Shit I read this again and I'm thinking....WHERE DID THE LAST 3 MONTHES GO??? Winter blurs by for me.
Crap.
BTW...the AK Bars are hanging in there. Crappy record. Great attitude.
-Kai #10
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Holy Crap---NICE JOB AK BARS!!!!!!
Fuckin-heimer I wish I'd been there to be a part of THAT one! And Garrett being the big hero to boot! That's two overtime goals he's put in for the Big Dub-U in the last what? Two seasons?? Way to go Garrett! Looks like Trevor had a good game too. Way to go guys. I cannot WAIT to play this weekend you guys have NO fucking idea!! :)
Well, it's about 4:45pm India time and I'm off to the Mumbai airport in about one and a half hours. I gotta say...I'm really happy to be heading back to the Great White North, no matter how much ya'll are trying to warn me about how cold it's been! I can't wait for the crunch of snow and the chainsaw bite of that wind. . This trip has been great and interesting and everything I'd hoped it too be, but it's more complicated than that. The Beijing/Shanghai trip in 2005 was more "fun" in the typical sense--and still my favourite trip so far. But India was--well--way more difficult to wrap my mind around. I've got nearly 16 hours starting in about 6 hours to muse on that until the laptop battery gives out, so I'll not get into in right now.
Mike and are are gonna hit the pool for a bit of a swim (it's like--85 here) before Vishnu the Driver picks us up for the trip to the airport. I'll probably have a few beers down there for good measure as well. Where's Adam and Dean when I need him 'eh? Be nice to have a little exercise before being cooped up in the plane for all that time tho.
Mike really is living in the lap of luxury here tho man. His "room" is really a one bedroom apartment overlooking this lake with these monster picture windows in both bedroom and living room overlooking this lake, then these high rise apartments on the opposite bank with a hill behind that. The haze isn't as bad here as Delhi so you can actually sorta see.
We actually checked out his work too, and since the training crew hadn't shown up, we fired up the 737 simulater and I got to "fly" it around Mumbai! It's really cool....a complete mockup of the cockpit and the thing tilts and everything to simulate acceleration and turbulence and all that. I even took it on a super tight turns--like 45 plus degree bank and working the rudder pedals while the alarm goes "Bank angle! Bank angle! Bank angle!" which means that the plane is fine but the "passengers" may not be liking it back there; not even in Business class. It was suprisingly easy to fly tho, and in real life the pilots do VERY little...just set the knobs and info on the autopilot and the plane can fly itself from gate A in wherever-ovia to gate B at wherever-else-istan. And I mean it can literally do that. For real. Fucking amazing. And rather comfirting being I'm gonna spend the better part of a whole 24 day up in a few of these newfangled contraptions!
Okay. Off to the pool. I'll see many of you soon and put a few more posts in when I'm back in Minnesota.
See everyone soon
-Kai #10
Fuckin-heimer I wish I'd been there to be a part of THAT one! And Garrett being the big hero to boot! That's two overtime goals he's put in for the Big Dub-U in the last what? Two seasons?? Way to go Garrett! Looks like Trevor had a good game too. Way to go guys. I cannot WAIT to play this weekend you guys have NO fucking idea!! :)
Well, it's about 4:45pm India time and I'm off to the Mumbai airport in about one and a half hours. I gotta say...I'm really happy to be heading back to the Great White North, no matter how much ya'll are trying to warn me about how cold it's been! I can't wait for the crunch of snow and the chainsaw bite of that wind. . This trip has been great and interesting and everything I'd hoped it too be, but it's more complicated than that. The Beijing/Shanghai trip in 2005 was more "fun" in the typical sense--and still my favourite trip so far. But India was--well--way more difficult to wrap my mind around. I've got nearly 16 hours starting in about 6 hours to muse on that until the laptop battery gives out, so I'll not get into in right now.
Mike and are are gonna hit the pool for a bit of a swim (it's like--85 here) before Vishnu the Driver picks us up for the trip to the airport. I'll probably have a few beers down there for good measure as well. Where's Adam and Dean when I need him 'eh? Be nice to have a little exercise before being cooped up in the plane for all that time tho.
Mike really is living in the lap of luxury here tho man. His "room" is really a one bedroom apartment overlooking this lake with these monster picture windows in both bedroom and living room overlooking this lake, then these high rise apartments on the opposite bank with a hill behind that. The haze isn't as bad here as Delhi so you can actually sorta see.
We actually checked out his work too, and since the training crew hadn't shown up, we fired up the 737 simulater and I got to "fly" it around Mumbai! It's really cool....a complete mockup of the cockpit and the thing tilts and everything to simulate acceleration and turbulence and all that. I even took it on a super tight turns--like 45 plus degree bank and working the rudder pedals while the alarm goes "Bank angle! Bank angle! Bank angle!" which means that the plane is fine but the "passengers" may not be liking it back there; not even in Business class. It was suprisingly easy to fly tho, and in real life the pilots do VERY little...just set the knobs and info on the autopilot and the plane can fly itself from gate A in wherever-ovia to gate B at wherever-else-istan. And I mean it can literally do that. For real. Fucking amazing. And rather comfirting being I'm gonna spend the better part of a whole 24 day up in a few of these newfangled contraptions!
Okay. Off to the pool. I'll see many of you soon and put a few more posts in when I'm back in Minnesota.
See everyone soon
-Kai #10
Friday, December 12, 2008
Hello everyone
Thanks for the nice comments, nice to know that this is being read!
Well, we are still in Kerela, in a town called Aleppey, which is about 30 kilometers south of Kochi, where we flew into this state. It is very hot here, although in the shade and under fans it's not too bad. And there are mosquitos, which is a forst for me in December. I've got the bug bites to prove it. But the people here are the friendliest by far. ALL the little kids wave and say "hello" and we get stared at and waved to constantly. After we headed down to the beach yesterday, we were strolling up this alley and came across these guys making rope. THe stood about 40 yards away from each other with these geared hand cranked twisty things and first twist four smaller ropes individually and then spin them toether to make a single strong rope. The guy who waves us over even had us do a few. I forgot his name but he was easily the friendliest person on this whole trip. He's actually studying to be a doctor and makes rope as a part time job. Another thing the same the world over I guess. In the USA he'd wait tables, in Kerela, you make rope. He was really cool tho and I took a pile of photos.
We are staying in a place called The Vrindhavanam Heritage Home. It's off a quieter alley and looks to be pretty old. You walk in and immediatly are in a little courtyard which these rooms arrayed around it with these little verandas. There is a second larger courtyard through the back where they put up plastic tables and that is the restaurant. These tropical plants grow everywhere and you sometimes see little lizards run up the walls and such. The rooms are pretty spartan, buyt the place is seriously old; the doors are hinged at both sides and open in the middle and are super thick. You lock them from the insides with two wooden little beam thingies. Tyhe kids that work here seem to use it as thier hang out for their buddies, as there are always a bunch here but only one or two seem to be actually working!
The neat thing is that they do have a houseboat that you can charter. We booked it for two nites, and leave tomorrow am. It's like a large wide wooden canoe or viking ship with a roof and and sitting areas up front and on top. Kerela has these extensive areas of backwaters, so the idea is to just sorta cruise along, stopping at villages and looking around, and watching for wildlife like guars and cranes and such. We'll bring along beers and the idea is to just be lazy for a bit before we wrap this thing and head up to Mumbai and for me, back home.
Before we left Amristar tho, we had kind of had a cool day. We ran into this couple from California and we ended up splitting a cab to head out the Pakastani border for the border closing ceremony. It's the wierdest thing. Basicly, at around sunset, the guards from both sides have this ritualized ceremony where they call out to each other, then do these super high leg kicks--Monty Python stuff--seriously--and glare at each other though the gate. Meanwhile there is this DJ guy on each side who gets the crowd all riled up and chanting "PAKISTAN!" or "HINDUSTAN!" like it's a sporting event. It actually has a bit of that too. From where we were sitting you could see the soldiers on the Indian side litterally limbering up and practicing those leg kicks and huge arm swings. You'd have to see video to truly appreciate it. It's odd for me. not having a dog in their fight, so to speak. But it made me wonder, "geez...no wonder these countries never go anywhere when they're having pep rallies at the border every night!
After thet, we joined the Californians for dinner, then proceeded out in a futile attempt to procure a gin and tonic--the signature cocktail of British India. Impossible to find, I couildn't believe it. However, as we were leaving this hotel is when the wedding rolled up.
If you didn't already know, weddings are HUGE here. They go on for days and they're a big part of the social scene you could say. So we were trapped by this throng of people, and up through the crowd is the groom slowly making his way on a donkey and wearing this huge vest thing made out of 10 rupee bills. In front of him are clearly the bachelors, pretty drunk already and singing and dancing to these two drum guys wailing away on them. The drums not the bachelors. Then women are off to the other side, in these amazing bright colored saris, and the older men are off and back behind them. We cannot understand a thing of what was being said, but we noticed as usual, and before you knew it we were in the crowd and I was being accosted by a lot of the women, which was odd being they never talked to me before here. They were asking the usual questions and being very gracious when I asked questions. Finally, this big guy approached me and asked me where I was from in this weird accent. Turns out he was Indian but lived in Toronto (doesn't play hockey) and he was able to fill me in on some of the mechanics of this thing. Turns out we were invited, and down to the banquet hall we went. Mostly, lots of drinking goes on, and the bachelor guys all dance toegher to those wacky Indian pop songs. Then they'd have these dancing girls come out and sort of do a number, but it was a very gender segregated thing. They kept me in drinks (mostly vodka and pepsi---ugh), and the children were probably the best, all grins and questions, you know? We lost the californians along the way, and we got a Tuk-Tuk back to the hotel at around 4:00am. No sleep was had and we missed the express train back to Delhi (5:10am departure), but we caught the next one and got to the airport in plenty of time, although I lost my favourite hoodie at the hotel in Amristar :(
It's actually kinda funny tho. I was asleep, but Mike started chatting to these 5 or so guys in the train with us. Turns out they were from Amristar, but were heading down to Delhi for some....shall we say....companionship. Some shit never changes the world over 'eh?
I hope I get a chance to write something from Mumbai before I get on my plane on the 16th, as the boat thing should be a major highlight. But there really is so much more to say about this trip. A lot will probably come to me after I get back. This part of the world is just so WIERD you know? But I am looking forward to some snpow and ice. I miss my skates. I miss all you people too :)
Okay, more when I can
-Kai #10
Thanks for the nice comments, nice to know that this is being read!
Well, we are still in Kerela, in a town called Aleppey, which is about 30 kilometers south of Kochi, where we flew into this state. It is very hot here, although in the shade and under fans it's not too bad. And there are mosquitos, which is a forst for me in December. I've got the bug bites to prove it. But the people here are the friendliest by far. ALL the little kids wave and say "hello" and we get stared at and waved to constantly. After we headed down to the beach yesterday, we were strolling up this alley and came across these guys making rope. THe stood about 40 yards away from each other with these geared hand cranked twisty things and first twist four smaller ropes individually and then spin them toether to make a single strong rope. The guy who waves us over even had us do a few. I forgot his name but he was easily the friendliest person on this whole trip. He's actually studying to be a doctor and makes rope as a part time job. Another thing the same the world over I guess. In the USA he'd wait tables, in Kerela, you make rope. He was really cool tho and I took a pile of photos.
We are staying in a place called The Vrindhavanam Heritage Home. It's off a quieter alley and looks to be pretty old. You walk in and immediatly are in a little courtyard which these rooms arrayed around it with these little verandas. There is a second larger courtyard through the back where they put up plastic tables and that is the restaurant. These tropical plants grow everywhere and you sometimes see little lizards run up the walls and such. The rooms are pretty spartan, buyt the place is seriously old; the doors are hinged at both sides and open in the middle and are super thick. You lock them from the insides with two wooden little beam thingies. Tyhe kids that work here seem to use it as thier hang out for their buddies, as there are always a bunch here but only one or two seem to be actually working!
The neat thing is that they do have a houseboat that you can charter. We booked it for two nites, and leave tomorrow am. It's like a large wide wooden canoe or viking ship with a roof and and sitting areas up front and on top. Kerela has these extensive areas of backwaters, so the idea is to just sorta cruise along, stopping at villages and looking around, and watching for wildlife like guars and cranes and such. We'll bring along beers and the idea is to just be lazy for a bit before we wrap this thing and head up to Mumbai and for me, back home.
Before we left Amristar tho, we had kind of had a cool day. We ran into this couple from California and we ended up splitting a cab to head out the Pakastani border for the border closing ceremony. It's the wierdest thing. Basicly, at around sunset, the guards from both sides have this ritualized ceremony where they call out to each other, then do these super high leg kicks--Monty Python stuff--seriously--and glare at each other though the gate. Meanwhile there is this DJ guy on each side who gets the crowd all riled up and chanting "PAKISTAN!" or "HINDUSTAN!" like it's a sporting event. It actually has a bit of that too. From where we were sitting you could see the soldiers on the Indian side litterally limbering up and practicing those leg kicks and huge arm swings. You'd have to see video to truly appreciate it. It's odd for me. not having a dog in their fight, so to speak. But it made me wonder, "geez...no wonder these countries never go anywhere when they're having pep rallies at the border every night!
After thet, we joined the Californians for dinner, then proceeded out in a futile attempt to procure a gin and tonic--the signature cocktail of British India. Impossible to find, I couildn't believe it. However, as we were leaving this hotel is when the wedding rolled up.
If you didn't already know, weddings are HUGE here. They go on for days and they're a big part of the social scene you could say. So we were trapped by this throng of people, and up through the crowd is the groom slowly making his way on a donkey and wearing this huge vest thing made out of 10 rupee bills. In front of him are clearly the bachelors, pretty drunk already and singing and dancing to these two drum guys wailing away on them. The drums not the bachelors. Then women are off to the other side, in these amazing bright colored saris, and the older men are off and back behind them. We cannot understand a thing of what was being said, but we noticed as usual, and before you knew it we were in the crowd and I was being accosted by a lot of the women, which was odd being they never talked to me before here. They were asking the usual questions and being very gracious when I asked questions. Finally, this big guy approached me and asked me where I was from in this weird accent. Turns out he was Indian but lived in Toronto (doesn't play hockey) and he was able to fill me in on some of the mechanics of this thing. Turns out we were invited, and down to the banquet hall we went. Mostly, lots of drinking goes on, and the bachelor guys all dance toegher to those wacky Indian pop songs. Then they'd have these dancing girls come out and sort of do a number, but it was a very gender segregated thing. They kept me in drinks (mostly vodka and pepsi---ugh), and the children were probably the best, all grins and questions, you know? We lost the californians along the way, and we got a Tuk-Tuk back to the hotel at around 4:00am. No sleep was had and we missed the express train back to Delhi (5:10am departure), but we caught the next one and got to the airport in plenty of time, although I lost my favourite hoodie at the hotel in Amristar :(
It's actually kinda funny tho. I was asleep, but Mike started chatting to these 5 or so guys in the train with us. Turns out they were from Amristar, but were heading down to Delhi for some....shall we say....companionship. Some shit never changes the world over 'eh?
I hope I get a chance to write something from Mumbai before I get on my plane on the 16th, as the boat thing should be a major highlight. But there really is so much more to say about this trip. A lot will probably come to me after I get back. This part of the world is just so WIERD you know? But I am looking forward to some snpow and ice. I miss my skates. I miss all you people too :)
Okay, more when I can
-Kai #10
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Wow...okay, I only have a few minutes becuse I guess the power here gets cut off at 9:30pm for an hour or so!
We are in Kerala, which is sorta like the Florida of India.....hot and humid and crappy. No I'm kidding, it's not really crappy. The other stuff is true tho wow!
We're gonna blow some real money on a luxury backwater tour of these inlad waterways on a houseboat with a crew that basicly feeds us and we get to drink and take the sites in. The boat is really neat lookin too.
I have some adventure reports from up In Armitsar. We ended up getting invited to an Indian wedding and earlier that day we saw this weird border crossing ceremony at the Indian/Pakistani border. That one is famous and you can probably get info in the Internet
The border thing not the wedding obviously. :)
I'll try to get on here with a real post tomorrow!
-Kai #10
We are in Kerala, which is sorta like the Florida of India.....hot and humid and crappy. No I'm kidding, it's not really crappy. The other stuff is true tho wow!
We're gonna blow some real money on a luxury backwater tour of these inlad waterways on a houseboat with a crew that basicly feeds us and we get to drink and take the sites in. The boat is really neat lookin too.
I have some adventure reports from up In Armitsar. We ended up getting invited to an Indian wedding and earlier that day we saw this weird border crossing ceremony at the Indian/Pakistani border. That one is famous and you can probably get info in the Internet
The border thing not the wedding obviously. :)
I'll try to get on here with a real post tomorrow!
-Kai #10
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Dispatch from India!
Okay, first a correction--The town Tiger is from is Hamirpur, not Hamirapuhl like I said, in case anyone is looking at a map.
Secondly, nice job against the Thunder Chickens boys. 3-5 is a loss but could be a lot worse! Congrats on your goal Larry, but I want my linemates back when I get home!
Thirdly, be sure to link me here with the new website Schultzie :)
Well, we are in Amritsar, which is about 30km from the Pakastani border (forgot what that is in miles, hopefully around 2000). No...it's not that bad, although do check the papers because with what happened in Mumbai, tensions are higher and I am sure there are the usual hardliners that wand to spark a military conflict. If that happens, I'm probably gonna see if I can get an earlier plane! I'm not too worried, really. They nabbed a bigshot in the group over in Pakistan yesterday I guess, which is probably good. Some things you just can't control.
Anyhow, like I said before, there is the holiest temple in the Sikh religion here. Sihkism is an interesting sort of combo between Hindu and Islam and is very inclusive. You've probably seen Sikhs aand not really realized it; they're the ones with the distinctive turbans that they pretty much wear all the time, as well as these really sweet long beards. Some of them are so long that they have these little mesh deals they wear under their chins to sort of gather them up so they don't hang so low. We had a little visit with a distinguished looking guy on the street today, and I was trying to to check out all this stuff and be all impolite.
Actually, people have been pretty nice, but it's always a judgement call when they ask where I'm from. It's probably silly, but sometimes I say,
"Me??...I'm Canadian"
"Really...what city sir?"
"Winnepeg. You know, kind of in the middle"
"Ah yes. Cold"
"Yep"
So far nobody has really asked much past that but I do have a bit more of a cover story ready just in case. Let's say the guy continues the above and then says;
"My name is [insert indian name], and I live near the main bazaar. What is your name?"
"Me?. Oh my name is Chris. Chris Boyko."
(Nobody besides the AK Bars will get that one, but trust me on this one)
Anyway, it's miday now, and we have a pretty nice hotel accross the street from the train station, which is good being we have to catch a 5:00am train tommorrow back to Delhi. From there it's pretty much right to the airport and onto a plane and we're heading down to Kerela, which is near the southern tip on the western coast. Yep....it's almost beach time baby! I even brought my hammock just for that leg of the trip. Today we're just kinda being mellow, all that road travel is exhausting here. It was kind of a funny Indianism last nite too
The main roads here in Punjab are actually really good by Indian standards, but Tiger, like a lot of people here, seem really literal. Let me explain. Imagine an upside down triangle, pretty much an equalateral one. Label the points A on the left, B on the bottom, and C on the right. A is Armristar, where we were going, and C is where we were after about 5 hours of driving. B is just another city. Now, the road from C to B then A is really nice, but twice as far. C to A is closer but a horrible road and a bunch of slow moving overfilled horse carts hauling crops. Guess which route we took? Fastest way is the shortest route, right? I'm gonna need new dental fillings after this trip, I'm tellin' ya. It would have been much faster if we'd taken C to B then A, but Tiger didn't see it and there you are. It was sad to send him on his way tho. We gave him a monster tip of 1000 rupees, but that's what happens if your customers like you I guess. I wish him well in his life and let us know when he's getting married to at least one of those women. Weddings are crazy here but that's a story for another time.
Okay, that's good for now.
From the Far East
-Kai #10
Monday, December 08, 2008
Hey everyone!
Writing to you from a dingy Internet cafe in this town. He really needs to upgrade his video and Internet browser (Explorer 6??). Right now the font size looks about like this to me right now! It's awesome!
Well, we are in the town of Hamirapul, which is located in the southwest corner of Himachel Pradesh, which is one of the northern states in India; it actually does border with Nepal on the northeast. Bordering Nepal. Wow….it’s really weird; just writing that makes me step back and recall where in the hell I am—India—in the south of freaking Asia! But its weirder even than that because trust me, you never forget for a second that you are NOT…as they say…in Kansas anymore. Oh, and Pakistan has a border with this state too, which sorta makes me wish I didn’t follow the news so much. But let me catch up some travel nuts and bolts.
The last I left off, we were leaving Delhi with our hired driver guy to head into the Himalayas (just the foothills actually but holy crap!). The guy told us that he is called “Tiger” and I don’t care if it’s not true because, well, he’s a cool guy and says he has 3 girlfriends, and his cell phone does ring a lot. We headed north through the dust and diesel and smoke for about 2 hours until we finally got on a road that you could sorta drive on cruise control with. In India that means you only brake hard and wail on your horn once every 5 minutes; as opposed to seconds. This is as good a time as any to really bring up what seems to be the central “India Thing” that everyone talks about and sure as shit seems true to me. That “thing” is actually more subtle than one thing really—as usual—but it could be summed up as “Fucking Contradictory”. Let me explain.
Ok take the driving. It’s like having a baby screech in one ear and a chalkboard fingernail screech in the other (or a basketball game on the radio), while having toxic waste fumes and burnt hair and nail clipping smoke pumped out of the dash vents at full blast. That really is what city driving, at least in New Dehli is like. I am so not kidding nor exaggerating. Ask anyone who’s been there. It’s remarkable.
As we got out of the city tho it sorta turned into what I kind of imagined pre interstate highway travel circa about 1930 might have been like. They set up these ubiquitous molded plastic chairs out and roadside food stations with tiny little outdoor shops (seriously--think State Fair) and have these open flame burners and huge woks and pots of simmering curries and such. So you just pull off, like we did, and sit down, and Tiger orderss this plate of curried rice and beans—super simple food—and Mike and me order some 7-Ups because, you know, we were just over getting sick and were not so sure we trusted our own bowels just yet. So the food and drinks come and dang it that after no food for over 24 hours his food looks pretty good. So we have a bite and its great and, well, we order some. Rice, beans, curry spices, that’s it. And it all cost about 4 bucks. And that’s with another pair of 7-Ups. See what I mean? Fucking contradictory.
So we got into the mountains at nite on the 5th and wound our way up to the Himachel Pradesh state capital, Shimla. We got a room at a place called Spar’s Lodge (recommended by Lonely Planet) and pretty much just knocked ‘er off for the nite.
The next morning we wake up and hear the amazing sound of—nothing. We open the windows and in rushes—clean mountain air. I’d forgotten how much I liked air. We had been unable of course to see the terrain and its immediately obvious that we are really up there. Not above tree line or anything, but way way higher than I was used too.
Shimla is basicly a town on the top of a mountain ridge that was originally just a hamlet until discovered by the British in the 19th century. By “discovered” I meant they figured out it was gorgeous and a fucking hell of a lot cooler in the summer than down south. They decided to come up there to get away from the heat in Delhi, take holidays, blah blah, the usual stuff, but because of it there are a lot of old British colonial style buildings which were taken over by the Indian government after independence. The thing about the town is that it’s small enough to really take in, even over just one or two days. The whole town is layed out with that ridge as it’s defining feature. Most of the streets highest up are pedestrian only—a WONDERFUL change from everywhere else. And they are narrow and gloriously random. Imagine about 7-10 parallel lines on a page. Okay, not sorta randomly break and overlap a bunch of those lines so they overlap and intersect and the reconnect. Mold that around a ridgetop and you have Shimla. Pretty much all the pedestrian streets are bazaars that date back centuries. The stores are newer of course. Our hotel was at the extreme west end of town with pretty much the main ped street—the Mall—ending up right at it. Walking east from it, we’d go past all this cool historical stuff, and up into the shops and the like, but every now and then, hey…where does that go? And every walk into town was different and new, but ended up more or less where you knew where you were. It’s hard to explain in words so I’ll stop so I’ll get your attention back with this—there are monkeys running around wild everywhere. Yep—wild monkeys hanging from the trees and running up poles sitting around on stuff and all that. Totally amazing. And the scenery from all sides was amazing as you’d expect, given the fact it’s in the freaking Himalayan foothills. I’ll post photos when I can. But the very very best thing about Shimla was the least expected of all and the most coolest. The have an ice rink.
Yep. And they play hockey there too. I pinched myself so hard I drew blood, man. Can you believe it?? I fucking came 8000 miles and a 15 hour bumpy car ride and I randomly run into the oldest skating club in south asia, the Shimla Ice Skating Club. And did I mention that they actually fucking play HOCKEY there?? We wandered down there at around 6pm in the evening to look at the ice and it looked like crap of course, being that it was warm all day. But it’s cool because the nestled this rink right in the shadow of the Ridge so it rarely gets direct sun. Amazingly, there was some ice there, but not skateable. So we go into the office and get to talking to this guy who's the director of the club. Next thing I know he's giving me his email and some Shimla Ice Club pins. Global brotherhood and sisterhood of hockey baby! I think I'm gonna send some old sticks and stuff out to him. If we'd been a week later, I'd been invited to have a game with them. Unbelieveable as this all is, get this. We chat a bit then Mike and me leave and start heading through the bus depot and start up the hill. Just then we hear a voice behind us, "Sir....SIR!....SIR!!" We turn around and its the Ice Club guy he's got my wallet in his hand!
"You forgot your wallet in my office sir!" he says as he gets up to us. I practicly had a heart attack as I've got about 4000 rupees (about 100 bucks) plus $150USD and all the other usual wallet stuff. The money alone could probably fund his club for a few years and I'm not kidding at all. All this trip people are hawking and begging and trying to get mone from us and this guy passes up a chance at about a half years salary. Say it with me folks:
Fucking Contradictory
It was a really great little place to visit, and I was sad to see it go, but we had to move on yesterday. All day we drove though the mountains, which was breathtaking in the beauty and the terrifying versions (crappy narrow roads, no guardrails, I'm afraid of heights). We got here about 5 and had a dinner date with Tiger's family at 7:30. It was really nice, his sister and mother were the first women we've spoken to here that we weren't buying something from, were western, or under the age of 12 (the kids are like kids everywhere....giggly and curious and awesome). I'll probably write more about that aspect of India later but not now. They made us a simple little meal, veg and non-veg, as they say here, and we had a few big Kingfisher's for liquid courage....eating in homes can be a bit unnerving sometimes in the third world. But they are so sweet and have so little but they are willing--no, insistant--on sharing what they have. "Guests are God" Tiger said and it's hard to know how to feel when you hear something like that. When we left his wrinkly old father presented us each with a gorgeous pink flower and I pressed it into my Lonely Travel guide and intend to keep it forever.
We are stopping by there today for lunch before we start heading up to Amritsar, which is more west and unnervingly close to Pakistan. But it's the sight of the Sikh Golden Temple in the state of Punjab, which is supposed to be cool, although I'm getting a bit templed out. Then on from there we sadly say goodbye to Tiger and take an express train back to Delhi. Anyway, it should be fun over at his place because the said the neighbors have pretty much never seen westerners before so they want to meet us. It's really a village--they farm weat, corn, and have a cow and calf--so these are honest, simple, decent people. Again, coming from the west, it's hard to know how to feel. Let's just say that in the USA we have a LOT less actual poverty than we think. And we make a hell of a lot less with what we DO have than we could. Once again India makes me feel
Fucking Contradictory
Well, I'll keep trying to figure out some pics on here, but for now I hope you enjoyed my "word picture:)"
I'm thinking of everyone
-Kai 10
Writing to you from a dingy Internet cafe in this town. He really needs to upgrade his video and Internet browser (Explorer 6??). Right now the font size looks about like this to me right now! It's awesome!
Well, we are in the town of Hamirapul, which is located in the southwest corner of Himachel Pradesh, which is one of the northern states in India; it actually does border with Nepal on the northeast. Bordering Nepal. Wow….it’s really weird; just writing that makes me step back and recall where in the hell I am—India—in the south of freaking Asia! But its weirder even than that because trust me, you never forget for a second that you are NOT…as they say…in Kansas anymore. Oh, and Pakistan has a border with this state too, which sorta makes me wish I didn’t follow the news so much. But let me catch up some travel nuts and bolts.
The last I left off, we were leaving Delhi with our hired driver guy to head into the Himalayas (just the foothills actually but holy crap!). The guy told us that he is called “Tiger” and I don’t care if it’s not true because, well, he’s a cool guy and says he has 3 girlfriends, and his cell phone does ring a lot. We headed north through the dust and diesel and smoke for about 2 hours until we finally got on a road that you could sorta drive on cruise control with. In India that means you only brake hard and wail on your horn once every 5 minutes; as opposed to seconds. This is as good a time as any to really bring up what seems to be the central “India Thing” that everyone talks about and sure as shit seems true to me. That “thing” is actually more subtle than one thing really—as usual—but it could be summed up as “Fucking Contradictory”. Let me explain.
Ok take the driving. It’s like having a baby screech in one ear and a chalkboard fingernail screech in the other (or a basketball game on the radio), while having toxic waste fumes and burnt hair and nail clipping smoke pumped out of the dash vents at full blast. That really is what city driving, at least in New Dehli is like. I am so not kidding nor exaggerating. Ask anyone who’s been there. It’s remarkable.
As we got out of the city tho it sorta turned into what I kind of imagined pre interstate highway travel circa about 1930 might have been like. They set up these ubiquitous molded plastic chairs out and roadside food stations with tiny little outdoor shops (seriously--think State Fair) and have these open flame burners and huge woks and pots of simmering curries and such. So you just pull off, like we did, and sit down, and Tiger orderss this plate of curried rice and beans—super simple food—and Mike and me order some 7-Ups because, you know, we were just over getting sick and were not so sure we trusted our own bowels just yet. So the food and drinks come and dang it that after no food for over 24 hours his food looks pretty good. So we have a bite and its great and, well, we order some. Rice, beans, curry spices, that’s it. And it all cost about 4 bucks. And that’s with another pair of 7-Ups. See what I mean? Fucking contradictory.
So we got into the mountains at nite on the 5th and wound our way up to the Himachel Pradesh state capital, Shimla. We got a room at a place called Spar’s Lodge (recommended by Lonely Planet) and pretty much just knocked ‘er off for the nite.
The next morning we wake up and hear the amazing sound of—nothing. We open the windows and in rushes—clean mountain air. I’d forgotten how much I liked air. We had been unable of course to see the terrain and its immediately obvious that we are really up there. Not above tree line or anything, but way way higher than I was used too.
Shimla is basicly a town on the top of a mountain ridge that was originally just a hamlet until discovered by the British in the 19th century. By “discovered” I meant they figured out it was gorgeous and a fucking hell of a lot cooler in the summer than down south. They decided to come up there to get away from the heat in Delhi, take holidays, blah blah, the usual stuff, but because of it there are a lot of old British colonial style buildings which were taken over by the Indian government after independence. The thing about the town is that it’s small enough to really take in, even over just one or two days. The whole town is layed out with that ridge as it’s defining feature. Most of the streets highest up are pedestrian only—a WONDERFUL change from everywhere else. And they are narrow and gloriously random. Imagine about 7-10 parallel lines on a page. Okay, not sorta randomly break and overlap a bunch of those lines so they overlap and intersect and the reconnect. Mold that around a ridgetop and you have Shimla. Pretty much all the pedestrian streets are bazaars that date back centuries. The stores are newer of course. Our hotel was at the extreme west end of town with pretty much the main ped street—the Mall—ending up right at it. Walking east from it, we’d go past all this cool historical stuff, and up into the shops and the like, but every now and then, hey…where does that go? And every walk into town was different and new, but ended up more or less where you knew where you were. It’s hard to explain in words so I’ll stop so I’ll get your attention back with this—there are monkeys running around wild everywhere. Yep—wild monkeys hanging from the trees and running up poles sitting around on stuff and all that. Totally amazing. And the scenery from all sides was amazing as you’d expect, given the fact it’s in the freaking Himalayan foothills. I’ll post photos when I can. But the very very best thing about Shimla was the least expected of all and the most coolest. The have an ice rink.
Yep. And they play hockey there too. I pinched myself so hard I drew blood, man. Can you believe it?? I fucking came 8000 miles and a 15 hour bumpy car ride and I randomly run into the oldest skating club in south asia, the Shimla Ice Skating Club. And did I mention that they actually fucking play HOCKEY there?? We wandered down there at around 6pm in the evening to look at the ice and it looked like crap of course, being that it was warm all day. But it’s cool because the nestled this rink right in the shadow of the Ridge so it rarely gets direct sun. Amazingly, there was some ice there, but not skateable. So we go into the office and get to talking to this guy who's the director of the club. Next thing I know he's giving me his email and some Shimla Ice Club pins. Global brotherhood and sisterhood of hockey baby! I think I'm gonna send some old sticks and stuff out to him. If we'd been a week later, I'd been invited to have a game with them. Unbelieveable as this all is, get this. We chat a bit then Mike and me leave and start heading through the bus depot and start up the hill. Just then we hear a voice behind us, "Sir....SIR!....SIR!!" We turn around and its the Ice Club guy he's got my wallet in his hand!
"You forgot your wallet in my office sir!" he says as he gets up to us. I practicly had a heart attack as I've got about 4000 rupees (about 100 bucks) plus $150USD and all the other usual wallet stuff. The money alone could probably fund his club for a few years and I'm not kidding at all. All this trip people are hawking and begging and trying to get mone from us and this guy passes up a chance at about a half years salary. Say it with me folks:
Fucking Contradictory
It was a really great little place to visit, and I was sad to see it go, but we had to move on yesterday. All day we drove though the mountains, which was breathtaking in the beauty and the terrifying versions (crappy narrow roads, no guardrails, I'm afraid of heights). We got here about 5 and had a dinner date with Tiger's family at 7:30. It was really nice, his sister and mother were the first women we've spoken to here that we weren't buying something from, were western, or under the age of 12 (the kids are like kids everywhere....giggly and curious and awesome). I'll probably write more about that aspect of India later but not now. They made us a simple little meal, veg and non-veg, as they say here, and we had a few big Kingfisher's for liquid courage....eating in homes can be a bit unnerving sometimes in the third world. But they are so sweet and have so little but they are willing--no, insistant--on sharing what they have. "Guests are God" Tiger said and it's hard to know how to feel when you hear something like that. When we left his wrinkly old father presented us each with a gorgeous pink flower and I pressed it into my Lonely Travel guide and intend to keep it forever.
We are stopping by there today for lunch before we start heading up to Amritsar, which is more west and unnervingly close to Pakistan. But it's the sight of the Sikh Golden Temple in the state of Punjab, which is supposed to be cool, although I'm getting a bit templed out. Then on from there we sadly say goodbye to Tiger and take an express train back to Delhi. Anyway, it should be fun over at his place because the said the neighbors have pretty much never seen westerners before so they want to meet us. It's really a village--they farm weat, corn, and have a cow and calf--so these are honest, simple, decent people. Again, coming from the west, it's hard to know how to feel. Let's just say that in the USA we have a LOT less actual poverty than we think. And we make a hell of a lot less with what we DO have than we could. Once again India makes me feel
Fucking Contradictory
Well, I'll keep trying to figure out some pics on here, but for now I hope you enjoyed my "word picture:)"
I'm thinking of everyone
-Kai 10
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Hello everyone! Well, I've been here for 5 days and was sick for two. Very exciting eh? We went to Agra, which is about 150 miles southeast of Delhi to see the Taj Mahal, and on the way I started to feel sick. Then really sick. We decided, what the hell, lets stay at the Oberoi 5 star hotel overnite and see how I feel in the morning. Its kind of an expensive hotel, but hell, cheaper than a hospital bed fight. Well, the bad news is they were all full up. And the really bad news was yours truly vomited hits guts out on their polished marble entranceway. I 've got the photo to prove it. But I was a lot better the next day, but then my friend got sick. Ah...the joys of third world travel. The Taj was great, and I got photos in my AK Bars jersey, and the best thing is this guy approached us and points and goes..."Kazan...this is my home. Tatarstan." Got photos of him too.
Today we're heading up to the Himalayas in our hired car. Driving here is crazy. Stop and go and constant honking and unbelevable polluting vehicles. I swear to god we went by a truck that actually looked homemade! The people are constantly trying to hawk stuff and they're frankly not as friendly as china was. Oh well.
I also see from online that the Mighty AK Bars were not so mighty vs the fucking Aces. 5-0 isn't catastrophic tho. I mean, we're missing the star player right? I really miss hockey tho, I've had dreams that I'm pretty much every nite. It's rather warm here...7os during the day and about 40 at nite, but I miss the 0-20 degree range baby! Up north will be colder I guess.
I'm also feeling pretty safe. There's more tension with Pakistan right now with what's going on, but nothing's happened. I told my friend tho; if they start a shooting war I'm going home early man!
Okay. we gotta meet our car. Be good out there and I really miss everyone.
-Kai #10
Today we're heading up to the Himalayas in our hired car. Driving here is crazy. Stop and go and constant honking and unbelevable polluting vehicles. I swear to god we went by a truck that actually looked homemade! The people are constantly trying to hawk stuff and they're frankly not as friendly as china was. Oh well.
I also see from online that the Mighty AK Bars were not so mighty vs the fucking Aces. 5-0 isn't catastrophic tho. I mean, we're missing the star player right? I really miss hockey tho, I've had dreams that I'm pretty much every nite. It's rather warm here...7os during the day and about 40 at nite, but I miss the 0-20 degree range baby! Up north will be colder I guess.
I'm also feeling pretty safe. There's more tension with Pakistan right now with what's going on, but nothing's happened. I told my friend tho; if they start a shooting war I'm going home early man!
Okay. we gotta meet our car. Be good out there and I really miss everyone.
-Kai #10
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