Back from the Trek

I arrived back from the trek a little while ago. It was early in the trek that I abandoned the fantasy, upon return, of a comfortable room in a guesthouse with a nice, hot shower. That sort of thing isn't really available. Some days there isn't even water. I had the choice of a cold shower or a warm bucket shower. I chose the cold shower and sorry, no towel. "No problem" said the man, "you're all alone in there", and then he waggled his hips in front of me for bit too long.

I dropped off my laundry (I'm gonna skip the details of this storefront and its proprietor) and headed for the computer. The first thing I wanted to do on the internet was email my friend Eric. I met this guy biking across the US. I told him he could take the biggest, blackest Sharpie and use it to cross my name off the list of potential participants for the Pacific Crest Trail hike. This is a trail, out West, where you have to hike something like 18 miles per day for three months to complete it without getting pinched by the weather on either side.

Our trek was fun, but I'm glad it was not 6 days. I know what you're thinking: Max, you're a fat, lazy blob, how did you do a five day trek in the Himalayas? These are some serious mountains, not like that little acne patch you find in Southeastern British Columbia. (Just kidding, Lisa and Gusti). Well the answer is mules. What I paid for was a giude and a porter. I thought this would mean a guide and another guy to help carry the sleeping and cooking stuff and I would still carry all my gear. But not so; what porter meant was the guy who drive the two mules. But Max, did you really need two mules? I don't know, but mules don't fly solo. So I just carried my camera some water.

It started off easy. The first two days were very easy but the third day was long and I stretched myself thin, laboring into camp. Added to this was the frustration of extensive miscommunication with my guide which caused me to be up on Kuari Pass with no jacket and no clue about where we were or where we were going. On Day 4, the plan was to reach the peak of Pargantula(sp?) at about 4700 meters. From the first few days and the look of the oft-visible peak, I decided this was going to be "easy". This was much like that time in college when I was about to play Trinity's #14 in squash and I had it in my mind that I was going to do really well. I was gonna play great, use all my best moves and get about 5 points per game. I think I got one point the whole match.

My body was pretty much dead from the first steps up, but we made a valiant effort. We got to a spot where we sat down for some lunch. My guide, Promoth, pointed up at the peak and said "I think no". I said "I think you're right", and we both lay back on the cushy, short bushes and fell asleep. Maybe another time I can post a picture of this peak.

For everything, jeep rides, forest pass, five days of guide, five days of mules, food for everyone, I paid about US$60/day. In the area of food, the service far exceeded my expectations. Breakfast daily was a big bowl of Ramen-like noodles but fatter with tomatoes and onions, an omelette and a bowl of hot cereal of some kind. Sometimes toast. Lunch was abit weak but it was a setup for dinner. Dinner, and this is just for me, was a bowl of Dahl, a big bowl of rice, 4 chopattis, like naan, sort of, a vegetable dish, papadums, a salad plate(cucumbers and onions), and then usually a bowl of hot cereal. Delicious tea was always served. It was all made fresh, pretty incredible. I'm not sure if I was weaker due to all veg diet, not sure.

Today was tough. We just plowed downward many thousand feet. At one point we rested and I asked the guide if we were halfway. He replied "no, no" and I knew from his history of answering questions that this could actually mean yes, no we already passed it, or no we're not there yet. Yes and no were interchangable. So were today and tomorrow. I eventually stopped asking. About halfway(maybe) along today, my right knee said "Hey Max, I'm finished, and Lefty's not far behind." As there was no 'Helicopter' button, I had to push them on. Literally, about 10 minutes from the village of Topovan, our terminus, I grazed my hand against a harmless looking plant whose tiny little barbs bit into my skin in four places. It burned immediately and swelled up. I showed Promoth, and to make me feel better, he replied "I think no".

All in all, it was pretty awesome. Please excuse my sharp tone. I'm pretty fatigued from the walking and 4 nights sleeping with nothing between me and the ground but a 1/4 inch foam thing. I tipped the guide and porter generously for their terrific service.

If anyone was interested, I'm in Joshimath, Uttrachan. Not sure about the spelling on the state. It changed between now and when my Lonely Planet was published. We're about 40km from China. To be honest and I'm surprised there's internet here, and it's actually not so slow. I was assuming the data for this post would have to be loaded onto a mule and carried off to another town, but I guess not.

I don't hate being in India, but it's tough. It's a lot to take all at once, and at time maybe doesn;t seem worth it. In Thailand, people smile, but in India people take you home. "Guest is God" is the rule here and it's taken very seriously. That love makes it worth it. I'm here til May 9 and I plan to put my time in and make it down to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. At this rate, I'm not sure when I'll be back in the area and I think it's a must see. (The rest of Agra is apparently not so pleasant.) All I'm saying is think long and hard before planning your vacation in India, and then come, with an open-ended ticket.

By the way, the view in the mountains was incredible. I'm guessing about that. Anything too far away was washed out in smoke and cloud. Too bad for everyone. Sorry. Hopefully we'll do some more pictures soon. Bye all.

Go It Alone, and You Won't Be Alone

Pragya gave us the name and contact info of a man called H.K. Seth. He is the boss/dispatcher of a transportation company and she told us to call him whenever we needed a ride anywhere. I asked for a car for 630 ths morning to take me to the ISBT, where the BT proably stands for bus terminal. As we got very close, the drive, Mr. Pondit, got a bit confused because, as he said, he is only used to taking people to the railway station or the airport. The travel desk at the Taj Palace doesn't recommend bus travel to its guests.

He parked the car and walked in with me as i'm sure Mr. Seth told him to. For this, I was very, very thankful. This is Delhi, India at the bus terminal. We foun my bus after a couple minutes and got on together. The bus was OKand deserved no place in any story among a group of backpackers, but you could tell it had more than a few (hundred) round trips under its belt and maybe wasn't all up to date with its interior detailing. Mr. Pondit gave me a look that queried "Is this what you expected? Are you sure you want to do this?" He clearly wanted to be off this bus as quicly as possible, but I was ready for the six and a half hour ride to Haridwar. The ticket for this trip set me back 178 rupees, or about $3.60 USD.

We boarded the bus at 7:15 and it as scheduled to leave at 8. When we got on, one other man was already seated. Mr. Pondit exchanged a few words with him, asked if I was cool, and departed. He returned minutes later with Mr. Seth on the phne to further make sure everything was fine. I sat with that one guy and we chatted as the bud filled. He was Vijay Rajput, a 26 year-old working in Mumbai on his way home to see his parents. He was fresh off the 26 hour train ride from Mumbai to Delhi. "I've never sat on a plane", he replied when I asked. In the end, the bus was fine. The AC worked the whole way and we actually left a couple minutes early when every seat was full.

A few minutes into the trip, Vijay tells me it would make him very happy, and make his parents very happy, if I came and stayed at his house. I readily agreed. He promised to show me everything and Haridwar.

We talked about his job. Vijay holds his MBA and was formerly with sales and marketing for HP/Compaq. Now he does sales and marketing for a company that makes bar code printers and scanners. His shift is 9am to 6pm Monday to Saturday, but he usually ha to work one to three hours after 6.

We moved on to the topic of romance. I found out that Vijay was in a serious, two year long relationship with a girl name Shvarti. It ended a year ago when her parents wouldn;t give the blessing due to the lower caste VIjay's family is a part of. It sucks. He reponded by saying "That's life", and stating that the blessing of the parents, his and hers, is the most important thing. "Love is blind", he said, "but marriage is th eye opener."

I exerienced extreme sensory overload upon stepping off the bus. It was about 105 degrees with a dry dut storm blopwing into my face through the group of touts and drivers. The ambiet decibel level in this town is incredibly high. It seems like people have rigged their car horns to blow continuously anytime the engine is running. So far, India is really too much for me. India makes Cambodia look like Connecticut. Anyway, I was happy to be able to shut off my brain and just follo Vijay t his parents' home. This included a tuk tuk ride that maxed out with 8 passengers and a driver. We were full to the brim, heaping like a tablespoon, the tuk tuk would barey move, butthe driver still pulled over to drum up potential business.

I was welcomed into the Rajput home with minimal fuss, Vijay's parents silently suggesting their son had clearly made the right choice in inviting this guest home. The father' line of questioning starte and ended with "Are you married?" This man's lifelong dream has been to own his own car and on March 26 2009, he fulfilled that dream when he brought home a brand new Suzuki Alto. (His questioning continued a couple minuites later with, translated thr Vijay, "what's a good stereo for a 'four wheeler'?".

We cruised around in the new car, me, Vijay at the wheel, and Vijay's 'cousin-brother' Tanuj. As darkness fell, we visited a Hindu temple, then had a lovely dinner at Flavours Restaurant. Any restaurant on this street, by local law, has to be vegetarian. Vijay's family is all veg all the time. He's never eaten beef, chicken, pro, fish, no meat, no egg.

We have a bunch of things planned for tomorrow.

_________

I wrote the above two days ago and things have been great with someone to hang out with and show me around. To escape the hustle-bustle of India, I booked a 5 day trek in the Himalayas. I make the bus ride to begin that tomorrow. Now I' out of time and I won't even proofread.

Huge thanks to Kate Scudellari, my good friend who invitied me to Pragya's wedding. The wedding was certainly a once in a lifetime type of thing. (even though I sort of agreed to come to Vijay's)

Big Congratulations to John and Ali Archeambeault on their wedding. Knowing the crowd, I'm sure it was the funnest wedding around. I still owe you guys a nice gift.

Thanks for all the comments. It might be a week till anyone hears from me, I'll try to steer clear of the landslides. Cheers

What a Beautiful Wedding

The wedding was terrific. It was a great privilege to be in attendance.

From lunch forward, the day was full of ceremonies, and FOOD. I can't believe how completely stuffed I am. I had 5 solid meals yesterday. I think the one reason I'm not either dead or in a much bigger world of pain is that everything is vegetarian. The spreads are unbelievable. I think what they did was take a dictionary of Indian food, cross off about 4 items and make everything else (plus a good selection of other ethnic foods). Yesterday we had breakfast and lunch. Full on. Then High Tea was at 4:30. If you thought there would just be tea here, then you are dead wrong, my friends. The spread at high tea was about 200 feet long with at least 35 staffers behind the tables. I'm serious, 5 meals. This is just high tea, don't forget to save room for Dinner 1 and Dinner 2. And other guests(strangers) do not hesitate to come around and ask if you've gotten anything to eat. I heard at least a dozen people, including Max Benjamin, vow to not eat for three days, but I was back at the breakfast buffet at 10am today as usual. I couldn't help but think that because the father of the bride runs a company with ~1300 employees that this was an especially large and fancy wedding, but everyone seemed to say all this was normal.

The ceremonies were nice, and plentiful. We started with the wrapping of the headdress on the groom. Before this, most of the men, including myself, had our heads dressed as well. I don't know the name of the item, but it was about a yard wide and about seven long, intricately wrapped and knotted. Groom then goes outside for a little parade where he's up on a white horse. Then he gets in a long, fancy antique car with his family and drives off. Then we all move back inside for high tea. It really goes on and on from 3pm to midnight.

During a bit of break I sat in a Hold Em cash game and won 500 Rp.

I took a few photos during the day. I shot with no flash with my junky Rebel xTi. Despite a little blur sometimes and plenty of high-ISO grain, I like the way the pictures came out. I like to make the photos look how the event looked. I think that helps bring back the emotion of the day. Fortunately at this event, the videographers had very bright lights attached to their cameras and this helped out my settings a lot of the time.

Here's a couple I liked. Don't forget to view these suckers large.


Probably tomorrow I will be leaving this 5-start air conditioned world to get out into the country. I'm still pretty nervous about India, but that's ok. I'm working on my head-wobble and will continue the ongoing challenge of trying to figure out what it means. For instance, to the man sleepily supervising the infinite tasks of creating marigold strings for the wedding, 'may i take your picture?', head wobble, me thinking: uhhhhhhhhhhh? I'm gonna err on the safe side and stroll away. Later, I came back and take a picture of him while I thought he was sleeping. The shutter woke him up and he head wobbled again a little more enthusiastically, and with a bit of a smile. I read this head wobble as photos are ok and made another portrait which I liked. Not sure when the next post will be.

Note and apology: I just changed a setting so anyone should be able to comment now. If you have no account, it will just post as anonymous. I just had to make a couple easy clicks and I should've done it a while ago.

Namaste.

Welcome to India

Made it to India. Let's just do photos.

We are, indeed, put up at the 5-star Taj Palace. Ma, is this something you might be interested in?

View from the room.

I'm here, in India, as in this photo, with my friend Kate from New York City.

I put this outfit together for a few rupees. Not shown are the cotton/linen tights/pants. The shirt(khurta, I think) goes to around my knees. Also not shown are the horrible sandals which look cool but feel awful and have no prospects for becoming more comfortable.

Pragya and Shirish are getting married. First shot is Pragya looking up toward Shirish during her lengthy henna session. Second shot is Shirish, who I haven't spent much time with, but he seems to be an awesome dude.


This is quite a wedding. No expense that I can think of has been spared. Yesterday, engagement ceremonies and dinner happened in two massive temporary structures erected just for the event on the Bhartia estate in Delhi. One of the services they hired was a photo/video team flown in from Calcutta consisting of 7 videographers, 6 photographers and an army of assistants.

For a while, I thought I had exclusive rights to the Mendi, the henna tattoo ceremony for the bride and others. This was a special event I enjoyed very much. 6 or 7 ladies were on hand to make tattoos on all the girls (and my right bicep). Eventually, a photo and video guy from the big team showed up. The photographer was a friendly guy who was not shy about taking my camera from me, looking through my pictures and then taking pictures with it.

I took these ones.

Here's the white girls with their new boyfriends.

Gotta go folks. Lunch is in 3 minutes and a full day of events will follow. Today is the culmination.

Happy Passover.

Tanks, Reds, Mud and Waterguns

Interesting time to be in Bangkok.

Thanks for the warning note, George. While here, it's hard to say how big in world news the political situation is in Bangkok right now. There are protests going on, but it's pretty hard to understand what they're all about and what exactly their goal is. Unfortunately, some of the protests involving the Reds have become out of hand and violent. If you're wondering if I'm staying well away from these areas, the answer is no. I'm staying on a sort of side street extension of Si Ayuthaya, a government avenure where a lot of the protest is happening. Two military tanks were stationed about 2 blocks down from here, separating us from the protest action. I heard one little whiff of something about one group being against foreigners but the only real danger is for protesters who cross some line.

I loaded up the World page on Google News and didn't see any Bangkok in the top 10 or so stories. It makes you think how easy it is to brush off, say, 8 or 10 people getting killed in a protest in some far off region of the world. It probably happens just about everyday.

At the same time , we're right in the middle of Sangkran, the Thai New Years Festival. The event is characterized by at least three days of waterfight all around the city. You will see people with a white mud smeared on their faces. (Read Yom Kippur here) This is the "dirt" of the year which will now be washed off. In the right parts of town, the streets are packed with people of all ages, some with waterguns, some with buckets of this mud. You walk through the crowd, getting soaked by everyone, and having this mud smeared on your face by strangers. It is quite wild, and getting stuck here in Bangkok was a bit of a blessing in disguise to be able to experience it. I'm not sure how to explain this the right way, but when you see so many thousands of Thai people with such big smiles on their faces approaching strangers and gently exchanging smears of dirt on the cheek, all with no fights or vandalism or excessive drunkeness, you know this has to be Thailand and simply would not work in the states.

Unfortunately the nature of this event doesn't mix well with photography, at least with my gear, so you'll have to use your imagination or try google images.

The embassy of India chose to be closed today, Tuesday, but is scheduled to open tomorrow. I was able to change my flight again, for free again to tomorrow night. Tomorrow will be the big hustle of getting to the visa office, staying dry, getting to the embassy for an interview, getting the visa and getting to the airport for a 6:30 pm flight. I now have to miss a day of the wedding as it is, so I'd love if everything could go as smoothly as possible tomorrow.

Happy New Year.

Kill Three Birds With One Dollar

The photo shown above is one my favorites from the trip so far. I bought a new hat again. It was a cowboy hat with a very open stitch that a let a fair bit of sun through. I paid $4 for it. It didn't didn't leave space for me to shove my sunglasses up to my forehead when I didn't want to wear them. I realized I could rest them upsidedown around the back of the hat and they were reasonably stable. The one morning I woke up in Phnom Penh, I caught an early van that brought me to a bus that would go to Kampot. I would get off in Kep. I lost my sunglasses somewhere that morning before the van. I think I bumped my head on the rear hatch and the glasses fell off and I didn't realize.

I was happy to finally lose those sunglasses. I had had them for 6 years and they were embarrassingly scratched up. I was hanging on to them because they fit well, I liked the way they looked and they were unmatched by any other pair in keeping the wind out of my eyes. They were Oakley Fives, and I actually had another pair for 5 years before this current pair. Oakley doesn't make them anymore. For two days down in Kep, I borrowed a pair of fake Ray Bans from the hotel guy, but when I arrived back in Phnom Penh on the middle of a hot sunny day and a woman with the same rig shown above approached, it was a sign that it was time for new sunglasses. Timing is everything. I tried on about every pair she had and settled on the glasses that were most like my old glasses. We agreed on $3. I think she started at $5. I've been satisfied so far.

As a side note, I was never happy with the cowboy hat. I felt I was giving off the wrong vibe and I wanted to be rid of it. When I got to the Kep Seaside Lodge, the tuk tuk guy and the hotel guy were joking around and the hotel guy told me the tuk tuk guy liked my hat and wanted to buy it from me. I adopted their whole routine of stating a price that was clearly way too high, then being genuinely shocked at the insult of his first offer. When we reach something reasonable, I look around to make sure no one is around to witness this embarrassing deal, a deal that could get me fired by the boss. We settled on $2 so I came out with a $2 profit(I mean loss). I cut my losses and went back to wearing my old hat.

Back to the story. I completed the transaction with sunglasses lady. I probably could've paid less, but it really takes time more than anything to get the price down. I didn't feel like it. Of the hundreds of people, many of whom are children, who solicit you, you will only buy from a small percentage. It isn't feasible to buy from everyone, no matter how much they need money for school. (If I buy nothing from a child, it does not mean I don't want them to learn.) The ones who get me are the ones who are persistent, the ones who follow me for a quarter mile and give me no choice but to buy their cheapest item at the lowest possible price.

The man in the picture above had seen me buy sunglasses from his coworker. You would, at least I would, think that an individual who just purchased sunglasses would not be interested in another sunglass purchase immediately following. This man thought the opposite. He followed me the area where the picture was taken, the area where I was waiting for the next bus, one back to Siem Reap. The bus wasn't ready to go. I had nowhere to go so he worked on me. He showed me everything on his little body tray. Glasses, knives, wallets, oils, etc. A local guy waiting for the same bus was encouraging me to buy glasses but also encourging the vendor to give me his best price. At one point, Local Guy tried on a pair of the glasses and they looked good. The bus was about ready to go, now about 20 minutes later. We agree on $1 for that pair of glasses that I hand to Local Guy. Vendor is happy with the sale(maybe), Local Guy is thrilled with his new, free glasses and I'm happy with a nice photograph. $1.

Here's local guy with his new frames.

_________

Back in Bangkok, again.

Things went bad this morning. I hatched a plan with the Thai Indian visa lady back on March 26 to come back to Bangkok last night and be ready today to drop off my passport by 10am and pick it up at 4pm and be all set for tomorrow's flight. Today, the Visa office was closed. I walked to the Embassy nearby and find it closed. Good Friday. Personally, I know nothing about Good Friday, but it would've been advantageous had the visa lady been aware. No visa, no flight tomorrow. I'm devasted about everything, India, the wedding, the lost money. I had made it into the embassy where I was told that a man was coming back from the airport would be able to help me. I returned after some delicious street food, which I was able to eat in a good mood because I tought everything would be fine, and found that man who was not able to help me.

I set to work in a an internet shop using my very handy new Skype account. I managed to change both my flights for free. I will now have several weeks in India. Everything turned out alright and I'll see the whole wedding. I just have to figure out what to do for 3 days here(maybe air conditioned blod posts). I haven't gotten that far yet. At long last, I will see some Muy Thai boxing this evening with a couple people I met on the border bus yesterday.

That's about it I suppose, besides the great time, warm weather and hundreds of stories. Cambodia was terrific.

Mom, I called and you didn't pick up. I understand, it was right around your breakfast time. No big deal.

Hello Lady Gentleman Buy Something

Hi friends.

greeting from Phnom Penh. i realize the blog has gone downhill, and I apologize, sort of. I've come to not really want to be on the computer. It takes away from doing things and the computers suck. Not very eloquent, but true.

But I'm here anyway, so here's what's been going on. At first, I was a bit ambivalent about
Cambodia. The food is better in Thailand and the people seem friendlier there as well. It's been a week now, and now I really like Cambodia and appreciate the differences. Thailand was a fantasy vacation and this is a poor, war torn, recovering country. I've learned a lot about the genocide here under the Khmer Rouge which ended 30 years ago. The brutality of the regime was inredibly horrific. People of education, intellect, skills, and talents were targeted and not many of them were left at the end of the 4 year reign of terror.

The thing to do is hire a moto driver and jump on the back. Yes, it's scary. Today, in my mind, I likened the traffic of a busy intersection to a busy intersection for pedestrians. You go in full speed, brake late, if you have to and work your way through. Traffic signs or signals, if there are any, don;t recieve a lot of attention.

...You hire someone, for about $10/day at the most and you cruise around. How much they guide or you guide and how muh english they speak will vary. I found a terrific guide in Battambang and spent about 14 hours with him over two days. At the end we were friends. He understood the type of stuff I liked and was happy because it was different from most of his clients. I told him small villages and we would stop and check out people making different things. rice paper, a lily seed cake for a large funeral, bamboo sticky rice, rice wine, but they weren;t making rice wine that day because they were taking care of the 13 piglets that had been born the night before, some other stuff. The guide was Thien, and one of his unmentioned specialties was making subkects laugh laugh and smile for pictures.

Today my guide was really just a driver. We went to the genocide museum and the killing fields so there was really no way to jazz it up. It was raw.

Potential Itinerary:
tonight=Phnom Penh
tomorrow-Kep
6-Rabbit Island
7-Phnom Penh
8-Siem Reap
9-BKK
10-BKK
11-India

Bye bye all.

See If It's Phnomenal

8am Siem Reap

Sorry for nothing lately, internet here is too slow for anything.

Waiting for my bus to Battambang. After couple nights there, I'll head to Phnom Penh for a couple nights. Then to the East to some mountain and jungle before back to Siem Reap and Bangkok for the India flight.

Gotta run .

Max