I can't think of anything, India.

January 2 Inconvenience Caused Is Deeply Regretted.
Sitting at Gorakhpur Train Station. Waiting. Our train is delayed by a couple of hours, although others are delayed by up to twenty, so it's not to bad. There was a derailment somewhere and there has been super thick fog over the last five days so delays are to be expected. Plus, it's India, like I said, delays are to be expected. We went to The Niru's fine residence for dinner on (Western, not Nepali) New Years Eve (just to clarify, cause I'm not sure that I have, Niru runs the trekking company we used and has known Anthony's father for years, he's awesome. Adventure Geo Treks plug). To get there we were driven through the wealthyish parts of Kathmandu which are quite nice but still have that rundown, dirty Kath charm which makes for some unusual buildings at times. Niru's home is very big and very nice, likewise with the dinner. He just keeps piling it on your plate, until you physically have to stop him. Once again I was pointlessly overfull in a starving third world country. Spent the first day of 2009 mildly ill, with Anthony much worse. We have a suspect, needless to say only whole, fresh coconut from here on. That's Nepal pretty much done, a couple more days in Kath after India, before we fly out but yeah, I'm satisfied. Not sure that I'd come back either, there's more I want to do but a return is way down on the list. Francesca has gone on another trek and myself and Ant have come to India. It took another lengthy (14 hours) bus trip to get to the unsurprisingly vague, confusing yet still fairly simple border crossing, then a thrasher of a three hour bus trip to Gorakhpur. India is pretty much the same as Nepal, just dirtier and more people, and many more irritating people. There's nothing to do here in Gorakhpur, at least that's what the tourist bureau says so we just found a cheap room with a TV to kill the nine hours we have to kill before our train. Oh, actually, the train station. It was awesome. We were going to hire a retiring room, to do so you have to fill out a lengthy form and the woman was a massive bitch and clearly didn't want to help us. Conversation went as follows:
Woman: What is your name!
Anthony: Anthony.
Woman: What is your fathers name!
Anthony: Anthony. (because it is)
Woman: What is your name!
Anthony: Anthony.
Woman: What is your fathers name!
Anthony: Anthony.
Woman: Then what is your name!!
Anthony: Anthony...
Woman: What. Is. Your. Fathers. Name!!
And so on. Delight.



January 3 Background Noises And Stuff Like That. Horns, Perhaps?
The fifteen hour train from Gorakhpur to Haridwar was pretty comfortable. You get your own berth, even in the cheaper (but not cheapest, they're the sardine in tin thing) classes and it's pretty comfortable so pretty much slept the journey away. The rail network is really good actually, other than not knowing what station you're at and the difficulty in buying tickets it's wonderful, thank you, England. Haridwar is pretty nice, and we're out of Uttar Pradesh, which is always good. It's a big pilgrimage site, but not really this time of year, we will explore tomorrow. Wasted the night away watching HBO.


January 4 Gone Beard Go.
Spent the day exploring Haridwar. This is where the Hindu's sacred Ganges River emerges from the Himalaya, so it's a big deal and still cleanish (can't wait till Varanasi). Went to the Har-ki-Pari (Footstep of God) which is a ceremonial bathing Ghat where Vishnu is said to have left a footprint. Basically, Hindus come and strip to their underwear or less and bathe in the river, which is cold and moving rather quickly (there are chains for them to hold on to, especially in monsoon). Loads of Sadhus, 'donation' collectors (no), monkeys and deformed folk about so people watching was fun. It's actually a really nice spot and quite interesting. Also went across the river to the huge and very impressive statue of Shiva. The thali man across the road has made regulars of us. Bananas and Chapatis, as always. Good times.


January 5 Stop! Thief! Cow! Banana!
Discovered the best tea dipping biscuits this morning, nothing like further perfecting a routine. Had a hour bus to Rishikesh, except it took a half hour thanks to an outstanding if not overly aggressive driver. Loves the horn he does. Took hours to find a hotel as we're picky price wise and Rishikesh is spread over a fair number of kilometres. Rishikesh is the self declared "Yoga Capital of the World", you can just imagine the Westerners who come here right? It's quite funny actually, they won't look you in the eye as seeing another pale faced Westerner ruins the authenticity of their trip. Not exaggerating, barely anyone returns your greeting, despite my exceedingly pleasant demeanour. The harder they're trying to fit in (and it's hilariously obvious and they end up standing out even more) the more they go out of their way not to look at you. Massive asshole vibes. On the other hand, our hotel manager is a delight and super helpful. Rishikesh is another big Hindu pilgrimage site, being on the Ganges and all, it's fairly nice, a bit more vegetation than the average Indian city, but just as much grime and deformed people. This one guy had no lips amongst other things, and was just hanging out in a pile of burnt rubber watching the world pass by. Went for an afternoon stroll to a disappointingly uninspiring temple, but it was a nice walk all the same. Saw a guy get jumped by a monkey and Anthony got almost mugged, then stalked by a cow. And you can't do anything. They're holy. Although most of them really really need to be put out of their misery. It's like the Ganges, the 'holier' a thing is, the more it has to endure and suffer. This country is rapidly choking to death.

January 7 OK, Lets Forget The Bullshit, Get Into The So Called Art.
Today blew pretty hard, slept through our 2am alarm and had to thrash to get on the 3am bus we needed so as to get to Josimath at a reasonable time. Bus was packed, as always, and most uncomfortable. It ended up taking two buses, a jeep, a lot of waiting, a decent helping of confusion and twelve hours to travel the 252km to Josimath. The road safety signs are outstanding though: "If married, divorce speed", "We like you, not your speed" and way better ones I can't remember. And nobody pays attention to them. Josimath redefines disappointing. It's the base town for "India's premier ski resort" and boy is it depressing. It's going to cost as much as twice what we were hoping and there isn't even enough snow yet (season officially starts in two days). We'll take the cable car up tomorrow and investigate, but it doesn't look good. This is a most depressing turn of events as snowboarding in Gulmarg (Kashmir, near the line of control with good friends Pakistan) was the main reason I wanted to come to India, and since it's currently too dangerous to go there we came here. Feeling pretty surly, despite some outstanding peanut brittle.

January 8 Can We Get Another Nail In The Coffin Of Culture Theft?
At least the weather was perfect this morning, a little snow overnight and clear as so we can go up to Auli and see if anything is going on. It isn't. It costs a massive Rs 500 (including 30% 'entertainment tax') to use the chairlift and you get jammed in with 25 Indians for 25 minutes, provided there are no power cuts. Delightful. The snow was pretty bad, the facilities are terrible or non-existent, or worse, there wouldn't have been hire gear in my size anyway. It seems wealthy Indians come up here to see snow and that's about all. Went for a walk up to a pretty nice viewpoint through some much deeper, really nice snow. Nice view of the India Himalaya, but mountains are mountains are mountains as far a I'm concerned at the moment. For some reason (invading Pakistan?) the Indian Army were learning to ski. Met an Australian family who'd made their own fun for a few days. Pretty much, we're leaving tomorrow morning and going a different way to kill the two days we've gained and so we don't have to backtrack. All good. Gulmarg would have been a lot better I'm fairly certain, but it's not worth getting stuck for two weeks through weather or a war.