Dan: Well, Karin has been given the all-clear from the doctors here - turns out she had a touch of dysentery, but a large course of antibiotics have (hopefully) cleared that up!
So we're all set for our 6:00am flight back to the UK tomorrow morning!

Then we have 4 days of rapid preparation (i.e. re-packing!) before we fly out to Tokyo on Monday 5th December.

So, updating of this blog won't happen for a few days - but when I get a chance I'll update the last couple of days with more info and some photos, and hopefully some  info on Tokyo, as that's where we'll be!

Dan: Karin woke me early this morning in a lot of discomfort, and we decided we'd take her to see a doctor.
We rang the British Embassy when they opened to find out where a good doctor was located.
They directed us to the East-West Medical Centre in Delhi, a privately run clinic and hospital.

We went to see a doctor there, and he diagnosed Karin as suffering from acute Gastroenteritis.

So... they have admitted her overnight whilst they do blood and stool tests.
Hopefully it's just a bacterial infection that can be treated with antibiotics, as we're due to fly out in 36 hours...!

We'll find out tomorrow.

Dan: I'm not very well today - I seem to have the same case of Delhi Belly that Karin is just recovering from.
I spent all of yesterday in bed, and today we had to catch the train from Haridwar back to Delhi.

The train took 4 hours, and I knew we'd get a meal.
But I wasn't expecting a four course meal! Especially when I couldn't eat any of it...
The srvice was incredible, they were serving food for the whole 4 hours. And the legroom was great, much better than on any train or plane I've been on.
And all this for £8!! GNER could learn a lot from this...

We arrived into Delhi at 10:30pm, and went straight to our hotel and to bed.
I started taking some antibiotics 2 days ago, and was hoping that I'd get some relief soon, as I'm in quite a bit of pain.
Karin seems much better, although she's been eating more food than she should.

Dan: Karin had a hugh fever last night (39.3 degrees C), and a lot of stomach cramps, so it was decided that I'd go and do teh rafting by myself.
Karin was feeling a lot better this morning, but not well enough to get up.

I have lots of photos from the rafting, and it was a lot of fun, but I'll upload the text and photos in a few days, once you read the rest of the posts you'll understand why.

Dan: Well, the only thing to report over the last couple of days is that we have both been sick! First I got a bad cold, then Karin got a mild case of Delhi Belly, then I got Delhi Belly, then I got a bad cold again, then Karin got a bad cold! It almost sounds like a comedy act when spelled out like that...

Today is the first day that I've been feeling better.
We've both booked onto a White Water Rafting trip for tomorrow, which will raft 36km of the Ganga - I'm really looking forward to it.

Karin has come down with a bad tummy again today, so I went out for a walk to the next village, trying to find the original Transcendental Meditation centre. I couldn't find it, but found a lovely place to sit by the Ganga and meditate.

On the way back, I found another Westerner's shop, run by a lovely Indian woman and her little boy...


Westerner's Shop

I also thought I'd include a photo of the main square at Laxman Jhula, for no other reason than I accicenlt uploaded it!


Laxman Jhula Circle

(Editor's Note: Karin has yet to type up her diary entries from this day forward, so you'll be getting mine alone until she has time to do them... and then they will auto-magically appear!)

Dan: Both Karin and I were feeling quite a bit better today, so we made an early afternoon expedition to Karin's beach (as I know it!).
Karin has been out running and swimming most mornings (at about 5:00am!!! How cold is the Ganga then???!), and she discovered a lovely swimming spot about 1km up the road from the village.

We spent a lovely afternoon here talking and reading, and cautiously watching the monkeys who would occasionally advance towards us (they could smell our tangerines!).
The beaches on the Ganga are incredibly - beautiful white soft sand.
We were confused about this at first (I don't remember having come across many rivers with whites sandy beaches before!), but when we went up into the Himalayas, it became clear - further up the river, all the cliffs are made of sand-stone - hence all the landslides. When the stone crumbles (into sand!) it gets carried down river and deposited on the shores.

On this beach, there was so much sand that a massive sand dune had formed.
So we sat on the sand dune, ate our lunch, read our books, and generally just enjoyed the sun.


Karin's Beach


Karin trying to "surf" the sand dune...
 

Dan: Well, I now officially have a bad cold - I was bed-ridden all day yesterday, but feeling marginally better today, so I decided to have a go at fixing the power adapter for Karin's laptop (wow, aren't my blog posts really exciting??!).
Once again, I didn't have the right tools, parts, or information for my job, but felt I could cobble something together.
Ever since I was young, I've enjoyed pulling things to pieces to see how they work, and this has left me with a gut feel on how to fix things - especially electrical and electronic things (although it left my parents occasionally frustrated, for if they gave me anything electronic or mechanical for Xmas or my birthday, it was invariably in pieces within 2 hours... one time at Xmas I remember having begged my father to have a play with a very old battery powered car that he had had as a child - it came complete with a petrol station that contained a battery to charge the car. I think my father was very fond of it, and so I was overjoyed when they gave it to me for Xmas, along with a stern admonition that I was to take good care of it as it had sentimental value. The warning must have really hit home, as it was at least 3 hours before it was in pieces, and I was using the motor from the car as the engine for cable car system that could transport my lego people from one side of my room to the other... The guilt still lives with me today!!)

I got a rickshaw into Rishikesh to see if I could find some parts that could be modified for use - and luckily, I found that the earphone plug for a Nokia phone hands-free kit has the same core plug as an Apple power adapter. Off to a good start then...

And so, with the Nokia part, some judicial use of sellotape and wax, and also with some cable that I liberated from the wall-fan in our room (I see it as a service as I re-wired it back up much more safely than it had been!)... I created a new power-adapter. And what's more, it worked! Yay! For about 2 hours, I was in my element, building all the little tools and parts I would need...


Dan hard at work

Karin: It's the evening of the 17th as I write this. The last few days have been spent very lazily, dozing and reading. We're starting to relax out here now. There were a few days of culture shock but this has abated now and we’re just enjoying a lot of relaxing hours doing not very much in particular. Dan picked up a cold a few days ago and so he’s a little below par. Thankfully my stomach is feeling robust again. The incessant chanting of the Diwali celebrations has finally ceased and we are enjoying the peace. The noisy Israelis who were also plaguing our lives when we first arrived have also left (HOORAY!) so things are fine and dandy.
 
Other good news, Dan appears to have fixed my computer – the power supply broke inside the computer about 10 days ago. The little miracle worker has taken the whole thing apart and extracted the broken piece. Can’t wait to watch a DVD!

Dan: OK, well I'm not going to bother writing too much today, a it would be a really boring thing to read!
I feel like I'm coming down with something, so am keeping a low profile roudn the hotel today.
In an effort to keep myself occupied (and also cause I really want to!) I decided to take Karin's laptop completely to pieces to see if I could remove the broken off portion of her power adapter (regular readers may recall that we broke it on Day 8).
Only three things were standing in my way:
1) I've never taken a Mac laptop to pieces before
2) I had none of the correct tools
3) Karin! erm... don't worry dear, I'll put it all back together, and it'll be as good as new, I promise.

Anyway, no boring details - I got it to pieces, removed the offending part, and got it all back together again.

We then spent the evening on the balcony, reading books as the sun set.
This is really a gorgeous place!

(Have yet to upload the photos of a sunset, but they're worth it, so check back on this page).

Karin: The Kamath family had to leave early this morning. I got up early to say goodbye as I didn’t want their last memory of me to be the green-tinged misery that I was last night. We bid each other farewell and as they headed back to Delhi. Dan and I jumped into a shared auto-rickshaw that was heading back to Laxman Jhula. After a freezing cold ride crammed into the back of this rickshaw with far too many people in it we were relieved to get back to the Hotel Divya and all of its relative comforts.

Dan: When we went to leave the hotel in Haridwar, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the Kamath's had paid for our room - yet another example of their generosity! We gave them heartfelt thanks, and also expressed gratitude for the chance to see another side of India, feeling like we were experiencing it a bit more as Indians ourselves.
I hadn't brought a jacket with me, so I was freezing cold on the ride back to Laxman Jhula, the only relief being that we were relatively war, as we were packed into a 6 person rickshaw with 8 Indian women, who were chattering away to us in Hindi!

When we got to Laxman Jhula, we stopped at the local Westerner's shop to get some cleaning supplies - today was the day we were going to tackle our bathroom.
Although our room and view were lovely, there was a continual pungent smell coming from the bathroom, which we thought might have been because it had never been cleaned properly - so we thought we'd have a go.

I'm not going to cover the rest of the day here, as it's not too exciting - suffice to say that my way of cleaning a bathroom that is covered floor to ceiling in tiles is to close the door, splash chlorine on all available surfaces, and lose myself in the scrubbing.

About the only exciting thing to happen today is when some monekys appeared above our room, and then came down onto the terrace - at first we thought they were cute, but they were monkeys with a purpose: they were here to steal Karin's bag of nuts - and so they advanced menancingly at us, hissing.
And rather than get into a scrap, we decided just to leave the nuts for the monkeys...

 
Monkeys above our room, about to steal the nuts

Normally the monkeys are rather cute, and look something like this...

Mother monkey and her baby

After a full days cleaning and washing, we fell to bed exhausted.
Being on holiday can be such hard work, you know??!

Karin: The 4.20 alarm call was most unwelcome this morning. Both Dan and I endured an ice-cold morning wash with stoicism but when we finally emerged at 5.00 the heavenly sight of a myriad twinkling stars in a huge, jet-black sky made our pains worth all the while (Dan: well, sort of!). The air is so clear at this altitude that the night sky is really magnificent. We awoke Sundar who had taken to sleeping in the car as a way to pocket his Rs 200 per day allowance and before long we were winding our way back down to the valleys. 

Dan: One thing I've noticed on our road trip so far, is that 90%of the cars are made by a company called TATA. And this one company makes a massive range of cars - imagine if all the different cars you see on a normal day at home (all the models and makes) were made by the same company - and that's what it's like. It turns out that TATA (who also do phone networks) are a division of Hindustan Motors, who make the Ambassador. The only other car manufacturer in India is Mahindra, who make jeeps - TATA make everything else - the cars, the buses, the trucks, the vans - you name it.
It's very rare to see anything other than a TATA car - and if you do, it is likely to be a Suzuki.

Karin: The place that Bhuta Ram had selected for us as our final taste of Himalayan beauty was a walk from the small village of Sari to an area called Deviatal with a famous view of the mountain range mirrored in a lake.  We had set off so early because it is only early in the morning that one can see these views. Thus it was that at around 6.30 am we again set off up another mountain, this time with a local guide called Mr Negi. Mr Negi was a very endearing fellow. As we walked up we were accompanied by a large number of village women from Sari, carrying large baskets on their backs to fill with fallen leaves, to use as winter bedding for the cattle. The sight of all these joyfully colored sari-clad women climbing the hill with their baskets and rustling about in the leaves in the early morning sunshine was like living poetry. Mr Negi stopped on occasion to talk to them. As we walked up, an elderly man passed us who evidently, had a small café at the top and had decided that our potential trade was worth the climb up.


Women collecting leaves
 
The view over the lake as we came over the brow of the hill was well worth our strenuous climb and in spite of filming restrictions by order of the Indian government, Mr Negi was keen to give us a filmed narrative of all the peaks he had climbed.

 
 
Views from the Reflection Lake at Deviatal

After offering our patronage to the café owner we began our descent via Mr Negi's plantation where he explained to us, in depth and with great enthusiasm, that he was working on a project involving a plantation of special medicinal plants. He insisted that on returning to England we should mention the project to our government as he had great hopes to heal the world. He gave us a few samples of his magical plants.


Mr Negi in his plantation

Dan: Mr Negi also showed us round his climbing school, where he teaches children how to rock climb (and gave us a demonstration).
He was very proud of his qualifications and experience (as he should be) and explained how he's climbed most of the peaks we could see from the top - what was fanatastic is that he knew the name and story of each and every one.


Mr Negi demonstrating rock climbing

Karin: By the time we returned to the taxi and our driver, we were thoroughly charmed by Mr Negi and his enthusiastic and altruistic vision so we gave him Rs 1000 (a small fortune in this part of the Himalayas) as a donation to his enterprise. This he received with much gratitude and sent us off with  a bunch of marigolds picked from his garden.
 
The return drive to Laxman Jhula lasted about 7 hours and seemed to go on forever. When we finally arrived back we parted ways with Sundar, his Ambassador and yet another large tip. It was with much gratitude that we walked back to our room and the promise of hot water, clean clothes and a more temperate place to spend the night.

Karin: We emerged at about 10.00 am, packed up some dal and rice and set off for the trail bound for the peak Chandrosila which towered above us at 4090 mtrs. We both struggled to begin with as even at 3,000 meters the air was quite thin and we seemed to be getting exhausted with even the slightest bit of exertion. As we walked up we stopped to chat to a girl called Amrita who is here on pilgrimage from Bombay with her family. She spoke wonderful English and as we made our way up the mountain in fits and starts we struck up a really good conversation.

Dan: Lessons I have learned today: never go hiking in thermal underwear...! It was very cold this morning, but being able to stay in bed till 9:00am made it worth it... The walk up the "hill" at Chopta was rather steep - Chopta is at 3000m, and when we reached the top, we'd climbed another 1000m to a height of 4000m. Karin, being the super-woman she is, decided to go bush and hike cross-country up the last 300m or so - by the time I reached the top, I was too shattered to do anything but collapse for 5 minutes. But when I recovered, and looked around, I was spellbound.
We've been seeing glimpses of the Himalayas for a few days now, and at Badrinath, a few peaks were visible.
But here.. we were surrounded by them. It was magical - the sort of views you see on posters or something, and think, "Wow"...

 
The view from Chadrosila
 
Karin: The view from the top of Chadrosila was breathtaking. We had a glorious panorama of the peaks of Kedarnath (6970m) Chaukumba (7070m) to the North and North West and the more distant peaks of Trishul (7120m) and Nanda Ghuti (6310m) to the east. We sat on the top and talked philosophy and spirituality with Amrita before making our way down in the gently fading light of the late afternoon.  We made it back to our camp down in Chopta some time before Amrita, and struck up a conversation with her father who was a professional painter in Bombay. He showed us his sensitive depictions of the mountains of Kedarnath and the shrine of Tungnath that we had passed on our way to the top. When Amrita returned, we agreed that we would try and meet up with them for the final event of Diwali to be held down in the valleys in a town called Haridwar, not far from Laxman Jula. We exchanged contacts and waved them off as they set off for their long drive down to the valleys. That night we ate again by the light of the tilly lamp and made plans for the next day and our return to Laxman Jhula.


Karin and Dan at top of Chadrosila


A barely visible Dan and Amrita at the top 

Dan: When we arrived back at the bottom, we had some difficulty understanding the plan for tomorrow. It sounded like the driver wanted us to leave at 5:00am the next morning, but we wanted to confirm this, just in case we got ourselves up early and found he was still asleep.
We got Amrita's father to translate, and found that thuis was right - we had another hill to climb tomorrow, and we had to start early and finish early so that we would be well on the 7-hour journey back to Laxman Jhula before it got dark.

Dan: Today was pretty much an uneventful day.
We were resting before starting our Himalayan trekking tomorrow, so we spent the day wandering around town, checking emails, and exploring.

The suspension bridge called Laxman Jhula was built in 1929 when the original bridge was washed away in a flood.
Apparently, it's wide enough to carry a jeep, but I suspect they mean some sort of small 1930's era jeep, as there is no way you'd get a car on it today!
What's funny, is that the bridge is used by people, cows, and motorcycles.
Because the bridge is always packed with people, the motorcyclists have to continuously beep their horns until people clear out of the way.
Back in the UK, if a motorcyclist did this to you, you'd think them quite rude (and would possibly do what I do, which is get even more in their way!) but over here people take it in their stride, and it's all pretty easy going.

I must admit, I'm starting to get into my stride here – the stress and "got to keep going all the time" attitude (that I picked up in the UK after my last 18-month project) seems to be dropping away, and I'm starting to really relax.

The bridge really is something to behold – the Ganga is quite wide at this point, and the bridge sways with the movement of the people on it.
On the east bank (the side on which the village is on) there are two temples next to bridge – in fact, the standard photo of Rishikesh that people see is actually a photo looking across this bridge towards the two temples.

 
Looking south, and then north from the middle of the bridge


Temple located to the left of the bridge


German Bakery and Cafe located next to the bridge

The hotel we're staying up is up a pathway from the main road, and is about halfway down the main road of the village.
Looking left and right down theroad you can see lots and lots of little shops selling clothes and scarves and jewellery, with a smattering of crisps, bottled water, and toilet paper thrown in for good measure!
There is a general store located opposite to our pathway which is useful for water, snacks, and toilet paper.

 
Looking north, and south down the main road


Looking down the pathway from the hotel to the main road - the guy sitting on the path is a snake charmer, with a very lazy cobra in the basket!


The General Store, where we buy our supplies

We unpacked Karin's laptop today so that she could get on with some work, and discovered to our annoyance that the plug for her power supply had broken – it was actually the plug that goes into the back of the laptop that had broken. I tried pushing part of it into the laptop, and then holding the other part against it, but I just ended up jamming the broken part in her laptop… ooops!
I did some research online to see if we could get a replacement part (which we an), but there's not much chance of getting one here in India.
Maybe I'll have a go repairing it when we get back – although Apple tend to use customized parts, I notice that for their power supply they use a 2.5mm stereo jack as the main portion… cool, an exciting electronics project to mull over!
The internet connectivity here is not very good - all teh cyber cafes here seem to have a 56k dial-up modem which is shard between all the computers, so updating this blog will take some time. Still, at least we're connected to the outside world, for which I'm grateful!
Part of me wonders if maybe I should spend this month in isolation from the outside world, and use it as an opportunity have some "me" time - I'll play it by ear and see how I feel.
Although Karin has work to do here, and has set herself goals for every day, I'm just here to do nothing - literally. I just need to recharge my batteries, both physically and spiritually.

It is Martin and Claire's last day here today – they went white water rafting on the Ganga and recommended it, so I think we'll give it a go after the trekking.

We all went out to dinner tonight to a local restaurant and had a lovely meal – I'll be sorry to see them go as they’ve been great company.

The evening was a lot quieter tonight – apparently we're still at the end of the Diwali festival, hence all the canting (which tends to be amplified through rather bad amplifiers, and echoes down the valley).
Tonight, however, we could hear only one or two sources of chanting, and it sounded sublime – that and the bells ringing.
The evenings here are magical, as the sun sets and it starts to cool down.
During the day it reaches 28 degrees or so, but in the evening it becomes very pleasant, and it's lovely to sit out on the terrace with a chai and look at the view.

We've noticed that every night a strong wind starts up and blows down the valley, and then stops again as the sun starts to warm the area – I'm sure this must be some sort of convection wind, but I'm don't know too much about the weather.
So far, every day here has been sunny and cloudless – just an endless expanse of blue skies framed b the tall wooded hills that make up the foothills of the Himalayas.

Karin: Today was my first full day of work and so I ripped through the room, imposing my systems on poor Daniel who is probably cursing the fact that I have slipped into efficiency mode whilst on holiday. Still, it was necessary and I now have enough structure to enable me to accomplish what I have to get done over the next few weeks.

Dan: I got the feeling that it was best for me to leave Karin alone to do her organizing, so I headed out exploring with Martin and Claire.
There was an old abandoned ashram (i.e. a temple) down the road towards Ram Jhula, and Martin was convinced that this was where the Beatles had stayed when they visited Rishikesh in the 1960s.
I'm not so sure it is - it might be, but I think the Beatles stayed at the Transcendental Meditation ashram of Maherishi Mahesh Yogi (given that I'm a TM student myself, I know his name!) which is further down in Ram Jhula. As an aside, in case you care, the town of Ram Jhula is also known as Swarg Ashram after the famous ashram there. Swarg means "heaven", and the ashram is where pilgrims who were visiting the four Char Dhams in the Himalayas woudl come and sign in. That way, if they were lost or killed, their relatives (and authorities) would know that they passed by.
Given that there were no paths or roads to the Char Dhams in those days, the journey to visit them could take 2 years or so.
2 years!! On foot! With no possessions!!! These are very dedicated people we're talking about here!

After this, we wandered into Ram Jhula, and walked across the bridge there into the market on the other side. We stopped at an Ayeurvedic Pharmacy to see what they had for malaria (just in case) - I was a bit disappointed when he gave me some insect repellant with DEET in it, which is what we bought in Britain - I was expecting some kind of Himalayan recipe, but he said that DEET was the best stuff - I'm not going to argue with that!
We also tried some little cakes from a street merchant - they looked like pancakes in syrup, and I (having a whole mouthful of "sweet teeth" (although Yes, they're all full of fillings!)) was desperate to try some. They ended up being potato cakes, served with gravy and some lentils in a leaf. It was very very yummy, but we were a bit concerned about food poisoning, so didn't finish it all.
And it only cost Rs 10 - about 12p back in the UK!

I figured it would help to give you an idea of some of uniquely Indian things we've discovered in Laxman Jhula so far...

Cows
One of the first things I remembered hearing about India is that the cow is a sacred animal. But I'd forgotten all about that until I got here.
Cows are everywhere. They're allowed to wander wherever they like – including into shops. Because they're holy animals, they're not eaten – only their milk is used.

Cow in Laxman Jhula

In Laxman Jhula, there are at least 47 cows that I've counted (I think – they're hard to count!) and this is a small village!
We're told that all the cows are owned by various villagers, but that there's not enough food for them, so they're let loose to forage.
It's always funny when you hear a jeep tearing along a road in the village, honking madly at a cow to move, and the cow just sits down in the middle of the road!
Then the driver has to get out and persuade the cow to move…
It's also quite funny when you meet a cow on the bridge, blocking it...


Cow on the bridge

Monkeys
I never realized that there are monkeys in India (actually, there are leopards, tigers, and elephants too). There are two sorts in our area – little brown-faced ones, and much larger blank-faced ones.
At first they seem very cute.


A, ahem, "cute" monkey...

But they hang around at one end of the bridge, watching for people carrying nuts or fruit, and then they come running towards you – which, if you're carrying a big bag of bananas like I was, is quite frightening! Especially when it's a big male monkey and he's hissing at you.
My (brave!) answer is to… run! Run like the wind, pushing men, women, and small children between me and the monkey so I can get to the other side of the bridge.. it has seemed to work so far, although it's not the best way to make friends with the people on the bridge…!

Daniel on the bridge, being eyed up by a monkey

Horns
I'd never heard so many car, truck, and motorcycle horns until coming to India. They're blaring all the time. We found out recently that the law in India is that if you hit a person or another moving vehicle, and you weren't blowing your horn at the time of impact, then you're responsible for any damage.
So, like any sensible peoples, the Indian response is to… sound the horn all the time! Or at least, it sounds like "all the time". In fact, the horn is so important, that every truck, taxi, and rickshaw has to have a "horn please" sign on the back, and every corner on the winding narrow roads in the hills has some sort of "sound your horn" sign.

Pollution
It's been very hard to get used to the amount of vehicle pollution – it's quite hard on the lungs. But besides this, everything in the villages is just filthy, at least by the pristine, "cleanliness is next to godliness" standards of the West. The roads are covered in litter, dog shit and cow pats (mostly still fresh!), Indian men will repeatedly spit onto the ground in front of them, and there are plastic bottles everywhere.
In fact, plastic waste is a major issue in India, as they don't have the infrastructure to recycle it, and yet the growing numbers of western tourists demand bottled water, so it is for sale everywhere.
In most villages we've been through, the verges of the roads are built from mounds of dirt, cow pats, and flattened plastic bottles. It's quite a worrisome sight.

Friendliness
We can't get over how everyone is so friendly. Admittedly, a lot of people just want to sell you something, but you get the feeling that everyone is sincere, and would help you out if you needed it. There's a special sort of energy that is created when a community is like this, that we just don' get back home.

Initial impressions
I have to admit, Laxman Jhula is not what I'd imagined.
In my imagination, we would be staying in a village with a total population of about 30 people – and it would be peaceful, serene, and tranquil.
Laxman Jhula is anything but – and yet, it is a lot quieter than Rishikesh and Ram Jhula.
During the day there is the constant sound of horns and people shouting, selling their wares, and in the morning and evening the monks at all the temples start chanting and ringing bells – which would be pleasant if there was only one, but when ten are doing it, it creates a mish-mash of sounds that is pretty grating on the ears!
Don't get me wrong – in no way am I complaining. I'm just saying that back in England, when I read that the area around Rishikesh was very spiritual and was good for yoga and meditation, I had a Western view of what that mean – in England (or NZ, USA for that matter), when you think of going somewhere to do some meditation, or yoga, or just some contemplation, you imagine something that is the antithesis of where you currently are – and most likely, where you currently are is busy and noisy.
So I have to come to grips with the fact that a spiritual place, India style, is not what I'd pictured.
At least from what I've seen so far.