite places on earth!

The story so far...

So, when I said I had no plans that was not exactly true. My rucksac was packed with thermal underwear, a Gore-tex jacket and sub-zero sleeping bag with the intention of spending a fair amount of this trip somewhere amongst the Himalaya.

A couple of years back I spent a month in the North Eastern state of Sikkim and had a fantastic couple of weeks trekking with a truly spectacular backdrop of snow-capped mountains. As this ranks as one of my best trips i'd planned to try to recreate this in the North Western state of Uttarakhand, hence the contents of my backpack being geared to higher altitudes and colder climes.

My trip got off to a great start with Air France upgrading me to Business Class so I arrived in Delhi ready to hit the ground running. It was 9-years ago that I last visited the city and its changed quite a bit since then. There is a metro system now. It's still as noisy and crazy as ever but many of the cars now run on gas rather than petrol and the auto-rickshaws have been converted from 2-stoke to 4-stroke engines so the air pollution is a little better, and with the Comonwealth games coming to the city next year the place is being spruced up and building work seems to be going on everywhere.

Halfway through the first day, needing a break from the blaring horns, the dust and heat I slipped into a backpacker cafe for a chai and to start to plan my trip North when who should walk in, Tathania, a Columbian girl I trekked with in Sikkim 2-years back!

How strange to see a familiar face so far away, in time and distance from when we last met! Tathania was on her way up to Dharasalam and had also just arrived in town that day. In many ways you could say the chances of us meeting again where high in that we're both independent travelers who like the same kinds of places, but still it's a one in a million chance we'd be in Delhi in the same cafe at the same time and it was really great to see her again.

My next meeting was not so much of a chance as i'd emailed my friend Abi in NY who'd offered to put me in touch with his brother Saurabh who lives in Delhi.
A couple of emails and text messages were exchanged and a rendez-vous organised for the Rodeo bar in Connaught Circle. I got there a couple of minutes before Saurabh and couldn't help laughing at finding myself in a cowboy bar run by a band of Indians. Saurabh arrived and we had a great evening chatting about India, Europe and life over a couple of Kingfishers and him giving me a few travel tips for some of my potential destinations.

So, the next day, having spent a quiet couple of hours in Juntar Muntar I hopped on a night train North to Nainital. A hill-station set beside a beautiful lake and surrounded my deep green valleys which I'd decided would be my gateway into the mountains this time around.

Juntar Muntar. The beautiful solar & lunar obversatory just south of Connaught Circle.

Hello again!

Its been a long time since I last blogged, over a year now in fact. That time has just flown by and in between times i've had plenty of blog-worthy experiences I could have shared with you.

Ethiopia for example is an amazing country with some outstanding landscapes, beautiful people and a fascinating history. It is also remote and under-developed however, with hardly any telephone, let alone internet connections, making ' real-time' travel updates impossible. Add to that that I had to medi-vac my feeble French ex-boyfriend, making the end of the trip premature, abrupt and very stressful and the result is no documentation of my time there, other than photos.

This annoys me for 2 reasons; Firstly its not a 'popular' destination, which is a shame as its a fantastically easy place to travel. If anyone is searching the web for feedback on Ethiopia I would have wanted them to be able to find my blog and to share my experiences with them - to encourage them to go. Secondly I use these posts as a journal and when i'm stuck at home/work with the urge to escape i'll often look back through them and come across a moment i'd forgotten and spend a happy 5 minutes daydreaming.

Ethiopia's not the only thing i've missed. There was a great week walking on Minorca with my friend Liz back in June. Then a fantastic weekend with Doug in Annecy where I had my first para-gliding experience. I can't blame lack on internet connections or flaky ex-boyfriend's for those missing posts. Simple that this past year has been a year in which much has changed for me, and change (whether expected or not) is often the catalyst for more change, which requires reflection, putting me in a more introverted mind-set and so not in the right frame of mind to blog.

That is why I need this trip now. After 9 years of happily ' coasting' along with my life in Paris I think 2010 is going to be a year of more change, but planned, coordinated change this time.
I might buy a place to live, go back to school, or change jobs, or all three! This may be the last ' long' trip i'm able to make for a while if I load up on debt or change employers so I have to make the most of it, whilst using it to buy some quiet time with myself and work out the plan for the next couple of years.

So, starting today and until 02h15 on 23Nov i've absolutely no commitments and only a handful of vague ideas as to where i'll end up. What I will do though is try to log-in every so often and tell you what i've been up to. At least then if my plans go wrong, or even right, and I end up debt-ridden and cramming for exams i'll have something to look back on.

The highlights...

Traveling can often be totally overwhelming; the sights, sounds, smells that surround you and speeds at which everything moves are alien and it takes a couple of days to adapt and adjust to your new surroundings.

Likewise, after 5 weeks in India it takes 48 hrs or so to adjust back to Paris life - people smoking everywhere, not having to hold someone else's chicken or child on the bus and the lack of spices in the food. In fact I shouted at my taxi driver on the way home from the airport as I was truly terrified at the speed he was driving at.
'Mais Madame', he said, 'I am well within the speed limit!' and he was, but as I hadn't traveled faster than about 40kmh for the last month suddenly 120kmh felt like warp speed.

Its only after i've adapted back to our 'speed of light' Western lifestyle I can sit down and reflect on my trip, and after a month back in Paris there are many highlights that remain bright in my memory:

Bouncing around in the jeep convoy through the tea-plantations to Darjeeling

Crawling out of my sleeping bag to see sunrise on Kanchenjunga and Everest

Trekking with Tom and Rob down through the cardamom forests

Dawn over the Tibetan plateau, freezing, but in the company of warm friends!

Trekking to Pelling with Daphna and Arvi - the Khecheopalri Kids!

Having Jeroen fill an entire page of my notebook with book and music recommendations, then racing round Kolkata in taxis

Having out of trains with Arvi

Sunsets in Puri

and of course all the food!

As you'll notice from most of the photos, many of my highlights are moments i've shared with people i've met along the way, and theres a very good reason for this. The majority of people I meet traveling are open-minded, adventurous, fun loving, inquisitive, generous, spontaneous, cultured and eager to share everything - from travel tales, tips and warnings to their food and company for a few days.

Traveling to a foreign country is always a rich experience and my trip to India was made all the more so by the people I met there. So to all my travel companions in 2007 I say 'Thank you!' for helping make my journeys so much fun, and see you somewhere off the beaten track in 2008!

x

Down down, deeper and down...




When I arrived India was gearing up for Diwali, the 'festival of light', a celebration involving gifts, sharing meals and exploding large amounts of firecrackers. But the firecrackers weren't the only thing exploding as Sensex, India's stock exchange, hit the 20,000 mark for the first time ever.

India's economy is booming and it has no problems justifying its position in the 'BRIC' (Brazil, Russia, India & China) group of future power nations, who are already muscling in on the traditional super economies. Yet I don't think the Sensex's record high made it on to many pages or websites around the world- perhaps because they're all too busy reporting on the continuing demise of the dollar...

This weekend's IHT ran a cover story on the difficulties faced by US expats in Europe and Asia who are dependent on dollar salaries, pensions or client bases and gave plenty of examples of belts being tightened or sticks upped and moved to countries where the living costs were lower. Whilst India and its BRIC allies become richer the dollar earning expats are significantly poorer now than they were a year ago, and at present there are few glimmers of hope on the horizon.


I noticed back in 2004 when I was last in India that Euros and Pounds were easier to change than dollars and saw further proof of the situation in S. America earlier this year when Euros, Pounds and even Swiss Francs were prefreable to dollars. For this latest trip I made the decision to travel only with Euros, a decision the Indian government backed up by refusing to accept dollar payments for entry to many of the countries tourist sites:

'The Ministry of Culture has begun insisting that tourists visiting the country’s monuments, including the Taj Mahal, pay the entrance fees in rupees rather than in dollars. Entrance to many sites for foreign tourists is priced in dollars and then converted to rupees, but the ministry has been losing tourism revenue as the dollar slid more than 12 percent this year against the rupee.' NY Times, 17 Nov 07

It's not just the Ministry of Culture that's refusing dollars... I heard a tale of beggar in Kolkata turning up their nose and walking away from a woman who offered her dollar bills!

As some Indian's and expats take all necessary measures to protect their revenues those earning Pounds and Euros are cashing in on their currencies strength and flexing their purchasing power by jetting off to the US to do their Christmas shopping:

'“Your money just keeps on going,” said Ms. Dragonette, awed at the buying power of her British pounds, each worth $2.03 at the time.

The dollar was so weak, said her cousin, a 27-year-old nurse, “We had trouble spending all our money.” Add a new superlative to New York’s long list: world’s most fabulous discount mall.

With the dollar near its lowest rate against the pound in 26 years, and its lowest rate against the euro ever, many Europeans are looking at the United States the way some Americans have long viewed Latin America and the Caribbean and, once upon a time, Europe — a cheap place to flex their strong currency. ' NY Times 15 Dec 07

At least the US hotel and retail economy would appear to be profiting from the dollars doldrums...

Who knows how long the dollar will continue to devalue... in the meantime if you're thinking of traveling to India, or anywhere else on earth for that matter, forget those greenbacks - they're not worth the paper they're printed on!

Yumthang Valley

One of the things I wanted to do most in Sikkim was the 9-10 day Goeche-la trek, which would take me up to the base of Kachenjunga mountain and an altitude of 4940m, closer to its summit. However, as Northern Sikkim borders with Tibet, security in the area is very closely controlled and the only way to get into this area is as part of a group with a recognised guide and a permit. Usually I shy away from these organised trips but for a 10 day trek in this area you'd need a yak or two to carry kit and food, and a guide to get you in and out so I was prepared to sign up to a group and hand over the necessary cash for this part of my trip. The problem I found on arriving in Gangtok (Sikkim's capital) was that not many others where up for a 10 day hike now that the weather had turned really cold, and despite trawling around all the guest houses and trek organisers in town I didn't manage to find enough people up for the adventure in order to put together a minimum sized group of 4. There was rumour of a group heading out in 10 days time but I didn't have 10 days to hang around for a rumour so slunk back to my guesthouse to form another Sikkim plan.

Pouring over the old Lonely Planet I read about Yumthang Valley in North Eastern Sikkim which due to its location is off the beaten track of most tourists. Overnight my luck changed and I found a group of 3 Suisse and a Colombian (now living in America) who were also interested in going and had already started to organise a jeep. Yep, there was definitly room for me in the jeep and they were more than happy to have me join them so we set off early next morning for the long drive North.

Our days drive was broken by visits to a couple of stunning monasteries en route but we were all keen to get as far North as quickly as possible, knowing that the sooner we got there the more time we'd have to spend there. 'There' being Zero Point; the end of the road, quite literally where the tarmac stops and tips you out on to a snowy boulder field surrounded by steep mountains with the Tibetan Plateau stretching before you.

We pulled in at nightfall to an elaborate looking hotel that had been decorated at a temple and whilst waiting for dinner set off in search of 'Tongba' the local brew made from fermented millet. We eventually found some in the home of a local shop owner whose wife, dressed beautifully in Tibetan robes invited us through to their enormous kitchen/lounge/bedroom/bar. Filling up large bamboo handle less 'tankards' with millet she then poured on hot water and gave us bamboo straws with which to mash about the mixture. The taste is very bitter and acidic, like young wine, but it's warm and wet, which up here at 3,800m is very welcome on a cold dark night. We walked back to the hotel under some of the most beautiful night skies I've ever seen and with all that warm tongba inside me it wasn't long before I was fit for my bed.

Next morning we were up early and wrapped up against the bitter cold at 5am. Around 6am the sun rose over the mountains and the views around us became mesmerizing.


The jeep wound its way up literally hundreds of switchbacks and as we climbed the snow thickened and the rivers crossing our paths became more and more frozen. At just after 7am we could go no further, the end of the road! and there was a big sign to state the fact!


At this altitude (4,800m) and at this time of the morning it was bloody cold, but frankly that didn't register with me I was so overwhelmed by my surroundings. Along with the Swiss we took turns taking photos and playing in the snow and then I sat myself on a rock for a while to sit down and contemplate the view around me, letting my thoughts wander across that plateau to meet up with a future dream of a train trip to Lhasa.


On the way up that morning we'd picked up a Tibetan guy and girl who'd climbed up to the top of the jeep and bared the freezing temperatures on the drive up. I'd forgotten about them until one of them wandered over with a mug of boiling hot chai for me, making me realise also just how cold I was. The Swiss and the Columbian were huddled under a sheet of plastic masquerading as a tent and trying to keep warm when I found then and although I was pleased to be in the warm I really wanted to be outside with the mountains. I grabbed another mug then went back outside, where in the sunshine it really wasn't so bad. I'd just settled down with my tea in the sun when the guide came over to bundle me back in the jeep. "No!" I begged, " we cant go, we've just got here!" not wanting to leave the view. He pointed out we'd been there for nearly 2 hours, one of the Swiss girls was suffering with the altitude and the Columbian woman had turned into a popsicle so I relented and climbed back into the jeep for the long drive back to Gangtok.

Although somewhat pissed at not being able to do my planned trek and not having more time to spend at Zero Point this jaunt is so far without a doubt the highlight of my trip so far and for a short time has provided me with my mountain fix. I have the images of that Tibetan plateau fixed in my brain now and they'll stay there for a long time, at least until I get to see that view again.



xx

Photos...

A random selection of some recent shots have just gone up on Flickr. I'll get around to adding descriptions/tags etc when I get a chance. In the meantime... enjoy!

xxx

Poverty & Filth

For many people the first images that India conjures up are those of poverty & filth, and indeed these words are often come up in descriptions of the country and its people. Both exist here but it annoys me that the terms are used so readily in India's case and often put hand in hand with each other.

When I was growing up in the UK dropping litter was a heinous crime. The 'Keep Britain Tidy' logo was on every can and packet and bins plentiful in every park and street.

Filth is not a word that often comes to mind when thinking about London or many other British cities. However you don't have to go too far outside of many major UK cities in order to find poverty.

Paris is the same and if you glance out of the train window between Gard du Nord and the airport you'll see countless areas in which people are living in poverty, just miles away from some very affluent residential areas. These affluent areas are however often filthy, with dog shit strewn streets and cigarette buts and litter in the gutters. Its this needless litter that I define as filth.

In Indian cities many live in poverty and the litter is thrown into the street as there are very very few bins. However the rubbish is very often swept up and piled into a lorry in the morning, leaving the streets relatively clean. I therefore don't really think you can describe India's city streets as filthy. Unfortunately the countryside is.

With India's middle class growing ever more wealthy more and more families are traveling and vacationing in their country and during a recent 5 day trek we passed countless families ' trekking' with all their bags and trappings piled into a jeep. The jeep also contains mountains of sweets, chocolates and snacks wrapped in miles of plastic packaging, all of which gets tossed out of the windows and on to the paths, just as it would be in their hometown. Here though there is no rubbish lorry, or even a cow to munch up the mess and the paths are tracks are knee deep in plastic trash. In West Bengal's Singalia national park, in which I trekked with Rob and Tom, we paid Rs100 national park maintenance entrance fee each, and spent our entire time picking up litter. The India guide thought we were crazy and I have to admit after another jeep raced past leaving a confetti trail of sweet wrappers I was beginning to think he was right. When we reached a chai house on the trail we pushed all the collected litter into the bin, only to later watch the lady of the house chuck it over the edge of the hill into the collective rubbish pile. This is where poverty and filth meet. When there are no facilities to collect or deal with rubbish and the pollution and health hazards it creates multiples.

The tide of change is slowly turning though as India's poorer population realise that filth and pollution has to be brought under control. The state of Sikkim has come to the conclusion that by being more environmentally friendly (its banned plastic bags and many plastic containers) it can cash in on eco-tourism, which generates much needed revenue to help deal with waste. It's schemes are well organised and its policies based around education and health care so that it simultaneously attacks pollution and poverty issues. Of course not all of its schemes are positive and it has some quite controversial HEP projects but their communications and marketing campaigns are powerful and changing the collective mentality.

Lets hope that this change in mentality will spread to the ever growing mobile India middle class, so that as India continues to pull its way up the economic ladder away from poverty its countryside doesn't drown in the wave of filth most imagine littering its streets.