India... or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Armpit of the World

That was the title of my journal the last time I came to India. I’ve been in India for about a week, now, and it’s as crazy as ever. Although I’m far better equipped this time than the last, which is good! I had forgotten about the smells and the feeling of breathing the dense and humid air, which surprised me because it had stayed with me for months after coming the last time. But it hits you like a brick when you get off the plane, no other place I’ve been has such a distinct feeling to it. It’s simultaneously intoxicating and smothering, and wonderful. Surely the most chaotic place on Earth is somewhere within India’s borders, and yet there is such a rhythm and order to it’s chaos. Yes Andrew, I still love it as much as the first time!

I arrived in Delhi, and spent several days here exploring again, and adjusting to the weather and food (yum). As I mentioned before I tried to get a Pakistani visa in South Africa which was proving difficult, and I kept having the feeling that I would somehow be hurt if I were to go straight there, so I stopped trying, and bought a ticket to India, with the intention of trying from here. Once in Delhi, I decided that I just shouldn’t go at all, and instead headed towards the Himalayas in northern India.

The first stop was Amritsar, famous for the Golden Temple, which is truly amazing, and a great experience. The complex is pretty large, but the temple itself is fairly small, and floating in the middle of a sacred pool/lake. Accommodation and food are free to everyone, so I stayed there which is a nice experience too. They estimate that about 30,000 meals are served per day at the temple. You get a plate and bowl outside and then head into the huge dining hall, and line up in rows on the floor, and wait for the servers to come by with big buckets of dal, rice and chapatis.

The people at the temple, especially the Sikhs, are so incredibly and genuinely friendly, some of the nicest people I have met in India. Everyone wants to talk to you, and tell you about their religion, but not wanting anything in return, which is refreshing here. I would try to sit down and just look at the temple and watch people go by, but within minutes I would have at least 3 people around me talking and asking questions. One was an older man, who was really interesting and interested in my life at home, so I talked to him for quite a while. He is from Bombay, which he insisted is identical in everyway to Los Angeles, New York or Paris. To go between them, you wouldn’t notice the difference, according to him. Um, yeah, if you ignore the cows, rickshaws, goats, shit, and open sewage then I guess there’s a slight similarity. But even then, I’m not so sure.

I also met several people that had just come from Pakistan, which was causing me grief at my decision not to get the visa in Delhi, being that I was about 30km from the border and could now go so easily! I did go to the border one evening, to watch the border closing ceremony, which is spectacularly absurd. Both sides flaunt their power and might, stomping around. Being so close to the country didn’t help my situation, so I decided to head back to Delhi and apply for the Pakistan visa there.

So, Friday morning I applied, and Saturday morning I was shaken awake by an earthquake, which has devastated a lot of the villages in the north, where I was headed. So now it’s Monday, and I’m not sure what to do! My visa should be ready by now, but is it still safe and practical to go? I can’t get enough specifics yet, it may take a while to assess what's open and what's damaged.

Although we felt the earthquake in Delhi it didn’t do any damage here, but I’ve realized how close I came to being in the hardest hit areas, twice actually. Had I flown direct from South Africa to Pakistan, I would have been right near the epicenter on Saturday. Then, once in India, had I gone to Srinigar as I had planned instead of coming back down to Delhi I would have been there on Saturday, also hard hit by the earthquake.

While back in Delhi I went with a group of people to see the big film of the moment here in India, Salaam Namaste. I love their films and the tackiness that sells in India. If you want an idea of the movie and it’s soundtrack (a lot of the popular songs in India at any given moment are songs from the movies that are recently out) click here:

http://www.dishant.com/album/salaam_namaste.html

I hear these songs everywhere, blaring out of rickshaws, stores and homes.

Other than that, I’m off to figure out what to do next. Maybe I’ll just sit in Delhi and wait for the natural disasters to subside. And finish reading the DaVinci Code, which I finally broke down and started reading. I resisted it for so long, I hate thrillers, and even more than that I hate ‘sensations’, so it’s popularity alone was putting me off. But I have to admit it’s pretty entertaining.

Most importantly, my good friend Lori Guidroz, who is from New Orleans, has been working on fund-raising for victims of Hurricane Katrina, and is doing amazingly well. Please visit her site, and consider a donation, she’s got widespread support from the likes of Ellen DeGeneres and InStyle magazine, and needs more help! http://www.whatitmeans.org

And see the picture of me that I attached in Zanzibar which Mark and Sarah were kind enough to email me!

Much love to you all, I hope you are all happy and safe!

Wes

I took a bus from Nairobi to Johannesburg and all I got was this Wimpy Burger

Mozambique... the land of endless beaches and endless bus rides... Mozambique is actually 2 countries in my opinion. The north and south have nothing to do with each other at all; different landscape, different people. The north is relatively untouristy, and has mostly bumpy dirt roads. It took me 2 days (and almost 3) to get from Blantyre in Malawi to the tiny island, Ilha de Mozambique, which is pretty fantastic... slightly reminiscent of Havana without the old cars. The Portuguese ran the country from here when it was a colony, and now most of the old buildings are faded and crumbling, beautifully. You can walk the length of the island in about 20 minutes, and it's only about 4 blocks wide. I decided to check out the diving while I was there to see if there was anything nice up in the north. I found a dive shop, and went in to inquire, and after spending a couple of minutes asking the guy questions, with him nodding yes or no, I finally posed the ultimate question... 'Do you speak English'? Unfortunately he didn't, and smiled sheepishly at my realization that he had no idea of what I had been asking him, and so just randomly said yes or no. I took that as a sign to definitely not put my life in the hands of anyone even slightly connected to that dive shop. The first day there I also met a slightly crazy but really nice guy that lived on the island and invited me to his house for lunch. He was a policeman, but being that there isn't much need for them on the island he was currently unemployed. At his house he showed me his few prized possessions - a book on karate and a book on judo, both of which he was obsessed with, and had owned since he was a kid. The karate book had pictures of Chuck Norris and Axl Rose taped inside. I guess he has it all this kid, who needs much more than a beautiful island, karate, and Axl Rose?

I spent several days on the island, not doing much of anything but eating and relaxing, and dreading the bus rides ahead... Mozambique is huge, and it takes a couple days to get anywhere, especially in the north. 2 days later I was in Quelimane, which apparently had a nice beach nearby (Zalala). I don't know what happened to it, but it was possibly the worst beach I've ever seen. The water was shit-brown, and it didn't look like sand or dirt, but like, well, sewage. So the next stop was Vilankulo, another 2 days south, for some incredible beaches, islands, and scuba diving.

Unfortunately September is the worst time to be in Mozambique weather-wise, as it's incredibly windy, ruining a day at the beach, and totally destroying the diving conditions. The Bazaruto Archipelago is a chain of 3 islands and beautiful coral reefs that has been designated a National Marine Park, and is apparently amazing in the right season. There may have been some amazing things down there but we had about 3 meters of visibility and could hardly see our hands in front of our faces. The water was incredibly rough, very strong current and a lot of surge, which left me puking after the first dive, and during the second dive. I'd been told by my instructors in Zanzibar that you can puke through the regulator underwater and that all will be fine, but putting that into practice is a little frightening. Apparently it attracts fish, but I can't imagine that anyone who is throwing up underwater is paying attention to the fish right at that moment. Luckily I was very near the surface, and so just came up and did it there. In diving you are always paired with a buddy, and unfortunately mine didn't realize why I had come up, and swam right through my puke as he came to see what was happening. He wrote that down as a highlight in his dive log book. Above water, on the other hand, was amazing. Bazaruto Island is beautiful, with large sand dunes shooting up out of the water, and it was a gorgeous sunny day.

Vilankulo itself was an ok place, although that was my introduction to southern Mozambique, wehre South Africans predominate and everyone is far more geared towards tourism. Lot's of little boys trying to make money off you in any way they can, including stealing it from you, which nearly happened to me in the market. As I was looking at a fruit stand several boys were standing right behind me, trying to make it feel more crowded than it was so that their touching me wouldn't be so weird, but I saw through their little game and turned around and threatened to smack the shit out of them if they didn't get away from me, just in time to see one of their hands dangerously near my pocket.

The upside of the tourism is that the roads are paved and well maintained (for the most part), which I definitely needed at this point. I think I'm starting to do permanent damage to my ass, it really really really hurts. I've taken over 30 buses now, and it's starting to show. As much as I liked Ilha de Mozambique, I was left wondering if it was worth the hassle in the end, as it was the only thing that I liked north of Vilankulo, and it was a long 4 days of bus rides between the two.

On the bus ride to Vilankulo I met 2 girls that are working as divemasters further south in Praia de Jangamo, and they invited 4 of us to come visit them there, which we did. Jangamo was excellent, and only reachable if you have your own 4 wheel drive car, so we were all lucky to have our friends there to pick us up at the bus station in Inhambane. Everyone except me went straight out diving the next morning - I wanted to rest and relax, what's the rush? All of them came back raving about their best day diving EVER. They saw humpback whales and dolphins on the way out, then a whale shark which they jumped in and played around with a bit, plus several manta rays, sharks, and supposedly a dugong during the dive. Bad luck for me! I didn't end up diving with them at all, but my next stop was Tofo, which is close and uses some of the same dive sites, so I was later able to visit the infamous Manta Reef.

The diving off the coast of Tofo and Praia de Jangamo is truly spectacular... beautiful coral and sea life, and especially good for large fish. I got really close to GIGANTIC manta rays, a reef shark, and countless other amazing fish - by far the best diving I've done yet. Most everyone else saw whale sharks at some point, and a lot of them got to get out and swim with them, but I wasn't so lucky. It's not the season for them now, but in another month or so you'll see about 10 of them everytime you head out to a dive site. It is humpback whale season however, and I saw plenty of those, which was excellent as well. Several of the divers that I was with had plastic underwater cases for their digital cameras, which I was insanely jealous of. I didn't know that they made them, but they work really well, and can go down to 30 meters, and they were taking relatively good pictures underwater. Next time.

I had planned to go to Maputo (capital of Mozambique), but the owner of the place I was staying in Tofo was sending his girlfriend down to South Africa to get supplies, and offered a few of us a ride to Nelspruit, so couldn't resist that, and really wanted to get to Madagascar sooner! She wasn't that happy to drive, so I ended up driving her 'bakkie' most of the way. A bakkie, I gather, is any sort of 4 wheel drive truck-ish type of thing, and also, a stupid word. It was a fun experience, driving on the left side for the first time, which wasn't nearly as hard or confusing as I had thought it would be. Just gotta watch for those right turns.

Anyway, I decided that I didn't really love South Africa, and am going to skip it for the most part. I'm sure there are parts that I would like, I would love to see Cape Town, and a lot of the coast, but it's a lot more expensive here than where I've been the last few months, and certainly more than India, and I'd rather spend my money in those places at the moment. It also just doesn't feel that interesting after the places I've just been... it's really... modern. More so than you would expect. I'm sure I'll come back some day, maybe do a trip through here and Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and more... but for now, moving on.

I've been in Johannesburg for a week now, trying to make further plans. I'm way out in a suburb of Jo'burg called Fourways, and all that is out here is a huge mall, where I've spent almost everyday this week, eating passable veggie burgers at Wimpy's, and watching the South African version of "The Apprentice". I hate to spoil the ending for those that will later rent the dvd when it comes out, but it was a tie... both of the finalists won, and each got a job.

Flights to Madagascar are pretty expensive considering how close it is, and I would still have to fly on to India after that, so not doing that anymore. Tried hard to get a visa to Pakistan, and couldn't work that out either. So, later today I fly to Delhi, and the Indian part of the journey begins sooner than I had expected! I did get a chance while I was in town to improve my minibus skills. I had noticed that in most countries they have an elaborate system of hand signals to determine where people are going - holding up a certain number of fingers, pointing at the sky with 2 fingers, shaking a fist at the ground, etc, but I actually took the time to learn a couple of them in Johannesburg, which got some laughs from the drivers.

I can hardly believe that the African part is over, I've grown really used to it and the way of life here, and I will definitely miss it, and certainly be back. I could easily live here if I had a purpose. What were the highlights? I've described a lot of them to you already, but I know this question will be asked repeatedly, so... The gorillas in Rwanda, Kigali, most of Morocco, Zanzibar, Nkhata Bay, Tofo. Everything in fact. I feel like I haven't done all that much, but then look back at the places I've been in the last 5 months, and everything that I've seen and learned, and am so grateful to have had this opportunity. I can even find some appreciation for Uganda, which frustrated me greatly at the time. I'm sure if I went back it would seem the same as everywhere else, it was probably myself that I was struggling with then as I tried to get my bearings in East Africa and learn the ropes of life here. I'm even more excited to get back to India, and see how much I've changed since the first time I was there. As most of you know that was my first destination outside of the U.S. back in 2002, and while I loved it, it certainly kicked my ass. But I'm bigger, stonger and badder now, and I'll kick the shit out of any little fucker that tries to give me a poisoned cookie.