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Geeks go to India...

Saturday, Jan. 10, 1:35AM
Sirsa, India (between New Delhi and Pujab)

On the road you see GIANT statues like these... like 5 stories tall.

Sorry, faithful readers, for the extended hiatus! I've been in transition, and now we are happily in India. In reply to your many concerned messages, my health is top-notch, I couldn't be happier, and after the lackluster holidays in Nepal my tummy is happiest, as Indian food kicks butt supreme and every day tastes like a holiday!!

Right now Jamey's friend is singing to us over Skype... this is so cool! Her voice is beautiful! God bless technology, which enables us to have these extra special communications with our loved ones... the other very important half (at least emotionally) of life on the road!

So anyway, back to the story. The girls returned in the late morning of our 12th day at the Nepali border, and we rejoiced, as they brought back gifts from the big city (our favorite biscuits, McVittie's Hob Nobs, along with 20 DVDs). After their most treacherous night bus yet of 20 hours, they washed up and we were off to the border. All went smooth. Crossing the border by bike was indeed so very pretty and oh-so-all-new! First we rode along top of a big dam decorated with a brand new! colorful Indian aesthetic, through forest with groves of gnarly, pretty, Legend of Zelda-looking new! trees, I noticed many new species of cows -- not just black buffalos anymore! -- many horses, new varieties of big surly mountain goats, mules, and yes, Camels! It's mind-blowing how Nepal seemed to consist solely based-on a tiny gene pool with a surprising consistency and omnipresence, and immediately outside Nepal there are so many different things. We biked 15km total from Nepal to the border town where we'd catch our next night bus to New Delhi -- the girls' second consecutive. In the 5 hours we had to kill we ate a delectable and filling Indian feast with kaju burphy (cashew sweets), loaded our massive load onto the bus, and watched 1/2 of Wall-E on an outdoor DVD setup at one of the restaurants by the station. We departed at 7pm and I was wired -- excitedly chatting with Bonnie until I talked her to sleep. I somehow managed to stay-up all night (not by choice), wedged in the middle seat between a guy who kept trying to use me as a pillow and sleeping Bonnie. I wouldn't have had it any other way though, regarding sleeping in the window seat, as she deserved the rest.

Eventually (like after 2 hours) we managed to find our ride named Cab - how ironic, who had actually been waiting outside the wrong bus terminal in another part of New Delhi. It was 8am, I was too cracked out to think, but somehow we managed to walk all of our bags and bikes up to the top floor of the Grewal family's Delhi apartment building, where we drank tea, ate some breakfast, and chatted on the roof as we watched planes at the airport. Now I was pulling an all-nighter, as it was midday and I was drinking my third tea, and we had a random day of low-key relaxation, watching Hot Chick in Cantonese, going out to the market for wildly exotic and delicious (non-Nepali) groceries, using the fastest internet we've seen in 2 months for 3 hours of Flickr uploading bliss (which was still way slow by any of your standards, as well as the loud Indian-American couple next to us in the cafe, but not mine anymore!), taking an auto-rickshaw, following 10 signs for multiple kilometers on foot to buy wine and beer from a government shop, coming home to Cara's delicious home-cooked meal of chili and corn bread, drinking wine with Bonnie, hours of fixing my iPod and watching Wall-E. I slept like a baby. In the morning we brewed tall coffees, ate our delicious (western-ish) leftover chili with paneer (cheese), and we took off in the Jeep to Sirsa, a town 4-5 hours out of Delhi to the NE. Currently we are at the farm (home) of Harpal Grewal, who looks like Indian Santa and calls me Catholic Jesus.

the Grewal family farm, our home in Sirsa

As we are in the care of the Grewal family the Adventure factor has gone down a few notches, but it's sort of nice to be shuttled around comfortably, and to have this experience in the hospitality of a warm and established family. Harpal and his sons Jespal and Cab have spared no effort in including us in on all their business, taking me around town, inviting us to meet their friends, and telling us ALL about their culture, family, and beliefs. They're a trip. It's hilarious, relaxing, and fun. It's been a strange transition, albeit a very welcome and enjoyable one so far. India's a completely different world, and we're just sort of chillin with this family, eating good-ass home cooked food, which Cara and Bonnie are doing much of the preparation, while the boys do boy stuff. Everyday is interesting and different. On Tuesday I picked veggies in the field, got acquainted with some of the animals, and Harpal told us all about communicating with his cows. On Wednesday we made a ghetto badminton court, I established a wifi hot spot out of nothing (voila!), took 4 hr nap till dinner, geeked till late. Yesterday I went out with Harpal and Jespal to do errands around town and go to the market, we bought 20kilos of amazing oranges for $6, hit up some sweet shops, had a drive-by iced coffee, and enjoyed a tea with some cops at the police station. Tomorrow we will drive another 3 hours north with Cab, to his house in Chandahar (in Punjab). The goal is to relax, chill out, see stuff, do some cooking, visit new areas, enjoy Mother India.

Darjeeling Limitedtastic!

Geek alert... now for the iPod Update! Since last time, I've been 'hacking' my bulletproof iPod to save the music. I haven't cried... it's been a good way to practice my Zen. Many hours of rebuilding later (and still in progress -- I'm zeroing the drive before my 3rd attempt to save it), I should still have most of my music, minus the 150 playlists and maybe 12,000 ratings I've assigned to tracks, which are gone. Note to self: copy this data periodically to the ID3 tags, under the Comments or Grouping, if it means anything to you. It's funny how much we, as a group, freakin' love and depend on our iPods. Some may think that indulging in the technology of home may, in a way, hold you back from fully immersing in the environment around, but seriously, at the end of the day I'm freakin' immersed, even more so while doing things to my own personal soundtrack. jameyPod, caraPod, and sheepPod7 (despite his little slip-up) have proven themselves very worthy travel companions thus far, so much in fact that we've recently had the pleasure of welcoming a brand spanking shiny new Orange bonNano to the group, which her namesake picked up in Kathmandu over the holidays. This new Nano is perfect, and I instantly love it as my own after the pleasure of helping set it up chock-full of my 'borrowed' music, trip photos, and goat videos.

Besides computing, though, I'm excited for new things, namely INDIA! On the road again at 6am... which is in 4 hours. I'll try to write more regularly again so I'm not so scattered. What am I blabbering about? Good night!
 

I think my iPod just died

I am going to cry.
 

Home is Here for the Time Being

Saturday, Jan. 3, 12:58AM
Mahendranagar

Song: The Oracle Said Wander by Sufjan Stevens

Tonight around 9 I went up to the roof to do some star gazing. I was surprised to find instead a thick blanket of fog, and you could barely see the giant trees, many times taller than our hotel, towering above us like giant phantoms. I could count each and every ghostly glowing globe, 7 in all... only 7 points of light in all of this big little city. The fog isn't at all uncommon in these flat lands of southern Nepal, but I forgot. I think that I've felt so "stuck" in this town that I've forgotten to make the most of this unlikely Home on the edge of Nowhere, between Beautiful Nepal and Mysterious India.

I think that for the last few days I've had a small case of the winter blues, when the weather finally becomes all dull and cloudy, the temperature plummets, the wind picks up and you can't seem to ever stay warm enough. (Imagine taking a cold shower in the cold!) And my list of woes was growing: I was getting bored, the routine was getting monotonous, I lost my appetite for Nepali food, we were stuck in Purgatory, we our New Years went out with a nary a 'pop' but more like a 'poof'".

Hotel Sweet Dreams, our accidental home for 12 days.

Our deluxe suite was upstairs on the right, with the outdoor kitchen and 24-7 showering men just below.

Suite 115, forever burned into memory.

I was sore with another thing too. When we got word from the girls that we would be waiting an additional 4 days on top of the week we had almost finally waited-out, my heart sunk. I've already spent Christmas, a week and the Battle of Good vs. Evil with My Bowels, and New Years sitting on this bed in this hotel room. What would we do now? Feeling exasperated, we slept on it. Next morning I woke up with clear conviction: I was sick of feeling helplessly stuck in a shit place, and in the spirit of traveling I wanted to push on to India, where we could visit the Taj Mahal on the way to New Delhi, where we're eventually going to meet our friends after this fiasco is behind us. Happy again, I started scheming and making preparations... only thing I had to do was convince Jamey. I couldn't and so with a heavy heart I conceded, choosing to play it safe and stay in good ol' Mahendranagar.

I decided that if I couldn't change my surroundings then I'd have to change my attitude. So I made a couple lists to keep me going, one of Positive Things and the other "Things to Do (so I don't go Mad)". After a productive day I picked up a bottle of wine to take myself on a date, watched Howe's Moving Castle, and wrote a love letter. Today the weather was nice, I did a lot of things on my To Do list, including taking a long bike ride out into the nearby country in the sunshine. We saw many cute cows, one especially hilarious goat, a watched a 9-pack of adorable piglets chasing each other all around the yard.

An escape to the countryside, long overdue.

These last few days, as Jamey and I rode around town, hitting up all our usual spots, we were Regulars. At dusk I saw the same baby cow waiting patiently at the doorstep of its favorite shop (for food I believe!) Now I finally understand the expression about the cows coming home! It's funny to me that we have carved our own little niche in this random and unlikely little town, and how our mundane rituals here have provided, for the time being, a form of Home. On the flip side, as I was hanging my hand-washed laundry out to dry on the roof this morning I bent over and saw the oh-too-familiar surrounding skyline from upside down. Awestruck by its unfamiliarity, I was once-again reminded that I am in Nepal, and it made me very happy that this place I know so well is still an interesting and foreign place when I have eyes to see it. It's amazing how quickly you can get used to things!

As a final note, another positive thing about this week is that I've had a lot of time to think. Yesterday I was thinking about Home. And today I was thinking about Time. The one thing we have identified so far as the strongest Negative Force on our trip is dealing with any time constraints, which adds needless pressure and sucks out the fun. I don't think I would have been so impatient this week if I didn't feel like my time on this trip is running out. But is it? Do I really only have 4 months left or did I just take an arbitrary measure of it along with me? Can I go home and get more? Or do I even have to? These are the tough questions worth asking when you have time to think!
 

Lists to Keep Me Happy

Thursday, Jan. 1, 11:48AM
Mahendranagar (West border of Nepal)
1069 km

I'm in a pretty bad mood, as it's been a pretty rough week, so the only sensible thing to do is make a list of positive things I can think of about this town and my situation.

/ > Getting charged an unbelievably fair price for services. (Is it even fair at these prices?) I had a couple small errands to do yesterday: replace a broken link in my bike chain, and un-bend a hook (that attaches my bags to the bike) that got wrapped around my axl that got mangled when I went over a bump somewhere near Mugling. I went to a bike shop, pointed to the link, the guy popped it off, hammered away, fitted a new link, voila! 5 rupees! Sweet. I went to a shop that had things made of metal and showed the man my bent hook and a good one. We walked around the corner to where an old man with a hammer pounded on it until it was good as new. They didn't expect any payment, but I insisted. 5 rupees! ($0.07)

/ > Little baby cows. (I know, they're called calfs.) This town has few goats, and the ones I see are big and steal oranges from the fruit carts. But then there are the baby cows. I laugh and smile so hard when I see them, standing square in front of a store or restaurant, looking in. I don't ever see them going-in, but they stand there so mild and sweet, just looking. Incredibly adorable.

Holy baby cow, glowing tranquil

/ > The safety factor. So I'm riding around a bike the equivalent of a Rolls, and people do comment "wow, nice bike!" But I have NO worry that anyone will take it from me. We park our bikes outside many places and keep our eye on them, but we know deep in our hearts, Nobody Will Take Them. It's hard to convey this truth, but Truth it is.

/ > 20 rupee DVD rentals. They're all boot-legs but who cares.

/ > "At least we're not dead." The proverbial ball dropped last night and Jamey told me he's glad to be here with me -- better than being alone! I tried to think of a positive New Year's thought and my response was "At least we're not dead."

That's about all I can think of. Which brings me to the subject of Health... (see next Blog, "My Bowels Tried to Kill Me")
 

My Bowels Tried to Kill Me, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt

Thursday, Jan. 2, 11:10AM Mahendranagar

This week has been completely uneventful, except when My Bowels Tried to Kill Me. Jamey and I have basically been living in this hotel room, waiting for Cara and Bonnie to return from Kathmandu with their replacement passports. With all the holidays this week -- Nepali, American, and Indian -- getting all requisite Visas is taking a few more days. We've been stuck in Mahendranagar now for 9 days and counting, with 3 to go (hopefully, no more please!) before we're on our merry way to India. It's not my style to to sit around dormant and waiting, but besides taking a bike ride around town there's not much to do here. We've taken to watching many movies, so today I watched Ghandi (3 hours) and a 3-part (3 hour) CBS documentary about Silicon Valley. Not really being too Nepali, but honestly, at this point, I'm eager to move on. Now I'm so freakin' Sick of eating dal bhat, you have NO idea (yet!) We looked high and low for Nepali New Years happenings, but their New Year is in May, and it's the year 2068. Bummer.

Two nights ago we ordered Dal Bhat here at the hotel, and I didn't enjoy it at all. Something seemed off -- perhaps the overwhelming spice that I could barely palette. I slept for 12 hours. Next day I barely had any appetite (esp. for Nepali food.) I ate just a banana and samosa all day. I did my laundry, watched a movie, cleaned my bike and found a broken link on my chain, and went out to do a couple errands before the sun set. Fixed the chain at a bike shop, got some $ from the town ATM (which was closed for 2 days), then hit-up the internet cafe for a quickie. Within 5 minutes I was feeling kind of dizzy, and I remember realizing that I was supporting myself on the computer table and was too close to the monitor, so the flicker of the screen's refresh was making me nauseous, and I started to get really sweaty. I staggered to the bathroom, feeling very faint, then came back around to the front of the cafe and sat on the sidewalk. I wanted so bad to lay down, right ther eon the sidewalk, but didn't want to make a scene, so I rested my head between my knees. I was drenched, sweating through all my clothes, and I couldn't get up to go inside and tell Jamey. With my eyes wide open I Couldn't See Anything for a least a few minutes, and some people asked me if I was ok and I couldn't see them or answer. One of the guys on the street went in and found Jamey, after a few minutes I came to and we started home.

We walked at first, but I wanted to bike and get home. I was freezing (being all wet) and shivering. I don't really remember the rest of the night so well, but it involved a LOT of stomach pains, nausea, sitting on the toilet, sweating, shivering, vomiting, and I was so weak that I fainted too many times to count. It was really bad when I was doing both pooing and vomiting simultaneously. (TMI? That's the money shot tho!) This probably went on non-stop for 8 hours. Sometime after 2AM my body finally calmed down a bit, I took one of my antibiotics (apparently the wrong one) and slept for a few hours. Jamey fed me water and took care as best he could. The next morning I felt relatively better, just very weak, sore, and a bit banged-up (from the fainting). We called the Embassy to get the phone number of an English doctor, and got some advice: since there was blood in my stool, I was to go to a hospital in Kathmandu, get a lab test, and I'd have to go on an IV... not good news. I could get there in 3 ways: take a 20 hour bus ride, hire a jeep to drive me all the way (for roughly $333), or charter a flight from an airport 40km away. The hotel owner offered to take me to the medical clinic nearby, a welcome alternative, where I could get a lab test, and if needed I could go to a nearer-by hospital. I got my first Nepali motorcycle ride as a helmet-less passenger, (side note: second helmet's DON'T exist in Nepal -- when in Rome... la la) and I saw a doctor within minutes. He recommended the same meds the Doctor in Kat. did, and said the IV would only necessary be if I was severely dehydrated. Jamey did an award-winning job of making me drink at least 4 Liters of water the night before, with electrolyte pills, to avoid just that scenario. Doc said if I'm not better in a few days to seek further medical attention.

Now it's 5 days later, and I'm completely recovered. In fact, I was back to normal in 24 hours. I'll take that as a good sign for my fighting chances in trials to come. (You can hang up the phone with your doctor now, Dad!) I heard it was inevitable, and also that the first time would be the worst. I friggin' hope so! Bowels be strong! And with my new Mantra I bid you good day! (Avoid the chutney.)
 

Stuck in Nowhere (Holiday Recap)

Thursday, Dec. 26, 7:35AM
Mahendra Nagaf (West border of Nepal)
1028km

Song: Territorial Pissings, Nirvana

We did remarkably well on our push to the border by Christmas, pedaling to our limits (70-90km) every day for 9 of 10 consecutive days, leaving the last 40km for an easy Christmas Eve. The plan was to spend a couple days here in Mahendra Negaf, a decent size border town on the Nepali side, where we hoped to have some internet and a chance to rest up and relax for the holiday and before India. We are here now, relaxing somewhat, but the events leading to now were not at all as we could have anticipated.

I didn't write for the last 3 days on the road due to exhaustion. We all have been pretty sick with digestive issues (ahem), except for Cara who suffered through it earlier on the month, hence had a bit more fortitude to overcome whatever we ate, ironically, in Rihar, Village of the Year. We've had a pleasant enough journey, but the days all had a similar tune: wake up at daybreak, bike till lunch time, eat Dal Bhat, bike till dusk, check-into a tiny guest house, wash up, eat Dal Bhat, repeat.

I'm sad to report that I'm sick of Dal Bhat. This shift occurred at the onset of my illness, I guess by bad association. We were actually loving it moer and more each time, as I think my three cohorts still do, but I've just had enough. 45 days, 90 meals of Dal Bhat. Bring on the Indian cuisine!

In Rihar I stocked-up on sweets, a half kg of the yummy powdered sugar-covered ones I mentioned before, but sadly (and also due to my ill association), I couldn't eat them. As Christmas was approaching I imagined myself Saint Nick on wheels, and gave them out to the kids across the countryside whenever I stopped and they came to say Hi. I honestly can't imagine a response of any more unfettered joy, intrigue and anticipation from the kids if I was a bearded fat man with reindeer over the tall cycling American curiosity that I am. My having a small token to give made this role ever more rewarding.

Closing near the border city we called our Indian friends Cab and Jaspal to coordinate meeting up for our Northern India road trip, and got invited to accompany them to a wedding in Punjab. The only catch: we'd have to book-it, as the wedding was in 2 days (today, actually), and we would have had to cross the border on Christmas Eve and take a 12 hour night bus (which is against our rule of thumb), to meet in Delhi to head North on an 8-hour car ride with them to get there in time. It wold have been a crunch, but we decided to forgo our laid-back holiday on the border for Adventure.

Things did NOT go as expected. We arrived at the Nepali border crossing and they checked us out of the country. As we walked back to our bikes with stamped passports in hand, they shut the gates behind us. The sun set and was gone. We then had to ride 1-2km on a road that can only described as Nowhere. It was pitch black, but swarming with evening traffic. The dirt road was terrible, dangerous, uneven, rocky -- my chain fell off 3 times. This road was indeed Nowhere, as it belonged neither to Nepal or India, and we weren't yet at the Indian border, if we made it there at all. In parts, there was a worn-in dirt bike path along side of the road, but it too was harrowing, as it was only wide enough for a single bike but traffic went in both directions. Also, it was elevated, so if you fell off (which was easy for us as our handlebars have so much sway with all the baggage) you would either topple down a cascade of rocks into the river to our right, or fall 3 feet down into the craggy dirt road on the left. I was to too tired and unsteady to brave the path for long. We finally made it to the Indian border. And it was Closed.

We were stuck with no Country. The officer who needed to sign our paperwork had left for the night and lived 5km away, in India. We asked if there was any way we could get him to come back, expecting to pay a bribe (which they had to do coming-in from Indian last time), as we could not go back to Nepal. The Nepali border guy should Not have stamped us out if he knew India would be closed. But I think this is all part of the games that Immigration officers like to play, like the penalty he also charged me for not having a Departure slip (which I never got). After our pleading and explaining that this was our Christmas Eve, we had to meet our friends in Delhi the next morning to go to a wedding, and that it wasn't our fault that Nepal let us exit if we couldn't get into India, he handed us the immigration paperwork to fill out. A Christmas miracle?!

Cara cannot find her Passport. The zipper of its containing compartment was half-open, surely large enough for it to jump out, especially on that horrid road. For 2 hours we scoured the entire stretch of road by flashlight, us, the Indian police, the Nepali police. On bike, by motorcycle and Jeep. It was gone.

Since then we've spent countless hours with police, at border offices, crossing into India and then back, getting Visa extensions, putting ads on the radio, calling Embassies. Cara has to go all the way back to Kathmandu to get a new passport, and Nepali visa, and Indian Visa, and the US Embassy is closed for the next 5 days due to the Christmas holidays so we're here for a week. Jamey and I will stay here on the border with the girls' bikes and luggage, at the Hotel Sweet Dreams, which, to us, is the Ritz. (Funny, as I write this, a mouse scampers across the Carpet - yeah, we have the carpeted room baby!) Seriously, we're in the nicest suite here, I'm eating Eggs for breakfast (whoo hoo!), we have always-on power due to generators, and a private bathroom with western toilet. Funny thing is, we miss the squat toilet! I won't get into too much detail, but we've agreed that it's easier when you're squatting than sitting, and the TP is just a bother. How's that for a total 180? We got our Christmas Eve and Christmas dinners here at the hotel -- room service. And I'm getting into the habit of pressing our buzzer and ordering beers. Kick butt!

Jamey and I will spend the week catching-up on internet (it's been almost 2 weeks!), troubleshooting our problematic bike chains (which have been coming off too regularly), eating Dosas, and hopefully gong on safari in the nearby Wildlife Preserve. Bonnie will accompany Cara on the 12-hour bus journey to Kathmandu as she too needs consular services (no more passport pages), and we'll hopefully meet-up and ship out in under a week.

Can you believe, on my day off, that I was up at 7:30am? Now it's finally internet time! See you online! Hot coffee and cold showers, Anthony