The 1000 Day Holiday

Turned out that a neighbour spotted someone looking through their window. hence scaring them off w the shotgun, and yelling to our GH owner to help look for them.

Im currently reading a book (fiction) about inca temples and baddies chasing the goodies, and shooting at them and stuff. went to sleep last night ~1am after reading.

2.30am there are 2 shotgun blasts outside my window, and some people yelling for the owner of the guesthouse to come out!

he came out and they went away, figured it was the mafia or something. The owner is the Postmaster in the town.

Kinda freaky! didnt sleep too well after the book and that

Went out for beers/dinner in Amritsar after the border closing ceremony. You have to be a few blocks away from the temple before you are allowed to smoke or drink.

So we found a resturant which would allow us to have beer. But this indian guy who appeared from next door said to come have a beer in the bar next door.

Thinking he worked there(he didnt), we agreed. He was very in your face/personal bubble. but seemed to be a jovial chap. After a strong beer he started being a bit much. So we said our goodbyes and headed back to the resturant.

not less than 5mins later he and his buddies turned up in the resturant, and tried to take our order, and get comission for bringing us there. It was rather embarrasing as he was quite drunk and loud. Fortunately he finally got the message and left, and the resturant staff managed to understand our hand signals.

Cheapest meal we have had. 150 rupees for 4 people. and it was excellent. We then walked around looking for a bar.

we ran into Suringar a rickshaw driver who had excellent english. When he found out where I was from he said wait there and ran off to his rickshaw saying he had something he needed help with.

I was figuring he had some NZ coins that he wanted to exchange for rupees. But he came back with a couple of letters from kiwis who he had helped out when they visited. He had letters to write back to them, but cant write in english, so he dictated and I wrote for him. It was really cool.

John and Jessica got seperated from Allan and myself and ended up in a locals house at 1am having mango and drinks. The whole family was up, even the kids.

I think Ive been close to having a proposal for marriage 2 different times.

The whole family would approach, and the girl asked:

1. Where are you from
2. Whats your name
3. date of birth (for starsign I think)
4. occupation
5. income
6. married
7. Girlfriend
8. would you consider marrying in india…

All this while the mother looks on with great interest. And then every where I walked, the girl would magically already be there. Quite funny!

And then theres posing for photos with whole families or random indians. With film cameras! What they do with the pics I dont know. Maybe theres an FHM like magazine which has a contest for getting a pic with the weirdest tourist you can find. We have seen guys use almost a whole roll of film just with our group!

A very cool wee spot. Staying at a guest house that is in the middle of an orchard.

Some awesome day treks in all directions.

Heading for Leh on wednesday which is surronded by the himalayas. 2 days by jeep to get there, and crossing the 2nd highest drivable pass in the world!

After talking to a local guide here who was offering a 10 day trip via Srinagar to Pahalgam and thru to Leh. however a little bit of reading about the local situation in Kashmir has put me off. http://www.kashmirtimes.com/ grenades thorwn into tourist busses and militants and car bombs in the towns.. umm no.

So going to head for menali and then up to Leh (which is away from pakistan)

Caught the local bus up to McLeod Ganj today. Its where the Dali Lama hangs out.

Great to be up in the mountains again, and its a lot cooler which is tops. Hopefully there are some good day hikes.

Checked this out last nite. Cooked our asses on the concrete while waiting for it to begin.

All up, its kinda stupid, and thats the whole point. a lot of leg flinging foot stomping and silly hats and almost a dance off.

Good job all round!

Stayed in the free accommodation for foreign pilgrims/hippies at the Golden Temple and had a couple of great days hanging out. Sikhism is quite different. No iconography, and the temples are open to all religions.

The place at night is amazing, and there are pilgrims sleeping everywhere!

Well Delhi is done, taking the train tomorrow to Amritsar. Golden Palace, hippies, and the border guard dance off with Pakistan

 

Well maybe it is. And its quite funny how many ‘official tourist offices’ there are. All the touts take the I want to be your friend, and it wont cost you any money, but how about visiting this emporium.

I think every tourist shop is called an emporium, well or the official Tourist information office. which happens to be down some back alleys where they walk your around a few corners to ensure you didnt realise it wasnt on a main st?

The hotels in Delhi are a tad scungy, and today wasn’t too hot. but other days are around the mid 40′s ive heard.

Not sure what my plans are from here. all the locals keep saying Rajastan. which is what I will probably do.