MID LIFE AT THE OASIS

So the Thai people have this concept known as “Sa Nook” or “Sanuke” which basically boils down to the attitude that if you not having fun doing something, then it really isn’t good, since everything should have an element of Sa Nook or playful fun in it. This includes work. Over the past three days, we really got to get out in the countryside and see the more rural side of Thai life. The rural people are even more friendly which just boggles the mind, since the city folk are so cheery to start. I’ve never encountered such an outwardly endearing culture. After sitting on the train for a few hours from Chumphon to Bangkok and reading between the lines a bit in the Lonely Planet, we decided to stop for a few more days in Thailand before crossing into Laos and Vientiane and boy are we glad we did, as the little city/town of Nong Khai is a great place to visit and access the more laid back and traditional side of Thai life. The area around the city contains dozens of little villages that still survive though farming and agriculture, including fishing along the Mekong river, beautiful rice paddies, and flower farms.

We rented some nice mountain bikes and were therefore able to cover a good 60km on our first day (yup, butts are sore!) on a fabulous loop that the nice people at our guest house had laid out on maps. We crossed rickety bridges, travelled along little dirt paths connecting villages, and were fueled by dozens of hellos per kilometer that made you feel like you were crossing through some mysterious fairyland where everyone is happily working away in the fields, cooking, or folding laundry.

Cheryl on the Rickety Bridge

I’m not sure if there is an unhappy person in Thailand. I’m really not sure. The Thai seem to have life pretty well figured out and it was so refreshing to see such a way of life, from both the rural to the small cities. Bangkok will be different, but boy, if I had to pick a place to drop out and live the cheap Expat “off the gird” life it would be here. And from what we saw in town, there were a lot of Brits and Aussies that had done exactly that, including the owner of the wonderful Mut Mee Guest House (www.mutmee.net) This guest house sits on the Mekong and has about 20 rooms of varying rusticness (ours was a really cool little duplex bungalow with outside shower and bath) all around a great garden, restaurant, and community gathering place. So we decided to stay 3 nights and just chill, ride bikes, and soak up as much of the warm vibe as possible.

On the third day we biked to the amazing sculpture garden which will require it’s own post when we get all the photos. I also headed out by myself and ended up meeting “Tam” a Buddhist monk in training that was trying to practice his English and was the most outgoing of group of 6 teenage boys that I chatted with for 15 minutes or so, gave them my email address, and convinced the shy one to take the photo below.

Lots of Sa Nook for us too as they accidently broke a street lamp behind them and I told them they could blame the American. It was pretty funny and another encounter that I will cherish (and I may have a Thai monk email buddy, who knows).

Last night on Christmas eve, the Mut Mee had a big buffet dinner and party with really great local musicians and dancers. We met a really nice German couple and spent most of the evening talking with them and drinking Singha and Leo beer (“The Beer that Roars!”) until Christmas eve became Christmas Day (no, we just stayed up to midnight or so, no all night are you kidding!). And yes, I got pulled up by the 4′-10″ Thai women dancers to join them in an embarrass the gringos moment; lots of SA Nook there and not a Christmas eve that will blend with the rest for sure.

And today we crossed the “Friendship Bridge” to communist Laos and are now sitting in the somewhat dreary and rundown capital city that time and capitalism has left behind. We are only staying the night on the good advice of other travellers coming South and will be heading North to Vang Vieng and more promising parts of Laos tomorrow. We did sample some great local food at lunch today (See Cheryl’s blog for more on this) and are going to try a good sounding French Restaurant this evening as there is still the legacy of the French colonialism here both in the architecture and food, although the basic food of the people shares much more with Thai and Vietnamese cultures. And yes, travel is all about the food, as long as it is prepared with a smile and Sa Nook.

Update…6 Hours later….. I had to write about it now didn’t I? Yup, the swells were huge again and about 10 minutes into the two hour trip I knew that I was in big trouble. My stomach started to cramp and I broke out in a solid sweat while successfully “maintaining” for nearly an hour. I tried the IPod, but that failed to help, so I finally succumbed and joined the legions of bag fillers on the old tilt-a-whirl also know as as the Lomprayah Koh Tao high-speed Catamaran! Funny thing seasickness is; you can weather all sorts of bad rides and then some day your number comes up and blam. The good news is that I felt much better after returning my chicken curry lunch and made it to the dock with minimal extended misery. Cheryl was the stronger sailor today although she was pretty green as well (it didn’t help having me next to her!) and we were both VERY HAPPY to get off the boat onto solid ground. Amazingly, I was eating again at the night market in Chumphon just hours later! Who can resist the food of Thailand even when you can’t always keep it down!

Coconut Custard Street Treats

Hello Mainland!

Greetings All:

We’re wrapping up 8 days on the islands of the Southwestern Gulf of Thailand and about to get back on the high speed catamaran to Chumphon, which is about two hours away on the main coast. Goodbye beaches…. 🙁 The weather this time of year in these islands is pretty variable due the the fact that it is the middle of the Northeast monsoon. This has meant some spectacular weather, rain, and wind, along with plenty of sunshine in between. It’s really my idea of perfect island weather as all sunshine would be a bit too much, well, correction, ideal except when you need to make open ocean crossings by boat! The protected beaches and bays were fine and saw little wind, butt when we boarded the catamaran in choppy seas on Northern Ko Samui, the big swells required the crew to grab and hold each passenger as the loose dock, ramp, and boat were varying in height by up to four feet. No problem. So it didn’t seem so bad at first as the catamaran sliced through the swell at a good clip, and we made it to the adjacent island Koh Ph Ngan is about half an hour or so, on our way to Koh Tao. At this first stop, about a hundred or so of the party crowd got on the boat, as Ko PhaNgan is known for its full moon all night parties and raves, which is why we bypassed it with little hesitation. Many of these ragged bunch looked like they may have partied a little hard the night before, which made getting on the boat a bad idea under good conditions. However, theses would not be good conditions. Unfortunately I think no one on board realized that the next leg would really take us out into open seas and that we’d be crossing in huge winds and swells that caused the front of the boat to rise way up and slam down continuosly, while sending your inner ear to the moon. Also, the rain started and the seas got dark and nasty, which made looking for any horizon impossible. It was actually a bit scary at times, since the typhoon conditions seemed to get worse and worse.

But soon it started. The first woman bolted out the side door dangerously onto the front side deck and started to add chum to the ocean. Then the next few started in the front rows. The woman next us was hunched over and limp-green. Finally, the crew realized what was happening and went into a Stage 5 Hurl Alert. They passed up and and down the two aisles of the airplane like interior with plastic bags and plenty of toilet paper. They even had some sort of menthol smelling salts that they gave to people to sniff, which may have helped a few, but it was pretty ugly. Hands continued to go up and the guys would run down the aisle to the rescue, like medics pulling soldiers off a battlefield. I’d say at least a quarter of the boats 200 passengers succumbed to hurling, and another half were very green. As anyone knows who has been seasick, the smell of another getting sick can set off a wave that it is hard to stop. Amazingly, Cheryl and I resisted the pull and held on for nearly two hours, although I have to admit it was a bit dicey for awhile. I actually made the mistake of heading back to the bathrooms (for standard purposes) but discovered that the areas in the back around the “heads” was like a refuge camp of the ill and miserable. I looked away, held my pee, and headed back to my seat, and told Cheryl, “DO NOT go back there!” When we finally docked, there was nearly a stampede of sick folks pushing out the doors as they clearly didn’t want to be on that boat for 1 second longer than necessary.

So crazily enough we are about to get back on the same boat for another two hour crossing, but the weather looks o.k. today (but not great, still quite windy). We are going to eat early, sit near the back of the boat (but away from the heads!) and hope for the best.

Other than the boat crossing, everything is pretty lovely here on the islands so please don’t feel too sorry for us, with great people, beaches, and we even managed some snorkeling, although it has been a challenge with the wind and certainly not ideal conditions on the reefs.

We hired a long boat to take us over to a small island off Koh Tao for some snorkeling and even that crossing hit some windy open chop that had us all laughing at the showers we got before even getting to the island. Luckily, the long boat pilots are great and of course, come complete with the wonderful Thai disposition where everything is fun, happy, and a laugh. It’s very endearing. The island, Koh Nang Yuan was actually three little islands connected by two sand bars that were getting pummelled by the wind driven swells. there is one little dive “resort” with some bungalows, bar, and restaurant. It’s a very cool and unique setting, although the conditions were just too rough for an good snorkeling. We nicknamed it “Danger Island” as everything there was kind of scary, including the crossing, the rickety old dock, and the waves breaking the sand bars with the open seas just a hundred meters away. Very Robinson Crusoe, but with a tiki bar.

Yesterday, we hiked over the ridge of the Island to a small bay on the East Coast which had better snorkeling (including beautiful green coral and large rainbow fish), but still pretty rough with the swells from the Northeast coming around the point into the cove.

It was great to see more of the island as walking from side to side and back we saw more of the local people, housing and lifestyle which you don’t see much of down on the coastal beach areas, where most of the prime property is now inhabited by “farangs” (gringos to the Thais). We’ve had some fantastic food and are looking even more forward to getting more authentic food on the mainland.

As for our direction….well, due to our friends being gone during the holidays in Bangkok, we’re now going to head straight up to Laos after an overnight on the mainland tonight and then a night train North tomorrow. Why not. So it looks like Christmas in Vientiane. We have heard nothing but positive things about the Lao people and travelling there is supposed to be quite rewarding and very laid-back. We tplan on heading north through Laos and exiting back into Northern Thailand (where we get a new 30-day visa) and then working our way back to Bangkok. We are slowly adjusting to the heat, but the inland areas may be a test along with the bugs, as we discovered yesterday while eating our new improved Museli, “now with more added ants!” as the little devils crawled into our “sealed” bag somehow. But when you have yummy overpriced Museli and yogurt already prepared in your room, you just can’t bear to throw anything out. So we ate a few ants that didn’t clear the yogurt swamp. Mmmm, protein. Clearly, we need to up our defenses in the jungles as the bugs here are serious. Everything is bigger and more colorful in the tropics.

Well, some photos of Thailand will be coming soon, but for now, just the prose.

We miss you all and hope you have a wonderful and peaceful Christmas and New Year.

Rich

Well we made it out of Mumbai, but not without India throwing us some final punches on the way to the airport. We caught a safe looking private taxi from outside our hotel to the airport, allowing 2 hours to go less than 20 km based on Mumbai’s legendary reputation for traffic. Everything seemed great after the mandatory 5 men finished their discussion about the pending journey for another few minutes (It appears to take a minimum of 5 men to complete most service tasks in India, I think this may be law)

Now there is a way to get to one train station closer to where we were staying, take a local train to a station closer to the airport (but not that close) and then catch a taxi form there, but it would have been at rush hour which every guide book says is a crazy thing to attempt, especially with backpacks on. The trains are packed and nuts. Just take a taxi they say. And getting to and from each end would have meant even more tedious negotiations with taxi divers. Now believe me if this was Vienna, we would have taken 8 connections to get to the airport as needed and it still would have been easier and less stressful. (In fact, we did take 3 seamless connections to get to the Vienna airport)

So the drive started out calmly enough as we settled into the thick traffic heading out of the Colaba neighborhood of South Mumbai, but then we started to slowly realize that our 20-something driver was a testosterone laden nut. He proceeded to use the oncoming lanes frequently to try to pass on quasi-highways and alternately would use the inside “curb” lane to try to make some progress when things had stopped for about 10 minutes halfway into our trip. He was not gaining anything as the inside lane was clogged with throngs of carts, people, and dogs also trying to make there way along the streets. When he passed on the outside, he would often spend more time trying to merge back into traffic then those just residing themselves to the slow pace of Mumbai’s nightmare transportation system. (And yes, we felt guilty that we were adding to this mess). Meanwhile we passed glitzy new high rise “neighborhoods” with lines of nice cars streaming out into the clogged mess alternating with some of the worst slum living that I have seen, including piles of trash burning, tarp cities, and men defecating 5 feet from the car traffic. India is so disturbing, that I still get upset with people who glamorize it in any way. It’s a mess, both socially and environmentally. Sure, it’s not all bad and you have to look forward, but please be realistic. Any yes, I know the South is much different, so again I speak for the 13 places we visited.

So when traffic really started to crawl, he turned and asked what time are flight was and we told him midnight, so we still had plenty of time. No panic, my crazy friend was the tone of both our voices….but it did not seem to matter. He proceeded down a side six lane boulevard which seemed to have a variable flow traffic system in place similar to the Golden Gate Bridge as the crush of traffic was taking 4 to 5 lanes and only one lane was managing to squeeze by in the opposite direction. (Of course this system was voluntary) That of course was until our brainiac driver decided to take the sixth lane as a “shortcut” and then couldn’t merge back into the other lanes as the intersection ahead was completely and seemingly girdlocked. So one of the old 1950’s style Fiat like black and yellow Mumbai meter taxis approached and slowed as it looked like he might be able to squeeze by. Sccreeeunhch! Nope, his bruiser taxi with 3-inch thick steel bumpers proceeded to tear off the back corner panel and part of the bumper of our taxis shiny new Tata compact sedan. So the two taxis actually got stuck together with interlocked bumpers and no way to maneuver out. If the bruiser taxi had proceeded then our car would have lost the whole bumper and probably part of the small trunk. So now we’re thinking great, we really are never going to get out of India and this now going to take an hour to sort out, although clearly our driver was completely at fault for being three lanes over into oncoming traffic. The frequent feelings of claustrophobia that I had in India came back quickly, filling me with a panic that being in a sea of 20 million people can only induce.

Well, luckily 20 of the 1000 men on that particular block of Mumbai all started to offer their opinions on how the two cars could get apart, and then proceeded to help lift the back and back bumper of the bruiser taxi to the side. More crunching steel on plastic and other bad sounds as the cars finally came apart. Now, clearly our driver did not own this car and it was obvious from the expression on his face after surveying the damage that he was going to be in a world of hurt when he got back to the boss man. Despite his “Fast and Furious” inspired driving style, we felt really bad for him. But there is no need for paperwork since only the one (at fault) car had real damage, we were actually on our way in about 5 minutes. We still think that the bruiser taxi did this on purpose as his tank was untouched and he wanted to teach our driver a lesson for gridlocking all the oncoming traffic. Yup, cars are stupid, and they are multiplying in India along with young males and an advertising campaigns showing blinged-out hipsters racing through the imaginary streets of the new India.

So did he proceed to mellow out and take it easy the rest of the way? No way. We were both certain that he might have at least 1 or maybe 2 more accidents before we made it to the airport. He was just a bad driver, but we had no choice as we were where the taxis would only be passing by full, since no taxi would be cruising empty in 10 miles of crawling traffic. But we screeched into the terminal 2 hours later, completely wigged out and shaking a bit, but happy to have made it in one piece. I’m sure he’ll have a completely different story for his boss (the Camel came out of nowhere!), but I still gave him a good tip out of sheer pity for the fact that was clearly a fellow in the wrong profession and I suspect would be looking for other work now. It’s hard to be a saint in the city of Mumbai.

So we had a short 3 1/2 hour flight to Bangkok and managed to get a few hours of sleep prior to a 5-hour layover in the somewhat cavernous new Bangkok airport. Everything in the airport was orderly. We got off in Surat Thani, got our baggage in 5 minutes and then asked how we could get to Ko Samui island. Here is your ticket, there is the bus that will connect you to the ferry terminal in an hour or so and so were getting off onto the island about 4 easy hours later. No hassles, everybody mellow. Taxi from the pier to the area of island that we wanted to look for housing. Everything easy and only one person completes each task. Very strange.

So we lucked out and got two nights at my first choice little place called the Lodge, on the Bo Phut beach. It was fabulous and probably one the most pleasant places that I have ever stayed. (and for $34)

They were booked from today on, so we took a little walk down the beach yesterday and checked out a few other places and found one we liked for a similar price. No hassles, they tell you the price and show you the room. I can’t really describe the difference from India as a traveller. The Thai people are so nice, and so mellow. Ho honking, no running you off the road out of sheer motorized arrogance, and they ask you once if you wold like something and give a clear answer to questions. Granted, this is an uber tourist island, so it may be different as we hopefully encounter more genuine Thai life in the interior and mountains of the North.

Oh, and yes the food is great, with the more casual and local looking places off the beach strip serving the best food. (An easy rule of thumb anywhere).

Yup, it’s paradise here and on Saturday we are going to head to the more coral laced Koh Tau for another 4 nights, as long as we squeeze out some accommodation prior o the Holliday onslaught due in a week or so. Then we’ll be ready to get back to some more challenging travel again, as we now just need now a vacation from our travels.

Peace to all and especially the 1.1 Billion Indians. May you rise and prosper.

We have survived 32 days travelling in India and are soaking up one last day of the frenetic life on the streets of Mumbai. It’s seemed like about twice as long as a month, as the intensity of experiences here just pushes the limit of comprehension. The amazing thing is that millions of people here survive these rough, dirty, and unforgiving streets for their entire lifetimes, maybe never even experiencing clean air or water, not to mention the joys of education and opportunity in life.

As I have read numerous books on poverty and India while travelling here, and I know that India has already changed me. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything or certainly another month in an office back home. Every beggar that has gazed deeply into my eyes or even grabbed my arm in desperation will haunt me forever. Every smile and enthusiastic “Hello, what country are you from?” from kids just desperate for a better life that they can see on the horizon will always echo in the back of my head. The incredibly friendly middle class that you meet and chat with on trains or in cafes. Everyone. They all have a fire in their eyes, but they still have to deal with the realities of an overburdened and impoverished country of a Billion people still rife with corruption and nepotism. I am confident now that they will rise and that this place will be very different by the end of my lifetime.

As for Mumbai: Did you ever see the movie Logan’s Run, with its post-apocalyptic vision of Washington, DC in decay? Well, Mumbai has an extensive collection of colonial era buildings built by the British (well, by Indian laborers I’m sure) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that all appear to be in varying states of decay. However, as we have seen in India, it appears that 95% of the infrastructure is in decay while 5% is being rebuilt and renovated. Finally it appears that the post-colonial India is finding its own way, and a unique way that no longer relies on the guidance of outsiders. Even here in Mumbai, some of the buildings are being restored along with some lovely gardens in the interior streets of Colaba, the somewhat touristy district that we are staying in in South Mumbai. Local architectural preservation and neighborhood groups are getting organized around restoring a more livable Mumbai. Of course, with 18 million people living in a vast sprawling and polluted mess, there is endless work to do, but a new metro is being built and they have concrete plans for the first two lines of bus rapid transit, including dedicated bus lanes. Now you have to understand that the idea of dedicated anything on a street in India is more than novel. It’s unbelievable. Unfortunately Mumbai also has the disastrous elevated freeways built right through the “center” of the city so ubiquitous in America, but there are so many more pressing issues that clearly starting with some new bus and rail infrastructure is the best approach to help the most people soon. But I diverge into transportation planning policy again….

We left Delhi on the overnight train to Udaipur last Monday and arrived relatively fresh to the semi-arid city of Udaipur, in Rajasthan. Rajasthan is kind of quintessential India, as it has palaces, forts, elephants, monkeys and lively streets and alleys all surrounding a nice lake and hills that make it quite enchanting and even romantic. We watched a wonderful performance of native dance at the local cultural center and best of all, rented bikes to get out in the countryside a bit. It felt so good to be moving on a bicycles again, not to mention being able to see things at a slow pace and away from the more touristed centers of town. Having a boy hitch a ride for quarter mile on my bike rack will be one of the funniest memories of the trip. He just jumped on and off and we all exchanged hellos and thank yous.

The kids are great, especially when the interactions are real and not involving forced begging or touting. All you need to do to get these real interactions is get a few hundred yards from the tourist centers (ghettos) that exist in every know hot spot, but it seems especially in Rajasthan.

Everyone says that we will look back on our time in India with positive and longful eyes, and I am certain that is true as you just can’t help but be mesmerized by the vastness and depth of the culture, land, and people. However, I will not say to anyone in the future that asks “Oh yeah, India is a joy to travel in and I would highly recommend it!” No way. The realities are that it is incredibly difficult to travel here, the rewards are slow and deep, with little tangible joy at many places. The museums, temples, and other sights are not always that great or have other major difficulties associated with them. But most of all, the people and streets can drive you insane; in a very short period of time. I’m not sure that Cheryl will ever recover from her frustration at the men here. First of all, there are thousands of them, everywhere, all the time. And always, always, always staring. Staring for a long time, and right at you, everywhere, and all the time. You get the idea. It’s been much harder on her than me and if you search the web for blogs of female solo travellers, you will find similar sentiments. Many describe complete emotional break downs (as I’ve even seen with some tough men traveling here).

And India can take it’s toll on your health and well-being too, as exercise is either impossible due to the air, traffic, or safety, but mostly the traffic and general lack of space to recreate. We did find a nice park and rose garden in Udaipur which and we walked the morning circuit with some of the few locals with the time or inclination to exercise for recreation.

Now I’m not saying any of these things are impossible as you can jog, bike, hike, and walk all over India. But it’s not easy, and it seems to me that there are much better places to do these things in the world. And besides, you almost feel silly even worrying about such things in a land of such immense poverty. So you can add guilt to the list of limitations on activity. Good thing we did this at 40, and not 60.

So it comes back to the people. As the land is often compromised, the people are what make a journey to India. And it is the people that I will remember.

But that’s it. We fly out at midnight to Bangkok and Surat Thani in the Southwest gulf of Thailand. It’s a short flight to Bangkok with a 5-hour layover, so we’re looking forward to pretty much a sleepless night, but that’s o.k. since the thought of a beach, clean water, and a new culture is definitely getting us excited. We have over 2 months planned to explore SE Asia and hopefully, this won’t be the shock of Vienna to Delhi, but as we are learning, every place is different than you expect. Way different. And this is why we travel on.

By the way, has the Christmas holiday season started yet? We would never know.

Rich

Our trip through the mountains of Himachal Pradesh ended spectacularly, as we hiked up in the snow above Manali, taking in some of the highest glacial peaks. Our hotel, Johnson’s Lodge was pleasant and rustic and we got the upside of of the off-season with the best room for 50% off. Of course there is often a reason that a time is the off-season and in this case it was clearly the cold and accompanying lack of heat in any building in the mountains, except for a few wood stoves and space heaters. However, we choose this place because we had been freezing the past two nights and it had a small rustic wood stove in our room. So the room included a little wood fire heat in our room rate that they stocked and lit during dinner for us. Sounds lovely.

Of course this being India, you always need to make choices about your comfort, and in this case, it was a simple choice of oxygen or heat for the first three hours of the wood fire, since the discharge pipe was clearly too small or choked with soot to accommodate the smoke. We returned the first night to our room to find it uninhabitable with thick smoke and literally had to crawl on the floor to open some windows and clear the place out in the next hour, which of course negated any effect that the heat from the fire was having on the room temperature. It was pretty funny as I can just never believe how there really is “always something” with everything in India. But we laughed it off (as you must do to stay sane here) and the second night were better prepared for waiting out the smoke clearing, as after a few hours the hotter coals actually produced a bit of nice heat and the smoke was below coughing level. And for those of you asking about smoke detectors, then you have obviously not been to India as they do not exist, anywhere. Fire is a small danger here compared to the many others.

Johnson’s Lodge also had a laid-back and excellent restaurant reminiscent of North Coast California (which we miss) that we ended up eating every single meal at, despite being a stone’s throw from town. We have found that when you travel for months at a time (we are now 5 months into our vagabond state) that you need to take every advantage to replenish your body and soul with things that make you happy and in this case, with amazing hearty oatmeal, spinach lasagnes, and pizzas that tasted so good after weeks of various Indian cuisines. We are also finding that since we both for a bit sick from some Indian food that our bodies seem to have lost a taste for it and guess that this feeling may be nature’s way of protecting ourselves. (Kinda like my first and last BAD experience with Jack Daniels in high school!!) Of course, we have still had more tasty street front Indian chow, as it’s the only way to eat most places.

We then headed to McLeod Ganj which was a 7-hour drive from Manali on roads that had about 10 meters of straightaway in about 200 km of gorges and small villages. Needless to say we were happy to get out of the car and send our nice driver, Rana, on his way back to Shimla, passing on the next morning of “sightseeing” planned (we paid him the same) as we would have gladly paid him more not to drive us another day. Having a driver was wonderful for certain stretches, but we were ready to walk, walk, walk, and get back to the calmer train travel as possible.

McLeod Ganj is a kinda backpacker, Tibetan refuge, mixed with the usual dose of touts, beggars, limping dogs, and marauding monkeys. It is home to the exiled Dali Lama and a substantial community of Tibetan refuges that fled the Chinese slaughter ( 1.2 million Tibetans) and cultural elimination over the past 40+ years. The setting is nice at 1700m (about 6000 feet) with thick forests of evergreen trees and trails extending up to smaller villages and the bigger peaks of the Himalayas. We finally found some really nice and peaceful hiking, including spotting 5 red pandas climbing trees and apparently fighting (or maybe it was mating?) on a very secluded trail that we wandered onto. The second day we hiked further to a ridge at 2800 m (over 3000 feet above McLeod!) which had stunning views of the snow capped mountains just a few mile away. The day trek also had two nice huts along the way where you can emjoy snacks, water, and of course, a nice Chai tea while crossing paths with other locals , drop-out gringos, and even monks.

We also passed older traditional Tibetan women carrying impressive loads of firewood on their backs at a speed greater than ours. What the men are doing is often a mystery here in the mountains of India. Important business, I’m sure. These two days hiking really put us back in a nice physically and mentally happy place as heavy exercise has been lacking in the past three weeks.

The fourth day in McLeod we walked the Kora prayer circuit which most practicing Buddhists do daily around a small ridge which passes by a temple and the Dali Lamas residence. It was thick with prayer flags, carved rocks and prayer wheels which you spin clockwise as you walk in lieu of reciting the extensive prayers contained on them. It was pretty cool as we were in the middle of natives and got a good sense of the scene. I like a religion that incorporated walking into the daily ritual and clearly it keeps people fit as we saw very old women making this very hilly Kora circuit.

Back to dangerrous activities…. here in India is to be on the roads after dark in any form of transportation is risky as the death rates are close to 10 times (per mile) of most industrialized nations. There are no street lights in most places, overburdened two-lane roads, and a traffic mix that is unbelievable. We say this since we survived a 3 hour shared taxi ride to the Pathankot train station from McLeod Ganj that took us into the evening. Everytime we passed a unlit cart into oncoming traffic we thought it was the end. We all closed our eyes after awhile as it was just to much to take….so we will be avoiding any more night travel. Period.

We had a great overnight here in Delhi and are on our way to Rajasthan (Udaipur) via night train to spend 4 days, while finally heading on to Ahmadabad and Mumbai. Yesterday was especially pleasant as we finally got to the wonderful National Museum of India and their deep and beautiful collection of artifacts from 4000 years of societies on the Sub-continent. We also met a very nice British guy named Pete, who we rode the train with, and hung out in Delhi with for the day. He is on his way to Sydney and the US to work for the NIH in Washington DC. It was great to share our stories of India and the world.

Well, better push the post and get to our train as the honking in Dehli is growing…must really be rush hour now. Photos soon…..promise