LADAKH

" DHARAMSALA AND DELHI "  

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Tuesday - August 13th - Okay. From Manali we then took our way by bus to Dharamsala. I had high expectations, because this is where the Dalai Lama resides and well you never know.

The busride was .......... I honestly don't remember much. At this point we had traveled a lot, had to get up early in the morning(s), so I slept (or dozed off) a great deal of the trip.

Somewhere down the road we learned that the hotel (in the middle of the village) had no more room vacant (??? how was that possible??) and we had to go to another hotel some ... kms from the center. The mood dropped. Then, when we got to Dharamsala- McLeod and we saw what route we took to this hotel and when we in the end arrived at the hotel, the mood sank to sub-zero. Here was our hotel in the middle of nowhere and the looks of it .........  

So we argued what to do, while Hanneke (group leader) checked with "Delhi" (headquarters) what options we had. She managed the promise that we could get taxi's from the "city" and did not have to pay for it (rps 200 per transport). We then checked the hotel out and although from the outside it didn't look much, on the inside things looked better and all in all the rooms (and certainly the bed sheets) were better than in Manali ! So we stayed (overall we didn't have much of a choice anyway).

Wednesday - August 14th - Today we went to the lecture by the Dalai Lama. At first we had to get some entry tickets and for that we had to go "down town". But when we got at the ticket office there was no-one there. Someone told us however to go to the place where the lecture was to be held and see if we could get in. That we could. Unfortunately we were not allowed to bring any camera's in. After being scanned and frisked we got in, just in time to see the Dalai Lama pass at some 5 mtrs from us. That was nice. We sat down with all the visitors (mainly "locals") and waited. I had somehow hoped or expected a certain tranquility or serenity, but nothing of the kind. People were talking and children were playing and someone (most probably the Dalai Lama) was talking. Even after a while people began to throw the white scarves to the front of the rows.

After one hour we left the place and we decided to go somewhere else. But first we had breakfast in a nice place. Here they served very nice pancakes ! After that, the Dalai Lama had obviously finished, because people were flooding the streets again, we wanted to go somewhere else. But as Ilke and I went to a money exchange we lost the rest of the party. So we decided to stay in town and have a look around. 

  electrickery      

Oh yes, not to forget ! There is one thing I must tell ! As we walked around in Dharamsala we suddenly saw a bunch of apes. Climbing the electricity poles, the trees, the balconies etc. Weird !

Thursday - August 15th - Another day of traveling. Again a day of dozing and sleeping, although this ride was a bit more spectacular as we found after a couple of kilometers that the bus was leaking ........  petrol ! And not a bit ! Not to worry..... the tank was a bit fueled too full and this was excess petrol. Okay then. But after some hours, when we stopped for something to drink and eat the tank still spilled fuel ! So when the driver started the engine, I was not around ! Nothing happened and we arrived safely at the railway station, where we had to wait for the train to Delhi to arrive. It was bl......   hot and we bought ourselves an ice-cream. This was probably the cause of our mishap after we arrived home. Now, this railway station was nothing like our railway stations in Holland. First of all, there were all kind of vendors on the platforms. Second, there were armed soldiers and third (hear hear) the train arrived on time.

Now we faced another problem. We had heard which cars were reserved for our group, but nothing noticeable (although for the laymen) was  to be seen on the cars and we had to ask. In the end someone could tell us. So we boarded the train. Well, trains aren't much the same in India as well. The major difference would be the windows. All windows had bars on the outside and we were very soon to find out why. After the train had departed the railway station, it frequently stopped (red lights and stations). Every time it stopped, there were people about, coming to the window and asking or selling stuff or just to give a handshake. This is virtually impossible in Holland. Just the thought of people walking or sitting along the track and coming up to the train after a (full) stop........

After a while it got dark and we tried to get some sleep. In my case: not really. I had the upper bunk. It was hard and hot. No pillow. Oh yes, I had a pillow : the valuables (camera, wallet and stuff).

The next morning we arrived at Delhi. A very wrong day to arrive, because it was "independent day" (or something like that), so it was very crowded and a lot of shops were closed. Beside that it was raining ! That was a pity, especially because the bus couldn't come all the way to the platforms (too crowded) and we had to hire a rickshaw. Now imagine this: two adults, three heavy loaded bags and two rucksacks against one small, slender Indian (the like on the photograph). Rain, traffic and a light slopy "road"  didn't make things easier for him and once he couldn't ride the bike and had to walk ! A few cigarettes at the end made him a "lucky man" . In one way very sad.

Okay, to the hotel then. After about a half hour's drive by bus, we got there. The first thing I thought I saw, while getting off the bus was a .............. wild boar ! Was this sleep deprivation ? No, it wasn't !   WOW

After checking in, we slept for a while and in the afternoon, we tried to go into town. That wasn't very difficult, because everywhere are people with rickshaws or taxi's waiting for you. We took a taxi-scooter (or whatever the name is). The driver , a Sikh, wasn't too pleased with the things we wanted to visit because he constantly tried to persuade us to go to the Sikh temple. It didn't work. So we went to Humayun's Tomb, situated in New Delhi. Well the driver was worth his money because everywhere we turned a corner, there was something to tell. So he wasn't only our driver as well as our guide.

After visiting HT, we pleased our driver by telling him he could take us to the Sikh temple. Again, he turned out to be our guide. He took us inside and explained all the stuff we saw and what was going on. Interesting. Only he had a very fast pace (and I was very tired). After that he brought us to a Hindu temple (again with that fast pace). But then I had had it and we returned to the hotel. There he had a last surprise : we had to pay him for how we had enjoyed ourselves. That was tricky ! Too less would have an insult to him, too much ....  Well, even if we paid him too much.. for us it would be peanuts. Nevertheless a fine trick.

That night we had dinner at the "Clark international", which has a rooftop. The food was nice, as well as the place. During dinner we were served with fireworks.

Friday - August 16th  - Well, today I felt better. The plan was to go to the Red Fort and the "spice-market" and whatever would come across our path. So first we went to a place where all kinds of "snack"food was sold. There we met Mariken and Marcel. Now it was Mari ken's turn to have a bad day. They decided to stay with our group. Next stop : Red Fort. But here minds changed and I was the only one who wanted to go in. Our ways split and we would see each other again within one and a halve hour.

The Red Fort was nice, but not that spectacular (in my view), so after taking a few pictures I went to the meeting place. Having some time on my hands I took the opportunity to shoot some pictures of the local traffic. Having done that I enjoyed the rest of the time watching some youngster trying to sell false beards. And when I write "false", I mean really "FALSE". He even tried to sell these things to people with genuine beards ! Well, after sitting some time there, he noticed that I was watching and then tried to sell me one and after some tries, he began to talk to me and ask me things. We had a good time.

After quite some time the rest of the "gang"  arrived and we took off. Hanneke, Ilke and I stayed together and Hanneke took us to the main shopping street. Amazing, all the things you see. Look at the picture with the girls (in blue). They're all sitting on one bike !! In a little shop we saw a nice towel with a Ganesha and when we walked into this shop we were taken upstairs, to find out that what looked as a small shop on the outside, really was a much bigger shop. We bought a few towels. After that we went to a place where we had something to drink and to eat. Again, had Hanneke not told that is was a nice place, with a sunroof, we wouldn't have recognized it. After that, Ilke and I visited some places and then decide to go back to the hotel. We saw the cloud  thicken and just as we found a taxi, it started to rain. It started to ........ So this was the monsoon. Within seconds streets were full of water, there was a curtain of water. Luckily our taxi had a roof and some side flaps, but we got wet all the same. Never seen something like it. The last few meters we had to walk to the hotel -entrance, we might just as well have walked all the way. We were drenched !

But what a city ! Dirty, smelly, unorganized, noisy. If you want to stay sane, don't think about it, just go, literally, with the flow. And you know, the funny thing is that while I was waiting for the rest of the group some women with a broom came up. Swept the street for some minutes and took off again. What the ........... ???

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*** (I removed a blue cord. That's all)

now, you might want to return to 

Leh days (page 1)

trekking days (page 2)

"(busride to)  Manali" (page 3)

or all the way back to the

All photographs taken with Canon pro90IS and adjusted for the internet. Except for a few changes in background (blurring*and/or cropping **) or slight cosmetic changes***, these photographs are not tampered with ! And if you didn't figure it out yet: click on a photograph to get a full view ! (this may take some time, depending on your download speed !)

last changed at 07-11-2005 19:15