Kurt Archer

Well after a serious infection of writers blog, I have recovered and ready to reveal some exciting updates from my end.

Since my previous post, I’ve travelled past Mumbai, Hyderabad and have now landed in Bangalore.

Some highlights include:

Mumbai traffic is scary. As is their mass public transport system. As I was leaving Mumbai by train from the AIESEC Interns flat towards central, I was caught up in a sea of people, and all I could do was flow with the crowd and hope to get on a train. Thatwas the easier part. As I left the train, I had old men looking at me with buldging eyes and pushy hands shouting go, go GO! I did not understand their urgency until the train came to a stop and the sea became a two way waterfall. Yes, try and imagine that, a sea of people trying to gush out of the train, while another sea tries to gush its way in. Unlucky for them, I have two large bags, one straped in front and one behind, and in a rambo style move, I leap. Yes, LEAP towards the exit of the train to see terrified men trying to scurry out of the way. If freedom ever tasted sweeter, it was after burst forth from this maze that I savoured in it. Now I realize why so much money was spent in Delhi to ensure the same style of mob movements do not occur with their metro. Crazy!I have crazier stories about cab drivers trying to rip me off, but maybe ill save that up and tell ALL of them in one go, since haggling with Cabs and rickshaws seems to become the highlight of all my trips.

Aside from the traffic Chaos, Mumbai was good as usual, aside from the ear infection (i have not had an ear infection since i was 4! yea, got me too.) I got to see the best and worst of the city, dined at Leopolds, ran into Shahid again, ate with the bollywood stars, chatted with some highly articulate beggars, and caught up with great friends. So it was good, but being ill really dragged me down, and it was here that writers block kicked in. The train to Hyderabad seems to have dawned a found energy in me.

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Ranthambore was beautiful, and I got to hear amazing stories about the tigers, the old Mughal and Raj wars for the fort, and how a community mobilized to help save the tigers who were fast going extinct due to rich Poachers from Delhi and China who collected Tiger skins. It has now become a major tourist spot for locals and foreigners looking to spend time at the beautiful park.

After returning back to Delhi, I heard news of the 5 bomb blasts in Delhi, in places that I had personally walked by only 2 days before. That was a bit of a shocker, and my heart goes out to those affected. Bomb blasts have become a matter of everyday life for people in Pakistan and India, with extremist groups trying to rouse attention, and Media going crazy selling so many papers and making the radicals famous, no matter the tragedy, somebody profits. That’s how people are these days, they want to know everything in an instant.

From Jaipur, I left for Ajmer and again stayed in an AIESECers home, I enjoyed myself as I got to talk to the family (who were Sufi) about Sufism, Reiki and the like. I even got a chance to visited Pushkar while I was there, and got tricked into performing Pooja, for a price you see. Pushkar was beautiful, and well worth the visit, would have spent more time there, but had to return and prepare a presentation about DAMU to a class of 70 boys from Mayo, one of the top secondary schools in India. The presentation was great, and the depth of their question was incredible. I’m looking forward to doing more presentations at schools.

From there, this takes my journey to Baroda, in an overnight train in rainy weather. Needless to say, I woke up feeling a bit sick for the first time on my trip. Baroda is nice though, got to see the movie: Rock On! A Hindi version of a Hollywood film about 4 musicians who meet up after years of breaking up. I also met a cool American guy at the trainee flat I am staying in, yes, I mean it, he’s cool! Jokes aside, we had some great discussion about politics, war, terror, religion, music, hip/hop dance and travels. Was great to share experiences and meet someone well cultured and relaxed as him.

That’s all for now folks, stayed tuned in later as my journey goes into the heart of Mumbai and beyond to southern India.

Since McLeod Ganj, I now find myself amidst the Gujarati riots in the city formally known as Baroda ( I have a hard time pronouncing Varodera, as it seems many people living here do as well). Much has happened on my journey, from visiting holy people in mazars, to saving tigers, dodging bomb blasts, catching up with old friends and seeing some amazing environmental initiatives that are happening in India. I’ll recount some stories now.

We left McLeod Ganj without having seen the Dalai Llama, we did however enjoy the Tibetan food and even took a couple classes in Yoga, damn that gets the energy flowing, never felt so great, I hope to continue classes throughout Asia, or at least on my own in the mornings. The bus to Delhi wasn’t too exciting, we broke down for an hour, but hey, this is India, no worries

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The journey began in Amritsar with Shahid insisting on meeting up with these girls we met at the temple, who did not speak a word of English. Lovely ladies though. This primal distraction lasted till about 4 p.m. after which we went our separate ways and returned to Guru Ram Das, where we were staying during our visit there. We got caught up in a conversation with an Australian lady who was bicycling with her boyfriend across India and shared some amazing stories with her. We left the hostel just after 5 and reached the station in time to take the 5:30 bus and reached PathanKot at 8:30 – after spending 3 hours cramped in a tiny noisy bus. Upon arrival we settle to eat some chana (chick peas) and the vendor tried to cleverly overcharge us! Our bus to Dharmsala left at 9:30, but because of the ordeal with the food vendor, we were held back and the bus was pulling away with us running behind it frantically. Luckily we caught up to it, as it was the last bus that evening – but it was completely packed! So for the next 4 hours I sat on my bag in the aisle with drowsy people falling onto me throughout the whole journey.

We then met Weng Lee, or Sitting on a Mountain, Watching the Sea, as is his real Korean name means. He looks like the teacher in the Karate Kid! I’m not joking, short old man long white hair pulled into a pony tail and a slim long white Asian beard only on his chin. He is a master of Tae Kwon Do, Yoga and a teacher of Psychology at Yale campus in Seoul.

So you can imagine our entourage, a burly actor, a skinny young Canadian and an old Korean master rolling into McLeod Ganj at 1:30am. We woke up an incredibly disoriented driver who took us up the hill to a virtually dead city. Everything was closed even the hotels. So for 30 minutes our trio combed the quiet streets of McLeod Ganj. We finally ran into an Irish lady huffing down the street with a very drunk British boyfriend in tow. They invite us to their hotel, which turns out to be locked and 30 minutes or so later trying to wake someone up to get in finally succeeds, but is short availed as the manager apologizes for not being able to give us a room. So the trio gets invited to stay with the couple… cramped on the floor of their tiny apartment room. Weng and Shahid were on the floor and I was on the bed beside the drunken boyfriend. By 6 a.m., the sun comes up and Weng is  already awake, using his magnifying glass to read some book before he takes off into the day. That was about the same time that boyfriend tries to cuddle with ME! So pushing off a drunken man when trying to get some rest proved impossible, so I moved in place of Weng and awoke a few hours later, well rested.

Even with the entire struggle, it was well worth it, McLeod Ganj is a paradise! Wait up for my next post for more details.