Leh

"You take my Breath away". The chorus from the theme song of Top Gun plays over and over in my head. Partially due to the stunning views. More because the air is so this. Sitting is exercise. After you cut your finger you feel it throbbing. Here it is your whole body that throbs as your heart pumps increasingly faster to deliver fresh oxygen to your cells. I once counted my heart beat. Recalling the doctors office I watched my watch for 15 seconds and counted my heart pumping. There was no need for a stethoscope 30 beats in 15 seconds. 120 per minute. That rate brings rock stars crashing to earth. The thin atmosphere is also poor at filtering the sun's skin burning ultra violet rays. The air temp is a cool 70 degrees but your skin feels hot.
Once your body adjusts to the 12000 foot elevation and sunscreen is applied the land takes on new meaning. The this air is clean, fresh to breath, unlike anywhere is in this country. There are many westerners in the streets. The streets are lined with many shops selling local merchandise. Pashmina shawls, singing bowls and prayer flags are popular. The city itself is nestled on a small oasis between barren mountain peaks. "Gompas" aka Buddhist monasteries, sit high on the mountain peaks. In the distance snow covered peaks litter the skyline. Many restaurants have small vegetable gardens on property. It truely is a magical place.



A Tibetan Buddhist temple. I climbed to the top this morning. It was only 553 steps to the top. It is hear my heart was racing. The view was stunning though.



The view from atop the temple. It overlooks a monastery with the snow covered peaks in the background.



This sign was on one of the shops. If you dont this it's funny then it's not for you.

Are you Hot Hot Hot!!!

Here is where the Indian Government Operates. Delhi’s heat index yesterday reached 126 degrees Fahrenheit. Don’t worry thought, that’s only how hot it felt, the real temp was just 104. No more Delhi.

India’s “White house”

Parliament Builing.

I took refuge in this park.


I couldnt get the pictures of this is. ill get to it later

Indian Art; Silk Rugs and Marble Inlay

While on the Taj Tour we went to some Indian arts studios. A tourist trap if you ask me but it was educational and worthwhile. The first was a silk rug maker. He showed me the traditional machine he wove the rugs on. One square meter of these rugs contains three million individually tied silk knots. Also the angle at which the silk is tied makes the appearance that the rug is different colors when you rotate them. You will see below. The marble art was also interesting. It is called Pietra Dura. It is the art if inlaying marble with semiprecious stones and sea shells.



Rug Machine



These two rugs are the same but appear as different colors because the angle the silk is weaved



Finished Product.



Carving a marble table top



Finished product inlayed with sea shells

Taj Mahal

So I flew to Delhi from southern India. I then took a tour to the Taj Mahal. It was a 5 hour bus ride to and from. To total trip ended up taking 20 hours and was way to expensive. Im sick of traveling. But on a positive note heres the Taj Mahal!





Taj from the Distance.



The Taj Herself



The gateway

Panaji and Old Goa

Ok its been a week since I last posted. Well I am still alive. I left the beach in Palolem and traveled to Panaji with an Israeli Woman and a German man my age. It was ok to have company but i didn't care for either of them. Panaji is Goa's capitol and Old Goa was once a large Portuguese city. Now it is but a Few Churches. God is in India though.



Church of St. Francis of Assisi. Old Goa



This is a temple dedicated to the Hindi God Hunuman. He has a Monkey Face. Panaji

Goa

I'm now in Goa. Its a fabulous beach state. It was settled by the Portuguese. They wisely chose the best spot in India. The Indians were also wise to march their army here in 1961 and kick out the Portuguese reclaiming their land. I have no good beach pictures yet cause I don't bring my camera down to the beach. But they will come. Also its monsoon season so its rainy. But i find sun and beach time. I'm just chillin reading books, writing my journal and sipping cocktails on the coast. AKA living large.



Looking down the waterfall on the train to Goa



My other new home



The view of my new home

Mysore: Back in the City

So I left the Jungle. I arrived in Mysore on June 12th. It is a mid sized city but much nicer than the others I have been to. There is still oddle oddle ooo, brownouts and dogs copulating in the streets. I am next heading for Goa. I hear its nice. I hope to beat the monsoon.


A temple on top of Chamundi Hill. An important stop for pilgrims



A few of the 1,000 stairs pilgrims must climb to the top of the hill. I only went down them.



This boy was rolling Incense sticks

Tea Factory and Spice Farm

So in my final day in the jungle I visited a tea farm and factory. I then went to a spice farm. Both were high up in the mountains where the climate is right.

My New Home: The Jungle Retreat

This is my bamboo hut



The view from my front porch



A cactus nearby



The tree house and the pool

Elephant Camp, Safari and Wild Life Trekking

The elephant being fed is named John. He was a bad boy as the guide informed me. On the table you can see his snack. He is a 15 year old tuskea elephant. These tuskea elephants are trained to capture wild elephants who have become a nuisance or have been killing people. The guide told us that one wild elephant had killed 23 people over 3 years so they took 6 of the tuskea elephants and captured it instead of killing it. they were able to bring it to the camp and after 4 years of training it is calm enough for children to pet. There are also spotted deer and a termite hill plant.

Otty and the train ride their

.







On Tuesday I stayed overnight in a town called Ooty. It is a hill station in the Nilgiri Mountain range. It was originally a British tourist resort. There is an old train that takes you on a four hour tour up through the mountains and overlooks the tea plantations. There are some pictures of the train going through a tunnel, a monkey, the tea plantations and the town of Ooty

Destination Nilgiri

Well its time for me to get out of the city. John Paul won't be traveling as much as we had thought so its time for me to go. I'm a country boy trapped in the city. Oil and water don't mix. I'm choking on smog because emmisions standards is a phrase which does not yet existhere. My ears are bleeding from the oddle-oddle-oo of the car horns. That's the sound they make here, think of a chicken going cock-a-doodle-doodle-ooo. The chicken is the father and a horn is the mother. Think of the offspring crying. And its all the time. There is not really and structure to driving here so everyone uses there horns to alert other drivers of their whereabouts. Cars, rickshaws, buses, bikes, moped, and pedestrians all follow the same path on the street. Somehow they don't crash, its amazing.
Well anyways I'll be traveling into the Nilgiri Hills. It is in the center of southern India in the Blue Mountains. There are tea plantation scattered about the region and there is a large wildlife park nearby. I'm not sure how long I'm staying here, I'll see how much I like it and decide. I leave tonight on an overnight train. I think its about 10 hours. The total cost was 255 rupees, or about 6 American Dollars. Cheap traveling.

Pondicherry for the Weekend

To get away from the hustle and bustle of the city we went down to Pondicherry for the weekend. It is a quiet French colony about 3 hours south of Chennai. I'll let the pictures do the talking for this one.

The Indian Ocean my friends

Indian Ocean early in the morning. You can see fishing boats on the water

This style drawing is found all over the streets.

Bats in the trees.

Bus Ride. Hot!

Mediterranean Influence

Roof Tops in Chennai

For Mom

I was reading a magizine in the hotel lobby when I came across an article titled Ganesha and his Mouse.

Ganesha is the Hindi Deity of obstacles and intelligence and the universal sound aum or om. He has an elephants head on a human body. All Hindi deities ride on a vahana, which translates to mount. Ganesha's mount is the mouse which is found next to his right foot. Since a mouse has the ability to gnaw through almost any substance they are portrayed with Lord Ganesha. Ganesha is the remover of all obstacles. It is therefor a good omen to see a mouse scurrying around the house or garden. Next time dont scream

Bamboo Staging

Dont be scared. Its only stage fright

Journal Entry: If It's Not One End It's Both

Even as I write this it appears that somebody in room 201 is playing with Montezuma. The gringos feeble immune system competes on a different turf than the microbes which infect the water here. It is as if a breaking ball escapes the clutch of a major league pitcher and projects straight toward the head of a little leaguer. The child can not even react.
After you vomit on three seperate occasion you would assume there is nothing left. When you factor full body contractions that rival giving birth there is always more. Of course there is the mucus lining of the stomach. The vital barrier that prevents gastric juices from eating the stomach. Who needs it anyways.

Journal Entry #3: The Sun God

Tom Petty woke up in between a memory and a dream...

In layman's terms Brahma is the Hindu Deity of creation. Shiva is the destroyer. Likewise the sun gives life to all forms on Earth, it will also burn it from your body. Hence, Buddha preached the middle path, Follow it wisely.
The sun here can make you delirious. All sweat glands turned on full production. It is composed of water, salts and other chemicals. Don't leave home without them. They escape your body in an unprecedented quantity. The loss plus the heat makes you a lunatic. One plus one soon equals three. Be ware.

Serious

Okay so a family of four can fit on a single seater moped

lalalala

test... test...
anyone? helllooooo?