Delhi, Punjab and Ladakh

15 August - 10 September

And then it was time to leave Delhi. Early Sunday morning at 7am we arrived at the New Delhi train station to catch our train, the Shatabdi Express, to Amritsar. As you think (like we did) that on a Sunday morning it would be quiet at the station, you are wrong! The place was a total chaos! We were happy we weren't there on a Monday morning. The train however was on the platform 1 and pretty modern (or at least our cabin, as we booked 1^st class).

After a 5 hour journey we arrived in Amritsar, which is located in the Punjab state and very close to the Pakistani border. It is however mainly famous for the Golden Temple, the main place of worship of the Sikhs. As I knew these people only as ferocious killers from thrillers, I was a bit afraid at first! However they turned out to be very friendly people that were willing to explain about their culture (some still looked frightening though). If you want to know the difference between a Taliban and a Sikh, the Sikh do wear a moustache, as the Taliban do not! So don't be afraid the next time you see a Sikh on an aircraft. Later a kind person told us that Sikh are the only people in the world that are allowed to wear a knife on board of a plane, as a Sikh is carrying a dagger as a symbol to remind him or her of its responsibility to act when injustice is done to someone (not by using the knife though). The dagger is one of the symbols of a Sikh (for men at least) as well as the turban, the uncut body hair, long underpants and a silver bracelet. This person also told us that in all Sikh temples food and accommodation is offered freely to any person. In the Golden Temple volunteers prepare 30,000 meals and do 30,000 dishes every day. So we ate on the floor together with hundreds of people and afterwards did some volunteer work by doing a few of these 30,000 dishes!

Next day we went to the Indian - Pakistani border to watch the closing of the border ceremony. Every day at sunset the border is closed in a spectacular way, which attracts thousands of visitors at both sides. Both Indian and Pakistani crowds show their nationalism by yelling and singing, while fierce (and very tall) soldiers of both countries march to the gate in a manner that most resembles Monty Python's ministry of silly walks!

Later we headed for Dharamsala, a small hill station in the foothills of the Himalayas and well-known for being the home of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Government in exile and many Tibetan refugees. We there visited the temple of the Dalai Lama. Unfortunately he was not at home, but as so often, on the road for giving teachings, this time of the year in Ladakh. We watched the monks that were debating in a fascinating way: they strengthen their arguments by clapping their hands enthusiastically. Furthermore we visited the buildings of the Tibetan Government in exile, where we had a long and interesting conversation with one of the secretaries of the government. He explained us many Tibetans still flee across the Himalayas to escape the suppression of the Chinese regime and that the government in exile is now only seeking for cultural independence from China since they have unfortunately given up hope for total independence. We even met one of the refugees when we were having coffee in our favorite café. It was the young waiter of the café (somewhere in his twenties) that escaped from Tibet 2 years ago as he could not live freely there.

Many people had warned us that you either love OR hate India and that for every day you meet one nice person you would also meet one asshole so to say (excuse me for my language). We think that is about right. On our way to Dharamsala we hired a cab accompanied by an asshole Indian taxi driver, as he turned out to be as he (off course?) wanted more money than originally agreed upon for his terrible driving skills. A few days later however on our way from Dharamsala to Manali our driver was very friendly and cooperative and maybe even more important a much more competent one with a reliable car.

In Manali, a small hippie village in the green mountains of Himachal Pradesh, we stayed only one night as we were in a hurry to catch the last of the teachings of the Dalai Lama in Leh, Ladakh. But in order to get there we had a tough 2-day jeep journey ahead of us over steep gravel roads and across the 2^nd highest motorable pass in the world (almost 5400m high). This turned out to be a fantastic trip with magnificent scenery changing almost every hour from the green alpine meadows around Manali to wide deserts and moonlike landscapes with dry yellow red rocks similar to the Grand Canyon. During the very cold night had to sleep in tents at an altitude of 4300m, so we were well acclimatized for our stay in Leh (3500m). Luckily together with a German hippie couple in their fifties travelling by truck from Germany to India in two years, we were the only people there so they had some spare blankets left for us.

On our arrival in Ladakh we were astonished by the wonderful snowcapped mountains, the beautiful green Indus river valley, the lovely and picturesque Ladakhi style homes and the monasteries on top of the hills. Ladakh, also known as Little Tibet, is part of Kashmir, a region in the northwest of India bordering Tibet and Pakistan. Although the situation in the remainder of Kashmir remains a bit unstable due to tension between the countries, Ladakh itself and its mainly Buddhist inhabitants (only a small percentage is Muslim) are very peaceful and quiet and it didn't feel like we were in India at all. The only thing that reminds you of the situation is the omnipresence of the Indian armed forces.

Together with a very friendly Italian Buddhist lawyer from Rome, called Generoso (what's in a name) we headed for the teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The venue was at a large green field just outside the town, where thousands of Ladakhi had gathered to witness and listen to what his Holiness had to say to them! We lucky tourists were given nice spots close to the central podium and where provided with a big loudspeaker transmitting the translation of the speech of his Holiness from Tibetan into English. It was fascinating to see how all Ladakhi had dressed up in their finest clothes and very interesting to hear the Dalai Lama speak on Buddhism in general and how to achieve happiness, but also on local topics such as the problems with some of the young monks in Ladakh, that are getting a bit too modern these days (some wearing baseball caps and have cell phones and are even hiding western girls!).

After our negative experience with our 'guide' in Nepal we decided to go for the best trekking agency in town to arrange an 8-day trek through part of the Markha valley and ending with the ascent of Stok Kangri, a 6120m high peak, towering above the valley. In a separate story, which we will post later, we will write you of our adventures during this trek!

After the trek we spent some days visiting a few of the splendid Buddhist monasteries in the region and our very last night we actually spent the night in the Thiksey monastery, nicely located on top of a hill in the beautiful Indus valley. Here we slept in a basic room with very hard mattresses (and with separate beds of course!).

After a marvelous flight over part of the Himalayas we returned to Delhi, where we were warmly welcomed by my cousin Mischa, her husband Paul and their daughters Roos and Bloem. It was good to see some familiar (and family) faces again and to relax a bit after a wonderful but tiring trip.

We really enjoyed playing in the pool with the girls, the family road trip through parts of Delhi and visiting the international school of Roos. Together with Mischa we did some good clothing and souvenir shopping and the three of us became a mean bargaining machine as we could tell from some of the frustrated faces of the salesmen. While Sharda and Mischa had some girl talk, Paul took me for 18 holes of golf at a nearby beautiful golf club. Although I had an excellent caddy, in the end I was badly beaten by Paul. But no worries, a cold beer was waiting for the loser as well! After some 'interesting' dining experiences in China, Nepal and India Mischa & Paul now took us to a very nice and trendy garden restaurant where we enjoyed fine wines and some terrific food. The morning before we would leave Delhi we had a little surprise in our guesthouse in the garden of Mischa & Paul. When Sharda woke up and got out of bed she suddenly started screaming! What had happened? During the night and early morning it had been raining so heavily that the draining system could not handle it anymore, which resulted in our guesthouse being flooded with some 15cm's of water. Unfortunately we had put almost all our freshly washed clothes on piles on the floor. So you can imagine how we felt.....So that day we spent cleaning, washing and drying our stuff again instead of relaxing in the swimming pool, before we had to say goodbye to them to leave for Hong Kong that night.

Mischa & Paul, thanks a lot for your great hospitality! It was really nice to see you all again and to see your city in a way that is very different from some of the terrible stories people had told us upfront.

XXX

Jordi & Sharda