From the Golden Temple to Little Tibet!

I am now at the end of my first month of my trip, in Shimla, about 10 hours north of Delhi following yet another gruelling ten hour bus ride today. From Islamabad, I headed to Lahore, a huge city near the Pakistani- Indian border. It was a really intense city, the pollution and the noise was really quite severe but it did have some good sites, the most impressive one being the mosque below.

From Lahore, I headed across to India. There is a famous border closing ceremony where Indian and Pakistani troops parade away in front of each other for about 20 minutes before they close the border gate. It is really quite an incredible spectacle, with the crowds on each side shouting Pakistan and India respectively, and as much as the marching is somewhat entertaining, there is a real tension in the air which reflects the tense relations between the two countries. You also get a feel for some of the big differences between them, the Pakistani crowd being segregated into ladies and men, while the Indian crowd is mixed.

Workers at the border

Sikh bus driver

My first stop in India was Amritsar, home of the Golden Temple, the most important Sikh temple. It is quite a surreal site with the Golden Temple set in the middle of a big pool of water, all enclosed by beautiful white buildings. You can actually stay in gurudhawas, buildings where pilgrims and tourists are given free accomodation although you are expected to give a donation.

They have a huge cantine there where anyway can get a free meal. People sit out in the big hall and people just come along and dollop out the food, which was not the greatest but it filled you up alright. I am starting to get very used to Daal and Rice, especially as here in India there really is not much meat. Aloo Gobhi is another regular on the menu...

The Golden Temple meal

My next stop was Dharamshala, home to the Tibetan government in exile (the Dalai Lama...) . It is quite a strange place which doesn't really feel like India due to all the tourists and Tibetan people everywhere. It is very nice though, with great value views and is certainly very relaxing. You get alot of westerners there trying to get enlightened... I think my enlightenment came from some of the mangos I have had here, they really taste great and its a shame that the mango season is now over... Its quite sad in a way seeing all the Tibetan people in Dharamshala. Many of them are refugeesm having walked 2 and a half months through the Himalayas to get into Nepal or India... Their stories are quite harrowing, with some of the Tibetans in Dharamshala talking about the people who simply died of exhaustion during the walk, and there are also many stories of the torture inflicted on the Tibetan people by the Chinese government. It is really just another reflection of the monstrosity of the Chinese government...

One of the other strange things here is that cannabis plants grow absolutely everywhere, all along the streets, and the picture below is a good example of this from Dharamsala...

My next stop was Manali. To get there I took a public bus, which basically involves sitting on a bench for 10 hours. Its not pleasant and your ass gets a good bruising from all the bumps in the road! Ill avoid it in future, although it did provide me the adventure of my second crash on my travels. The bus was going along calmly, when all of a sudden a jeep came speeding round the corner, and basically just ploughed straight into the bus. Luckily no one was hurt, but the man who stepped out of the jeep really had a shell shocked expression on his face, as if he had just stared death in the eye. There was much shouting, with the bus driver apparently asking for 1500 rupees compensation, but in the end they settled on 1000 (12 pounds!). What a way to resolve car crash disputes...

Bridge on the road to Manali

Manali is really a very nice mountain town. Although there are many tourists, there are also lots of locals and Indian tourists so the place does feel like you are actually in India... The views are stunning and there are all sorts of little hikes to do to visit waterfalls... On one night I was heading to bed, when all of a sudden a load of trumpets started hooting away. I went out to the street and a wedding procession was going through the town, all the women wearing the most beautiful saris ever and dancing away to the music.

From Manali I headed on to the Spiti Valley, further to the North East. After harassing every foreign looking person in the town to see if they were interested, I eventually got a group of 7 people together! One Italian guy, one Australian guy, an older American women and 3 Israeli girls. Quite a diverse group, but which reflects the sort of traveller crowd you get here. The biggest surprise for me was how many Israelis are here, and many restaurants will offer Indian and Israeli food! It seems like many of them head out here after the army to see something different and relax...

Approach to the Rohtang Pass

Typical road sign... well needed!

Entering the Spiti Valley

Desert landscape

The Spiti Valley was really very different to anything I had ever seen before. On the Himalayan plateau, we were at about 4000m high which seemed pretty crazy when thinking that the highest peak in Europe is 4800m. The whole area was basically a mountain desert, with a blue river snaking through the middle. The size of the mountains made you feel small, but then the harsh desert landscapes really made you feel powerless. Despite the harsh conditions, there are a number of old Buddhist monasteries in the area, some dating back more than a thousand years. Its difficult to describe what the place felt like, but the photos can give some idea of how it looks.

Kir Buddhist Monastery

Outdoor tibetan school

Spiti Valley

Meeting of Pin river and Spiti river

Goat town

The Spiti river winding through the valley

Heavenly colour of the river

Roadworks, or road creation. Notice the women doing the hard work.

Strange lunar landscape
The group of seven, plus Derga the driver

Chandertal Lake

Bumping around in the jeep

Tibetan gompas
Derga again

Myself with Chandertal Lake behind

From Spiti, I made it back to Manali and now I am in Shimla for a few days. I managed to arrive for Gandhi's birthday celebrations, so I'll be able to see some fireworks tonight, but what a pain in the ass trying to find a place to sleep last night! Literally every place was full, and it was a right pain walking up and down hills with my backpack on, before eventually finding somewhere! It seems that the big challenge of travelling alone is arriving in a town and making sure that the taxi driver takes you to the right place, and that you find a good place to stay.

One of the fascinating things is all the people you meet. The Norwegian engineer who has taken time out from work to see something different and who has amazing stories to tell about working in Sudan for Doctors without Borders. A variety of English people out here for their holidays, the older American woman who wants to really get a good feel for Asian cultures. The Israelis with their experiences living in Jerusalem and being in the Israeli army. It is great to hear all the different stories and perspectives people have, especially as it would be so unlikely that I would meet this variety of people back at home. Although I am travelling alone, it is rare that I ever eat alone so far. The trip to Spiti was great because we had such a nice group, and it does feel like a shame when you leave such a nice group behind, but I guess thats something I'll get increasingly used to as I keep on travelling.

Next stop is Delhi, and from there I hope to head further south... Still planning it out.

Link to previous post:

About to leave Pakistan

About to leave Pakistan

I have been in Pakistan for almost two weeks now, based at the house of my uncle Rick and aunt Jackie in Islamabad. I think everyone I spoke to thought I was crazy to come here because of its dangerous reputation but these two weeks have led me to think of this country as extremely welcoming and friendly. People here are quick to say "hello" and "welcome to Pakistan" when they see you on the street, shopkeepers might invite you in for a cup of tea and generally people are proud to be Pakistani and they want you to have a good experience here in their country. I have not left yet, so I hope I don't meet any extremists on my way out, but so far I would say this country is a very enjoyable place to visit, especially as there are hardly any tourists around.

Islamabad is a little bit different from the rest of Pakistan, having been built more recently as the administrative capital, so there are lots of trees here, and it looks a little bit like Le Vesinet does from the St Germain terrass: very green. However ten minutes away you have Rawalpindi which is alot more chaotic, noisy and you get a taste of how crazy the trafic is here with rickshaws and small cars all over the place. You stop being surprised by people driving up the street the wrong way. We visited the main bazar which is a collection of thin streets with stalls selling all sorts of things from food to tvs which are impressive. It is strange getting used to all the men wearing Shalwakameezes and the few women that are out in burkas. What is really nice is that people do not hassle you to buy stuff as I expect they will in India, it is all very relaxed and while people do try to get your attention, they remain very courteous.

I also visited Peschawar which is alot closer to the Afghan border (43km). The city there is very old, going back to 3BC, and it is there that buddhism orginated from although not many traces are left today, except for the museum. The atmosphere of Peschawar is definitely very different due to its proximity with Afghanistan and the famous Kyber Pass. Whereas the old city has some beautiful old buildings from when it was a key trading post on the old silk road and a pleasant atmosphere, the outskirts were very different. There are big refugee camps made up of mud houses which house thousands of people who have fled from the decades of fighting in Afghanistan. Further outside the city, you get to the Smugglers Market where you can buy absolutely anything and which is on the border with the tribal area.

Pakistan is made up of different regions, and Federally Adminitered Tribal Areas are part of those. However, law is defined by the tribes and not by the central government, part of the reason why Osama has not yet been found in the South Waziristan FATA. Our driver took us 100m into the tribal area and the atmosphere there was completely different with people holding AK-47s, plenty of gun shops, not to mention huge parking lots full of cars from Afghanistan available at discount prices! There was not the same welcoming smile you get in other parts of the country and I was glad to get back into the centre of Peshawar! A big thank you to Imran Shah for being such a welcoming host!

Kids playing cricket in Peschawar

Nearer to Islamabad I visited the town of Taxila with Rick and Jackie. Its an archeological site with relics from the buddhists who used to live here, and also a Greek temple. It is incredible to think that the Greeks made it out this far.

Pepsi is absolutely everywhere here in Taxilia, as elsewhere in Pakistan where Coca Cola is a rarity.

The next destination was Naran in the foothills of the Himalayas. Its a long journey to get there, which requires a jeep over some rough patches of road. Balakot, one of the towns where you had to stop on the way, was one of the places worse hit by the earthquake last October. Thousands of people died there and it was a sombering feeling to see tents and ruins everywhere. The tourist office there was destroyed and the man who received told how he had been rescued from the rubble. Our jeep driver to Naran was not so lucky, having lost two young boys. The road on from Naran had been completely devastated with landslides all along the journey leaving only small sections of the original road exposed.

We did make it to Naran though where I got to experience my first earthquake. Jackie and I were sitting to read in the hotel reception when all of a sudden everything was shaking and there was a loud noise. We ran outside panicking only to find all the hotel workers laughing at us "No problem, no problem, it normal..."

Jackie and I cooling off from our trekking underneath a glacier!

From Naran we made it up to Naran Lake (it does have an Urdu name I can't quite remember!) which was breathtaking. Naran is a beautiful place and it was so isolated with no electricity, no mobile phones, no internet. Some families stay there over the winter despite the 4 - 5 metres of snow. They stay in their houses, partly built into the ground, and just drink tea and eat their stock of food for 3 months until they can come out again.

We also did some other hiking before another nerve wrecking journey back to Islamabad! Our bus actually knocked another bus off the road! I heard a big noise turned to my left and saw out the window another coach on its side against the bank of the road! Crazy! And our bus did not even stop.

One of the highlights of the roads here in Pakistan are the trucks. Every single one is intricately decorated like the photos show. It makes driving such a different experience as you are always trying to pick out what the different drawings are...

Finally the food! Generally it is really good... Since I beat my uncle Rick at tennis he's been feeding me less, so I've lost a bit of weight... We had lots of fresh trout from the glacier rivers in Naran, and otherwise the food is not too dissimilar from what you get in England. There is Naan bread to die for here as it tastes so good! Despite the good taste my stomach is still adapting... but hopefully this will get me ready for India!

A local school in a poor urban area...

Trekking in the Margalla Hills with Islamabad in the background