Where Have I Been?

We were playing a train based game the other night, and the person who had been to the most countries, got to go first.  It's not really something I've thought of before so I hadn't counted them.  So I did:

US

Canada

Mexico

Italy
Vatican City

Turks and Caicos (British Crown Colony)

Netherlands
Belgium

Denmark

Germany

Czech Republic

Hungary

Romania

Bulgaria

Turkey

Greece

Guatemala

El Salvador

Honduras

Nicaragua

Costa Rica

Panama

China

Mongolia

Thailand

Laos

Vietnam

Cambodia

India

Nepal
Japan
Singapore
Malaysia
Indonesia

Wow, that's 34.  Only 165 to go...

Last Day in Asia

Grrrr, I'd intended to send this missive from the airport in Mumbai.
I'd read that they had free wifi hear as they do in many airports.
But, no. They have expensive wifi, that I can't buy because I don't
have a cell phone. That, in a nutshell, is India. Nothing is easy or
predictable.

So, I went on a tour of Asia's largest slum today. There's a small
company, Reality Tours, that gives tours of Dhivarty. It's got more
than a million people stuffed in it, has several industries including,
plastic recycling, aluminium recycling, soap making, plastic molding
and pottery to name few. It was one of the best things I've done on
the trip. They even make and export the plastic shredding machines. It
was pretty amazing to see how efficient the are with their space and
industries.

So here I sit at the airport at and about 26 hours from my writting
this, I'll be home.

I had lots of reasons for this trip. From recovering from work stress
to self discovery and adventure. At this point I'm not sure I can
articulate what I've gained from my journey. I'm sure that something
has changed, it's hard to travel like this and not be changed by it. I
suppose that all will be revealled. Or something.

Goodbye Asia!

Close to the end of India

So, I've been back in India for 9ish days.  I spent a good part of the first 56 either trying to get money or traveling.  There was a 36 hour train journey and 4 hours one day spent on the phone talking with 8 people from my bank.  None of them could help me.  I was told that my card had been blocked, three times, that I had an expiration date mismatch, twice, and that my pin had been deleted from my account, once.  This wonderful day took place in Jaisalmer, a desert town, not far from the Pakistan border.  My financial odyssey started in Lucknow at a Citibank, my bank, when I couldn't get cash from their machine.  It ended with a Western Union moneygram sent by my girlfriend.  Thanks sweetheart!  I was down to about 650 rupies or a little under $15.  With a hotel bill and a camel "safari" to pay for.  I now hate Citibank and plan to look for a credit union upon my return.

Camels.  Who would ride one on purpose?  I took a short ride on one in Mongolia and it was enough.  I tried to find a trip going to the desert by jeep, but I'd have to book a solo one, which would have cost too much.  So off on a camel I went, four hours that first day. It was a two hour walk back to the jeep which would take us home the next day, so I just walked.  I still have abrasions on my butt.  Just say no to camels. 

So now I've been to the Gobi desert and the Ragisthani desert, to more under my belt.  Other than some really cool ruins, being in the Rajisthani desert was no different from being in CA deserts, well except for the camels, goats, sheep and the occasional nomad.

McDonalds is very strange here.  They don't have no burger, and the big mac is a mahrasha mac, a couple of circular pieces of grilled chicken in stead of two whole beef patties (as per the big mac song).  Also, both times I've ventured into one, I've been metal detected and searched.  The fries were exactly the same.

Kathmandu

I mean just the name sounds like a place you have to visit right?  I stayed in the Thamel district, which it turns out is a tourist shit hole. Once I got out side of it, the city was, well a historic city in a developing country, run down but full of character. I was only there for two nights as my math was off and I had a ticket to Rajistan waiting for me in Lucknow.  I'd planned on spending 4 days here and after spending one, I really wish I had. 

They don't get an overabundance of tourists here and once I got over my melt down of this morning and afternoon, I had a great time.  I took a pedicab out to the Residence, which is the remains of a British Raj. area the was attacked during the revolution.  I didn't see much of it because people kept coming up to say hello and have conversations.  People in the street would stop me to say hello and ask where I'm from.  It was a very nice day, once I decided to have fun again.  That's India for you, complex, rich, and at time incomprehensible. 

I came close to ending my trip short this morning, but I'm glad I didn't.  I'm expecting to have a few chill days in the desert in Jaisalmer.  I'm staying in a 500 year old Haveli, basically a castle cut out of sandstone. 

Travel Day From Hell

I'll get to my adventures in Nepal, but for the moment, I'm going out or order.  This post starts with the end of Kathmandu.  I was trying to find a bus to the border, the southern border this time insead of the eastern one.  The travel agencies were screwing me around, giving me bad info and trying to rip me off. I found a post on the net about booking a shared jeep, which I did, it was cheaper, faster and safer than a bus. 

 

We get to about 4 kilometers from the border and the guy tells me this is it, I need to take a tuk tuk to the border, I inform him that no, I paid for a ride to the border. At this point, I'm the last passenger and the guy's lazy and I'm not having it, so we go back and forth and he takes me to the border.

 

Your supposed to be able to get a shared jeep or a bus to the closest place with a train or take a bus to father locations.  I was completly discombobulated.  I first jumped into a jeep, but they wanted me to ride with my bag on my lap and I jumped out.  Then I got on the bus that would take me to the town with a train station, but it wasn't leaving soon enough so I got off.

 

I went to the only place you can book buses at the border and decided to book a bus to my destination, Lucknow, instead of taking the very real chance of not getting a train.  I get on the bus and just as it's leaving the guy who sold me the ticket comes and sits next to me, another guys walks up and asks for my ticket and demands double of what I've already paid, an extra 10 bucks. I say no, ask for a refund and to get off the bus.  The bus is speeding away at this point and these two guys are blocking me it.  I ask again for a refund and to get off the bus, they come down to about an extra $2 bucks, I say no, let me off.  The second guy starts getting angry and rips up my ticket.  He tells me I can get off the bus, but without my bag.  So I get up, pull my bag out from under him and start saying in a very loud voice, "Please let me off the bus, your being very rude!" over and over again, eventually they let me through and I get to the front of the bus, which has gone about a kilometer by now and ask the bus driver loudly to stop the bus.  He does.

 

I get off the bus and start walking back towards the border town, the second guy jumps off the bus and begs me to come back.  I go back and get on the bus, but I'm paranoid as hell at this point.  People come over and sit next to me, telling me that they are on my side.  One guys says, "Don't get off the bus, at any stops it's not safe for you."  I travel agent from Lucknow comes over to offer any help I'd like.  I don't trust any of them.  I decide that I'll get off at the train station with the travel agent.  We get off the bus at the train station.  Arun, my new travel agent freind, you can find him at www.tornosindia.com, helps me get a general ticket and talks the ticket guy into letting me stay in a sleeper birth.  It all works out, we get to Lucknow with my spirits restored.

 

Until I figure out that sometime during all the mayhem, I lost my camera and 2 months worth of pictues.   Grrrrr.

How Do You Get To Kathmandu?

So, I was supposed to go to Lucknow today, but I bought a train ticket for the wrong date, 12/30, instead of 11/30 and there's a strike today, not a union strike but a political party strike.  Apparently the transportation industry is aligned with the party that's striking.  So no buses, no trains, no cabs...at least in theory.  I found a ride to the border at three times the normal cost, still that's under $5 for an hour ride.  Though the driver had to take the long way to avoid road blocks of strikers, we almost ran into a group of them as they spanned the road ahead, but were warned off and took some back streets. 

I could have walked right across the border, no one checked anything, but getting back into India would not have been fun.  So, I stamped out of India in a little grass hut and went into customs to get my Nepal vista, which costs $25 plus 100 Rupes "tip."

Normally there are 15 buses a day leaving here for Kathmandu, I'm in the border town of Karkarvitta.  Today there are 3 because of the strike.  I was hanging out at the travel agency where I bought my ticket and the owner confessed to me that no one here would take the bus.  It's about $10 to take the bus and $100 to fly, the flights about an hour the bus can take 17 hours.  I figure the bus will make for a better story. 

I'll report in on the trip after I recover, if and when I make it.

Thanksgiving?

I had no idea.  I just walked into an internet cafe to make some travel plans and someone mentioned it.  So happy Turkey Day!  I generally ignore the holiday season as much as is possible, I suppose it was a subconscious reason for the timing of my trip.  No turkey for me, i had a Northern Indian Thali, like a sampler platter, for lunch, but it was vegetarian.  Besides I haven't seen a turkey anywhere in Asia. 

Had a some interesting interactions with the locals today.  While I was in the Lloyd Botanical Gardens some middle school kids adopted me for an couple of hours. On the way out I happened to walk by some teenagers as they were singing happy birthday to one of their friends for his 18th, I joined in and the insisted I have some cake.  It was a very good day.  Though the internet kept going in and out as well as the power, so here I am still trying to get things done. 

I hope ya'll have fun with those turkeys, hams, lambs or whatever it is ya'll are eating today, oh and with your peoples as well.