To the Land of the Beatle Yogis

We are heading for Haridwar, then Rishikesh, where the Beatles found their guru, tomarrow on a train that will take 21 hours. Not setting the alarm right, we didn't wake up this morning to take a boat on the sunrise, but we hope to do it tomarrow as we have to get up early for our train anyhow. We sit out on our terrace, which looks upon an ancient temple and the ganges and watch monkeys in the afternoon. It is very strange in Varanasi that these beautifully intricate temples are alot of times adjacent to new buildings that are built almost on top of the temples. There is a Sonic Youth concert going on a lot of places and a lot of times in Varanasi, the one we like the most is right before sunrise, right outside our room. These Sonic Youth imitators seem to live in the temples, probably running from the law for copyright infringement on a number of Sonic Youth songs. They use metal pots and drums and whatelse for instruments, Ingrid suggested that it might be religious or something like that but I am sure they are copyright infringing punk rockers!
We want to give Marie Landragin a big-up shout-out for her tireless and excellent blog commentary. Yo Marie~ big-up! dats right... you see kids, commentary does pay!

?What is your preferred method execution?

The Slow Life of India

Yes, it seems that we have adjusted well to the slow life and have time to think, eat, do nothing, but most importantly correspond with our friends. It is such a great thing, I mean The Internet otherwise known as The Messiah, that we can let be known all our doings to our friends. Just think, twenty years ago to keep in touch with people was much more diffucult, although not as diffucult as 40 or 60 or 600. Ofcourse, if this blog carried any sort of logic with it I should pair the slow life of India with writing personal letters and so forth, but there is only two reasons I am writing this pre-request blabber: 1} my dad's ear is sick so I would like everyone who is reading this to take a moment to wish Acar to get well, 2} no one answered our request at the blog titled "the runs" so if you are ever so kind please do that, so while we are enjoying the slow life of India we don't get bored. I am sure that any kindness one practices is good for not only that person but for the well being of all, so go on, be kind, now!
alp

the best of india, the worst of india

hi buddies!~
having spent a few days relaxing in our homebase of new delhi, new friends colony, we wrenched ourselves out of luxury and headed back for the rails and ended up in varanasi. for those of you unaccustomed to the hype, this is considered the holiest city in india and has a string of ghats lined up along the ganges (in addition to also being the city that was home to my parents in the late-1970s). it is the best of india because it is a real indian city, with fervent pilgrims, a labryinthene old city, and temples and monkeys and beautiful architecture hidden in all the cracks. but it is the most insufferable because (foreign) tourists have been coming here for ages and the locals have perfected their annoying touting tactics. if, as the saying goes, a hindu dies in varanasi and achieves moksha automatically... then i guess these people are fully taking advantage of their certain fate to be as difficult as possible in their last life. to be fair, of course, we have had our mood soured by lack of sleep, double colds, and dissatisfaction over our inability to cook for ourselves. our 100 rupee a night room (2 dollars) is near the most famous burning ghat, Manikarnita, where you can witness people burning on pyres all day and night. alp has joked that the soot in our snotty noses is actually the residue of people!
ingrid

Pictures

Click to go to our photo albums.

Holiest of the Holies

We are making plans to go to Varanasi on Sunday to stay there upto a week or add another stop before returning to Delhi to wait for Esin. Today is Dusshera, the holiday which commemorates the killing of the demon Ravana by Durga and is celebrated by offering liquor up to the goddess and burning huge effigies of the demon.

?if you could answer any question what would it be?

the runs

Alp and i are back in delhi after a serious case of the runs... not the kind you would expect but rather, we suddenly felt the urge to move on from the mountains. we went rather far into the chamba valley, stopping for a few days in the beautiful mountain-rimmed town of bharmour, before deciding to embark on our 23-hour return trip to delhi. the chamba valley was certainly the least touristed place we visited in himachal pradesh but sadly, it did not yield what we were hoping. we were laughed at when we inquired about renting a motorcycle or an abode, so we just had to enjoy the scenery. our plans have changed once again and we are awaiting alp's cousin esin's arrival in delhi, whereupon we will decide our mode of transportation (no more buses) and direction of travel. in the meantime however, we will probably go to benares and "enjoy the ganga," maybe even dip in the holy waters themselves. today though, we are enjoying the lightning speed internet, planning on cooking to our hearts' delight in our wonderful ben's kitchen, and drinking beer in the afternoon. in other words~ we will simulate the american experience. tallyho! by the way!!!!! alp is sporting a mustache now! he looks really cute and i am proud to have such an authentically indian lover!
ingie

yes friends, it is wonderful to eat to your heart's content in restaurants and dhaba's yet there is really no food like home food. we have really enjoyed the himalaya's and as we bid our goodbye also said see ya later. now i am exited to see esin and get motorized. we will head down south and see where that takes us. adios
alp!

ps please folk who are reading this do us a favor, spare 5 minutes and explain your favorite card game (or other travelling game) to us. por favor

Chamba chamba chamba

We are in the beatiful Chamba valley. Arriving first at Dalhousie on a rainy night we found a hotel there and for the first time in India had TV. We made the most of that while not doing hikes and stuff. It was the cleanest town in India that I have seen, with fresh air and an aura of an old European town. After spending two lazy days there we took the bus to Chamba and here we are. It is very nice here but there are a few hindrances to our previous plans. There are no motorcycles to rent so we have to find another alternative and there are no property managers. We both are in the air, and flying, without wings, only with our minds about what to do.

free tibet and palestine and america and.....

thanks for all the wonderful comments... i would use the exclaimation mark key if it worked but sadly it does not. i am so pleased to hear of virginia's unfailingly lovely autumns and of debates for the fast approaching election. my older brother walt sent me a brief article and picture on the mysterious black box on bush's back during the last debate and it is shocking ~~exclaimation point~~. we rewatched fahrenheit nineeleven last night and it reminded me of how hard i must try to get my absentee ballot and vote. after the film was over, a european or isreali girl commented exaggeratedly "why are there no americans in the cinema?" if i had caught what she'd said a minute before leaving the theatre, i would have tried to engage her in a conversation about why that would not be the response i think michael moore was intending to evoke. it seems everyone, even in this enlightment-driven town, is tryng to create and re-inforce cycles of prejudice and dislike. generally, i am telling people that i am from canada, but it makes me a little angry to have to lie. i would hope that some people would see that not all americans are responsible for bush's actions, just as i don't hold every israeli responsible for the decisions of ariel sharon. i feel decidedly removed from the news and what is going on in what is technically my country and this certainly makes me feel a little guilty.

back to never-never land though... alp and i took a wonderfully long hike yesterday to a meadow called triund, with three little chai stalls, a large herd of goats, and a beautiful panorama of the dhaula dhar mountains. it was quite a trek to get there though and we are proud of exercising our little muscles so much. we are excited about leaving for chamba tomorrow though and are hoping it will be the land of honey and beautiful scenery that we imagine.
ingrid

Livin the Western Dream

So we are still in Mcleod Ganj, feeling a lot better. Ingrid's black tongue was due to pepto bismol(i never trusted that pink look anyway), and my bump has gone away. We are having great food, as an example there is this japanese restraurant where for two dollars you get the daily special which is a five course meal and very good. We are going to video halls, and last night we went to a restaurant with beer where we had first an Edwards 5000 Strong, then King Fisher Strong, and then Godfather Super Strong which has a picture of a man on it reminesent of Stalin. We are of course going to everywhere that you can go as well, so don't think we are sleeping all day. In fact we usually wake up at 8. Tomarrow we will take a hike about 15 miles with considarable altitude change and we will rest on Sabbath. Monday we are heading into Chamba valley where we hope to find somewhere to settle down for a while. Our first stop will be Dalhousie and then to Chamba to rent a motorcycle and explore the valley. I will look into business ideas there. We can't wait to upload some pictures which we will do in Delhi probably beginning of november.
alpi

?if you had to cover one part of your body ALL THE TIME where would it be?

In McLeod Ganj

Early this morning we arrived at McLeod Ganj, home to the Tibetan government in exile, and many a good restaurants. The bus ride thru the night was the roughest so far, I was joking that if you could sleep on that bus you should be made rinpoche(highest lama priesthood, i think:). We arrived at 5 in the morning and after being followed by guest house personal, we settled down. Last two days in Manali were delightfully torrential rainy and we got to make the most of it. We camped out in our room, which we called our "island vacation", reading The World According to Garp among other things. Last day in Manali we hung out with our friend Ben and went to the river. We still feel discombabulated after last nights ride, plus I have a bump on my head from hitting the bus flap and Ingrid woke up with a blackish tongue with a taste of gunmetal in her mouth. It is cleanable, but we will go to the doctor tomarrow. Sorry mot nuch humor here now hope humor there.
Alp

Why hike, when you can bike?

Yesterday we hired a bike. I wanted to go for the Enfield but after test driving it i realized that not only all the controls of the Enfield are backwards but the road is too. So we got a ringidink Yamaha with 135cc and after buying 2.5 gallons of gas for $10 (we weren't jipped) we set out for Rothang La. At 4000m it is the pass that goes thru this valley to the Lahaul valley. It was the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen or actually been in. While the valley on this side was green the other side was desolate. We did not go into that valley because I was getting tired. Gaining 2000m in 50km on a 135cc bike with two people, no mirrors and no horn let me tell you friends is not as easy as it sounds.
Alp

We kept the motorcycle for another day as well and today we went south into the kullu valley. the roads were extremely pretty, with lord-of-the-rings-esque trees on the side slopes, and we travelled up one of the hills to have tea with a local shopkeeper. the two major crops, of course, up there are charas(marijuana) and apples. we were offered both magnanimously but left with only the latter. then we continued on to naggar (naggar, naggar, wass my name!?) and stopped in on a wonderful museum devoted to the strange russian family of the roerichs, who were in love with india. nikolai and all his sons were magnificent fanatastical landscape painters and the like. seeing some of the scenary around here though makes it clear however that their surrealist colours and scenes are the stuff of reality in these grand valleys. check out the name on the internet if you are interested (we would but this computer connection is too slow). and finally, on one of those beautiful roads, i rode the motorcycle, which is not all that different from riding my beloved iteljet scooter. i cannot wait to become more than just alp's biker bitch. i will be a biker memsahib, thank you, soon enough!
ingrid


Seeing that we aren't getting very many comments from you all (maybe you are not reading) we decided to make this blog interactive. From now on we will ask a ridiculous question that we urge everyone to ponder. Now for the first one, it is:

?If you could have poop be any color what would it be?