Sorry, I haven't disappeared! Don't worry, I haven't escaped in Himalaya and became a buddhist fanatic;)

My trip was beautiful but once back to work I had to catch up with so much stuff and I didn't have time to write on my blog! But let's go in order AND with some pictures (which are another cause of my delay...the connection at my job is so slow and it take AGES!)




















But there we go! This is the Golden temple in Amritsar...so pretty! Just imagine walking barefoot in this totally white marble building, with so colorful people wearing turbants and all kinds of veils and colorful saris (Amritsar is in Punjab, where most of the population is in the Sikh cast, and one of their characteristics is their colorful clothes). And few people were bathing in this lake that is considered holy, and this huge, beautiful, shiny golden gem sticking out from the lake, creating beautiful games of light with its relfecion in the water...ah! such a dream!

Then our bus to Pathankot ... another exemple of the Sikh colorful turbants and veils! And Sikh people already tend to be much more friendly, smiley and less staring than people in Rajasthan

There we go! Once in McLeod Ganj (and once healthy again!), our favorite activity: shop and bargain! After my last post I went downtown McLeod Ganj and of course after 30 seconds I met two of my friends!!! (Man, India is really not THAT big!). They are two WONDERFUL girls from Montreal, Nadia and Cathrine, with whom I spent the rest of the day since Marsha was home sick. Then at night (when Marsha was finally better) it was my turn to get sick! I had such a high fever and allucinations for the whole night! At one point I went to the bathroom and saw a man in the shower with his face completely painted in purple....oh me! The next day we decided to postpone the departure of one more day (which of course we didn't mind since McLeod is so pretty!), and this hippy American couple who was staying in our hotel gave me this extremely bitter medicine which made me feel better in less than an hour...not sure I want to know what it was!!! But hey, it worked;)

We visited the buddhist temple where the Dalai Lama lives, saw a bunch of cute smiley tibetan monks praying, debating and doing dome weird yoga exercices, shopped for souvenirs;) and finally it was time to go to Manali! We wanted to travel as "princesses" on a deluxe bus but that wasn't possible, so we found ourselves (luckly with the two Quebecoises) on a crappy bus for the whole night to reach Manali. Just imagine: an extremely crowded bus, the shittiest bus u can ever imagine, going for 10 hours on curves around Himalaya...after that I'm ready to travel ANYTIME ANYWHERE and in ANY CONDITION!!! Luckly I was sitting next to a very sweet guy from Israel (by the way, Himalaya is full of Israeli hippies!) with whom I had very interesting conversaions! He explained me why there are so many Israeli in Himalaya: after high school everybody (even girls) have to join the army for 2 or 3 years, and only after that they can go to college. Of course for most of them their time in the army is horrible and as soon as they're done they want to escape for a while before starting "real life", and Himalaya is one of the most popular destinations! There are Israeli cafes and restaurants playing Israeli music EVERYWHERE!!! Really interesting...then the guy was also a gay guy and of course I had tons of questions on how it was to be gay in India...here men in general are extremely touchy with each other: they walk around hugging, holding hands, even our security guards sleep hugging each other! It's very strange for a western person to see that and not think that they are homosexual but actually is very common and accepted for them (while homosexuality is still a tabu, exept for more modern areas such as Mombay or Bangalore). But what happens is that guys are not allowed to be touchy with girls in public, not even when they're married (you would never see a couple hugging or kissing in public), and so they do it with guys! I found out from the Israeli guy that is also very commons for guys to have sex with each other, but there is absolutely no romance (since most of them are straight!) but it's really just sex that gets into friendship...very very interesting!



Anyways, we survived the crappy bus, and once in Manali we reached our hotel around 4 am, and from the rooftop we watched a breathtaking sunrise, with the sun rising fromt he Himalaya eternal snow....wow! Felt alive, like at the center of the universe, and I just wanted to scream to the whole world how happy I was!

We got few hours of sleep, then went around Manali for the day. Our first plan was to do some rafting, but the travel agency told us that it would be on our risk since with Monsoon + with lots of snow melting since it's summer the waters are very dangerous and we didn't attempt. Second option was to do some trekking but Monsoon gave us one of its famous long showers so we postponed that (seriously, why make plans in advance anyways?). Then, we met with this dutch guy at number 42 of the Lonely Planet...it's seriously like the bible of a sect! The way we met the dutch guy in the first place was extremely random...one night (while we were in Jaipur), he stopped us and told Marsha he recognized her from her blog! Before coming to India he was checking out other people's blog and he ended up in Marsha's. And he recognized her from the pictures!!! You can imagine how she felt like a famous star;)

But before meeting the guy, as we walked out of the hotel ... surprise !!!! OH, MY, GOD, couldn't seriously believe my eyes! Marijuana plants EVERYWHERE!!! I'm not joking, they were growing on the border of the street, right next to the hotel, there were huuuuuge plantations! wow, and it's still illegal, somehow! now that's a bit hipocrit but who cares....I felt like in the film "The Beach";)

Anyways...we then walked around Manali where Marsha took this funny picture: NO PARKING! hahhaha, well, who says that it means also "no elephant parking?!?!" oh, random India! how much will I miss u!
The next day we went for trekking with the Canadian girls (we were together for the rest of the time) in those marijuana mountains and it was so beautiful! Because of Monsoon nature around is so green and prosperous ... we walked for quite a bit, ate apples from the trees..and had some fun adventures, of course! First of all, after a while walking, we started hearing house music from the distance. Now imagine: you're walking in peaceful Himalaya, and you start hearing "tunz, tunz, tunz". What?!?!? It got louder and louder, and at one turn we saw this "cafe" in the middle of the mountains, with HUUUUUUUUUUUge speakers, playing extremely loud music....and how did the speakers get there? and mostly: where were they plugged? anyhow, people there were extremely high (no....really?) and were just listening to music and laying around....oh people! Then at one point Marsha slipped on a wet rock and was hanging out from a plant! Nadia went to help her and slipped as well and was hanging from Marsha's foot...quite scary but extremely funny! Cathrine and I turned around and felt like taking a pic;)

We ended up in this remote village where time seemed to have stopped 100 years ago...houses built with rocks, no electricity or any modern facility, we had to cross a "bridge" that was in fact a tree thrown from one side to the other ... yes, that was scary! Finally after a whole day trekking we got back to the hotel where we slept like babies!

The next day we went to Vashish (come on, the name says it all already, doesn't it??) to see the famous hot springs ... very very disappointing! In fact they were inside a temple, and the water was extermely hot and so so so dirty (forgot we were in India!), but oh well, the trek and the view from there were worth the try!

In the afternoon we finally took a bus back to Delhi, which took 20 hours because of a broken tire...got to Delhi exausted (during the whole week, in fact, we slept only in two hotels!!!!)...and it was so hot again!!! There we went to the bastard travel agent who cheated us demanding our money and we got it back!!! Yes, we were so proud of ourselves!
The scary thing in Delhi was that - after the bombing in Mumbay - there were checks everywhere...and a policeman even wanted to open my backpack...which after a week backpacking (and shopping) was almost exploding...I just looked at him with the most desperate face: please no!!! And he was suprisignly kind;)
Then at night we took our last bust back to Jaipur...as soon as we arrived, after no more than 30 seconds while I was bargaining a price with the rickshaw drivers, two guys touched my butt and ran away. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! not again! I really felt like screaming (and of course I did!) and was so fed up with stupid Rajasthan again, and missed being on vacation, missed not being starred at all the time, missed the low tempterature, missed the mountains around me, and mostly missed Nadia and Cathrine...it's impressive how travelling gets people so close in such a short time! We really had fun with them!

But once back in Black House...surprise! New trainees! Now it's 10 of us living there now and it's so much fun! And in those 10 days that we were gone, the trainees in Jaipur had doubled! Right now there are 75 of us, and it gets even harder to keep track of everybody! That's why we need to party more and more!!! The Black House bought loud speakers and we have been partying almost everynight;) (which I found out is much much more exausting than travelling!). On Saturday night I even went to a night club in Jaipur...so much fun!!! People are actually "normal" (for western standars, of course): girls show legs and cleavage and they dance sexy with boys...the music was terrible but so indian! a weird mix of house and hindi, with some latin and 80 in between...I had so much fun!!! Came back extremely late on Saturday night, and on Sunday morning one of my guy housemates (by the way, the guys in the house are the ones who are extremely neat and clean! weird:) woke us up "let's clean black house"....so we did! Just imagine 9 people (one of us quit her traineeship and left for Bankok to meet a guy that she had met during a citytour around Jaipur...aw! how romantic), Sunday morning, with extremely loud music, cleaning up big times (and I won't attemp mentioning the things we found!!! pretty disgusting...ewewew!)...our security guards came up and looked at us as we were aliens!!! hahaha, I didn't know cleaning could be so much fun!!!!
Then on Monday 3 of the girls with whom I clicked the most here in Jaipur left and that just hit me: not again! I cried "like Monsoon" (as Wieske, one of the girls, told me), and I realized I got really attached to this place, and mostly to people. Fuck, I have less than one month left and I already feel like there is no time!!!
BUT - at the end of my traineeship I'll spend another week travelling, this time to Mumbay and Goa, before leaving for London, and I'm seriously looking forward for that!

That's it! Last thing: my traineeship is getting more exciting every day. Today I had another important business meeting with the guy who's just below the Maharaja of Jaipur...man, I really don't want to leave now! Oh well, life keeps going and more exciting stuff will come in the way;)

Hello fan club! Greeting from McLeod Ganj!

Before I say anything, let me clarify one thing: people, is not ME who won the world cup but Italy! It's so funny, I got so many messages, email and facebook post saying "congratulations!" hahaha, well, thanks! I don't think I've helped much;)

But let me say something about this little piece of heaven where I'm right now. It's absolutely GORGEOUS! I cannot explain how much I love it up here (well, let me tell you that I'm really tempted to quit my traineeship and just stay here until August!). We were supposed to leave McLeod Ganj tonight but we're staying a day longer...we're about 1700 meters high (5600 feet), it feels nice and chilly (last night I had to wear a sweatshirt!! Felt really strange, I really didn't remember how it is to feel a bit cold!). I woke up this morning and from my hotel I had tihs amazing AMAZING view of the valley below, with very colorful little houses, wet clothes hanging out from windows, the clouds around the mountains giving an idea of being in a isolated little heaven, away from every day Jaipur traffic, away from the heat, away from work, just away, away...we got here last night after many many adventures! Since I've left Jaipur so many things have happened and life is so unpredictable and I don't want this to change ever!

Friday night before we left we were in a dinner/hang out party at Marjolein's. We came back home, I still had to pack (I know, I never learn!), finished packing at 2 am, woke up at 3.30 to catch a rickshaw to the bus stand. We had to weak up this guy who was sleeping in his rickshaw but he seemed so happy to take us there! He had pumped up Hindi music for the entire way...at 4.30 in the morning!!! Caught a bus at 5.30, tried to sleep, got to Delhi where we found out we could catch a bus to Amritsar at night. We just spent the day "dutch shopping" as Marsha taught me: look, look but not buy (of course in dutch it sounds much better but i won't attempt the spellling!). There is one street in old delhi with a huge beautiful bazaar...on the way back I'm going to buy so many souvenirs! By the way - Landon - prepare yourself to take some stuff back to Mizzou with you for our angels:) Then we tried to do some sightseeing but Delhi is terrible, impossible to walk in, we even got chased by a cow! (and let me say that cows in Delhi are twice as big as cows in Jaipur...not sure what they feed them with, but I was definetly scared!), so we just sat in a nice restaurant (where we peed at candlelight!) and waited for the bus. Once at the bus stand we realized we got cheated big times: we payed for the bus twice as much and got soooooooo angry! But it was too late to get back to the travel agency, but they will hear from us when we're back in Delhi. So yeah, Delhi is not my thing...didn't seem like a good start!

Got into the bus, "slept" in there, got to Amritsar at 7 am where we went to see the Golden Temple. Before getting in we found the "dorm" for tourists to sleep in for free. We stopped there to shower and leave our backpacks, but while Marsha was showering I completely passed out, she followed me and we ended up sleeping for few hours (which was very nice after 2 nights "sleeping" in buses!). Met a nice guy from New Orleans, talked a while...very interesting! It was my first time talking to somebody from there after the flood...he works in constructions there (not suprising, eh?) and had amazing stories and comments to say. We finally got into the Golden Temple...quite breathtaking! We had to wear headscarf and take our shoes off, we walked in in this marble building that surrounds a holy lake, people where bathing there, everybody so colorful...and then the temple! A gold gem that sticked out from the pure white around! Even the sky was incredibly white (which I thought at first would ruin the atmosphere but no, it gave it that feeling of suspance, of waiting for something to happen...). I took amazing pictures there that I'll upload once back in Jaipur (if I ever get back!). Left the temple for the bus stand and as soon sa the bus left a monsonic rain fell from the white sky, cleaning up the dirty, dusty city of Amritsar...but we were already far away.

The bus stopped at Pathankot where we were supposed to catch a bus to Dharmsala...but there were no more buses! Scared to have to spend the night there (aka, missing the world cup final game) we found that there was another bus going to Gaggal, which is closer to McLeod Ganj. We took a chance, had to sit for 3 hours on our backpacks on the dirty bus floor. Once in Gaggal we took a taxi that finally tooked us to McLeod Ganj.

We were on time for the world cup final! I couldn't believe it we made it...for the longest time I thought we couldn't make it...and the funny thing was that once in our room, we thought for 2 seconds about just staying there and sleep. We were soooooo tired! It was Sunday night and it was the first hotel we saw since Friday!

But we got out of our room, in 10 minutes we already saw 3 people we knew (the backpackers in India are just a nice big community!), got into a room with widescreen to watch the match. The room was full ot tibetan monks, and I sat in the back with 5 guys from Nepal who were crazy about Italy and for the whole match they kept screaming, jumping, huggin each other...I joined them and had an amazing time! (and that helped me stay awake as well, while Marsha - poor thing! - fell asleep on her chair!). As the last penalty was shoot, I had several images scrolling in my mind: my friends and sister in Parma, my mom and family in the south of Italy, my dad, brother and stepmom at the Caribbean, my Italian friends at Mizzou, my other crazy-for-soccer friends at Mizzou, my uncle in London, my Italian friends in Jaipur...one big big party! All connected by the same game...and me, in a room with tibetan monks jumping around with my new nepali friends in McLeod Ganj! I gave some thoughts to the randomness of life...

Today Marsha is not feeling well and is resting in the room...I will now walk around, do some sightseeing and arrange for a bus for Manali for tomorrow night. Tonight we're going at a jamming session in a cafe here...a guy strongely reccomended it to us!

I feel great, this town is so beautiful! Very peaceful, people are interesting (a lot of them come here for months to study Buddism), people are not pushy, no starring (AMAZING feeling!), I've never felt in love with a place so fast! I'm seriously considering spending more time here, but probably not now...I never imagined I would have loved this so much! I really feel like I discovered an unespected pieace of paradise....

Coming soon with more stories!

p.s. oh yeah, I have to write few lines on the court process in Jodhpur! Last weekend, in the bus on our way to Jaisalmer, my finnish housemate Jaana got harassed by a guy. It was ten of us girls in that trip, all fed up with indian perverts, and we made a big HUGE deal out of it! The bus deviated to the police station, where Jaana had to file a report and the guy got arrested. After few days she was called to go to court in Jodhpur, and of course we wouldn't let her go alone (and we wouldn't let such an opportunity to see a court process in India go away!). So Marjolein Hardy and I joined Jaana and we had a very interesting time! The four of us really click together...for the entire trip we had amazing conversation, different opinions, really good discussions. During the process Jaana got accused of being drunk in the bus and just imaging the whole scene...but luckly the judge was a woman (and that was so strange for me! but it really made it much easier...), and seemed to believe Jaana 100%. The pervert's family came there, crying in front of Jaana saying that his parents were on death bed and were going to die if the guy was put in jail...but none of us had pity for them. I really didn't believe a word they said, but even if it was true the guy had to pay the consequences of what he had done. We still don't know how many months he will need to spend in jail, but probably quite a few. Nop, don't feel bad for him at all! My heart becomes a stone now when it's about indian perverts...

So where will Alex be next week?! Well, I tried to draw it on a map! Marsha and I will take a bus tonight to Delhi, sleep on the bus (5.30hours), get to Delhi in the morning, chill there, get breakfast, visit a bit the city, do some shopping... Then we'll take a train to Chandigarh (4hours), the only planned city in India built after a utopic city plan of French architect Le Corbusier. We'll chill there, enjoy a clean, neat not crowded Indian city (it will be very interesting!). We definetly need to find a restaurant or bar with a tv and ESPN to watch Germany-Portugal, spend the night in Chandigarh, visit a bit the city in the morning, then take a bus to Amritsar (5.30 hours), city of the Golden Temple, one of the most suggestive sightsee place of India (people compare it to the Taj Mahal)



Once in Amritsar we can also decide to go see the Pakistan-India border. In the evening there is a big ceremony of the closing of the border and if we're not too exausted we'll probably attend it. Then back to Amritsar, we want to sleep inside the Golden temple (there is an area with beds for pilgrims and backpackers) the only concern I have is that I'll probably miss the world cup final match and I have to deal with it... the opportunity to sleep in the Golden temple in Amritsar won't probably come again in my next future, while Italy playing in the final... we'll, let's say thjat it's not a once-in-a-lifetime experience! I'm trying to accept the fact that I'll miss the match with filosophy, mais disons que ca me fait un peu chier!

On Monday we'll travel from Amritsar to McLeod Ganj by bus and train (about 8hours). McLeod Ganj is the headquarters of the Tibetan Government in Exile and residence of the Dalai Lama. We'll hang out in some tibetan temples, eat tibetan food, visit museums and learn more about this interesting part of the world and its history. At night we'll catch a night bus to Manali (10 hours), get there on Tuesday morning where we'll meet Ines and Harriet, two former tarinees who left for the north last week. We'll hang out with them in Manali, we'll do some trecking there and in the Kullu and Parvati Valleys...it will be absolutely beautiful! Manali is a 2050 meters station (6725.72 feet). While trekking in the valleys we'll have the opportunity to visit characteristic villages with their castels, forts, temples, traditions, hot springs and waterfalls...a beautiful paradise!

We'll probably hang out with them until Thursday night, and we'll then leave and start our journey back. We'll first stop in Shimla (10hours by bus), hang out there for few hours and maybe catch up with Seth and Flavio (two trainees, South Africa and Italy) who will maybe join us for the last part of our journey. We'll take a bus on Friday to Rishikesh (other 10hours), try to spend the night there (a good night of sleep!). Rishikesh is the world capital for yoga, very newagish, and it's also situated on the Ganges. On Saturday we'll definetly try to do some rafting, and maybe visit a bit some yoga stuff (we'll see what the city has to offer!). At night we'll take a bus to Haridwar (1hour) and we'll spend the night there in an ashram, a place where people congregate to be discipled by a guru. They host pilgrims and backpackers, invite them to join their meditation and yoga time...I'm looking forward for a very different experience!

Finally, on Sunday morning we'll take a train to Delhi (7hours), get there for lunch and finally our last bus to Jaipur;)

So, be looking forward for some stories and pictures in about two weeks! I'm really really looking forward for this trip, and even if it doesn't go as planned (maybe I'm beeing a little too ambitious, and I also have to consider what Marsha wants to do), it will be a WONDERFUL experience!

The last week in Jaipur has been so random and interesting but I really don't have time to write about it. Let's just say that on Tuesday night I missed the second part of the Italy-Germany match because I was in a night-train to Jodhpur (with a German guy, how weird!), 6 hours away from Jaipur, and on Wednesday I was in the courthouse in Jodhpur...and I should just stop here and let you all wonder "what happened to you? what troubles did you cause?" hahah, I'll write everything when I come back from Himalaya;)

Indian court process...quite interesting and weird!!!

Besos

Harriet's farewell party at Orange House!

A cute trio: Adi, Marsha and I (and a Kingfisher;)





Harriet and I...we're not done with each other girl! I'll miss u...




Now in Jaisalmer: before the camel safari we visited a village where we got our camels...

A woman and a baby in the village, and a typical village house... that's rural India. Poverty here is real, I don't know how they can live isolated, with no water and so many, so many kids...interesting and kind of sad experience.


Meeting my camel in the village... Bura, you are so cute! Too bad your eyelashes don't show in the picture...it was love at first sight;)

Then we rode the camels in the desert...really fun experience!




This is Nenu, my guide in the desert. Such a cute nice kid! Took very good care of me;)

I was trying to get artsy and took a picture of the dunes...and I was dying to say this joke but nobody spoke italian there!
"Una duna dice a un'altra dune: hai per caso visto passare qualche duno?"

Could I be any happier than this? Drinking chai in the desert, with the sun dying in between the dunes and the voices of our indian guides singing traditional songs as the background, being with 9 amazing other girls with whom I've already shared so much...and I'm also a little "narcisa" as I really like this picture of mine;) Happines makes people prettier:)




Alex still getting artsy...the sun dying in the desert...so beautiful!




The next day:

Waking up at dawn: while the others are still dreaming Ana and I take pictures... everybody looks so innocent!
Showering in the desert! Nop, I'm not trying to be sexy... that was my shower! Trying to get off the layers of sand from my skin... felt great even if didn't succed:)






One of my favourite pic: love is all around!




Finally, the group picture!!! Jaisalmer crowd - July 2006