Yesterday I finally got to go and do the famous bungee jump of Nepal (third highest in the world at 160m). I had to be at the bus stop at 5.45am, and I had asked the hotel manager to call me at 5.30 to wake me up. However I woke up and thought I had answered the phone, so I got up, got dressed, and walked downstairs to check the clock. It was 4.15am… Bad start.

The bus ride there was a bit dicey and we got stopped by groups of guys multiple times along the whole way who were demanding money. From what I can gather, the protesting is a result of a speech the new vice president made. He is an Indian, and he delivered his first speech in Hindi whilst wearing Indian clothing. He is bilingual and speaks Nepalese, so the people saw this as a slap in the face.

There is a lot of deep seeded conflict between Nepal and India, and the vice presidents refusal to apologise had really upset everyone as they feel India is imposing on their independence. However what has started as protesting for a cause has degenerated into people using it as an opportunity to get some cash (blocking roads and demanding cash from buses). There is a definite lawless feel to the roads outside of Kathmandu where there isn’t an army presence.

Anyway, we finally got there and parked right next to the bridge we were going to jump off. It crosses a gorge with a raging river below. The bridge is suspended 160 meres in the air, and as you walk across it, it sways. When I first looked down, it was so damn high I couldn’t comprehend actually diving off it.

The mountains around there are awesome. There’s waterfalls plummeting from the top to the bottom, the water weaving its way through channels carved in the rocks over time. It’s higher than I thought it’d be, and that first look really separated the men from the boys (and the one girl who actually did the biggest dive).

Extreme situations are funny because they strip away any facade people are putting on, and you see the real self. The American guy who was the ‘talker’ of the group went absolutely mute and kept looking from one shoe to another. Other than that, most of the people were scared, but excited.

We had a quick briefing and then it was time for the jump. It was done by weight, and out of 15 people I was the fourth heaviest at 70kg. All the Nepalese guys were in the 50’s or low 60kg’s. One guy was 48kg. They’re tiny!!!

When it was my turn, I inched my way to the edge, feet strapped tightly together, and looked down. There was a guy standing at the bottom and he was a speck. There was nothing below me or around me, I was out on the platform with only a rope tied to my ankles. Adrenaline seeped through my stomach and through my arms and legs, and they felt like jelly. At this point I started to really feel the anxiety and my heart was beating out of my chest. I put my arms out to the side, waved to the camera, and did a big superman jump off the edge.

For the next 3 seconds I couldn’t think, process, breath or react. It was just an eternity of sheer terror, like the body can’t believe you’re continuing to fall towards the ground. All I felt was fear fear fear. You fall, then you fall, then you keep falling. The feeling was so extreme it was like I couldn’t take it. I bounced back up and my brain kicked into gear and it was the most incredible rush I’ve ever felt and I can’t compare it to anything else. I bounced a few times and I was just muttering “omg omg” over and over, and laughing to myself. It was indescribable, exhilarating, and overwhelming.

The 160m climb back up the mountain was a mission and I made friends with one leech, though our friendship was fleeting. I wanted to do it again, so second time around I did the giant swing. The swing has a longer free fall, but it isn’t as intense. I would describe the bungee as more terrifying and the swing as more fun. You can see everything around you, and you jump off the edge rather than dive.

The DVD is going to be developed today, and I will upload it to youtube as soon as I can (probably tomorrow).

If you ever get the chance to do a big bungee jump, DO IT. It’s now one of my favourite life memories and every time I think of it, I smile and shake my head. SOO awesome.

The bus ride home was intense and there were constant groups of people (over 100 each time) burning straw vice presidents. There was so much fire that the smoke was thick in the air. Some of the straw presidents were 3 metres high and lit in the middle of the road. Hopefully the situation gets resolved, because seeing little kids running around holding flaming straw is crazy to say the least.

I’m feeling a bit lonely today because I’m struggling with the constant light conversations with people. I’ve met a few Europeans, but none whose first language is english. It’s not that I want d&m conversations, but when language is a barrier, humour is lost without the context. I haven’t really laughed properly with anyone - all my humour back home is stupid random jokes and I haven’t found anyone who gets it yet, and laughter is the rhythm of my soul. I’m looking forward to seeing Shane and Nicola next week.

Today I went for a walk to a place called Patan which is about an hour away from where I am staying. There are great markets there and it is so cheap that I could fill a suitcase worth of stuff for less than $100. Belts, watches, clothes, shoes - were only a few dollars - it’s crazy. It makes me laugh how ripped off we get back home. The west has really mastered the art of separating form from function, and convincing us that a piece of clothing can be worth 100 times its value because the shape or design is different to something else. When I get back, I might get into branding - it’s at the heart of the capitalist spirit.

The sky was clear today and I had a perfect view of the surrounding mountains. They were a misty blue as though I was looking at them from underwater. The mountains refracted with the heat waves and hazy pollution which the sun was cutting through giving it a dreamy appearance, like a fish bending underwater when the rays of light shine down.

On the way to Patan I saw the really poor side of Kathmandu. People here are so poor that I wouldn’t know where to start in trying to explain how much we pay for things in Australia. Heaps of people I talk to are super impressed that I can drive a car, and that my parents can too. A guy I was talking to at my hotel ( one of the staff members) was interested in hearing about Australia. I told him that houses cost over $1,000,000 and we have to work incredibly hard all our life just to pay it off. I was talking about ‘living to work’, how Australians don’t see their families enough because we do such long hours, stressed out in peak hour traffic - the whole shebang.

I was cruising along nicely on my bandwagon when he interjected and asked how many hours we work on average. I told him I worked about 10 hours a day but then I had 2 hours travel time on top.

He told me that he worked 16 hours a day (6am until 10pm), 6 days a week, and that he rode his push bike to get to the hotel because there was no way he could ever afford a car. Then, when he got his annual holiday, he went back to his local village and worked in the rice fields to help out his family. He got married 10 days before but hadn’t had a honeymoon because he couldn’t afford it and couldn’t get time off work.

I shut up pretty quick after that and I don’t think I’ll be complaining about Australian life to anyone else in Nepal or India. It has made me think a lot about the bigger questions in life, but the two main ones are:

1) How lucky we are to be born white, into money, education, and a safe country like Australia. It’s made me realise that no matter how hard I work, or how much I seize the good opportunities which present themselves, I’ll never ‘deserve’ the good fortune I have. It’s just luck that there are opportunities in front of me. Some people choose to grab those opportunities and some people don’t grab them. The critical point is that the opportunities are there in the first place. The fact I can go to SEEK and there’s thousands of jobs paying good money is incomprehensible in a place like Nepal.

For some bizarre reason I was born into priviledge when most of the world is born into a pit of inescapable struggle. Most of the world works hard - harder than I ever will, and they’ll never get anywhere because there isn’t an opportunity for them to be successful. Most people remain the proletariat and never really earn much more than they produce. Back home I get paid for ideas, and if an idea can make someone money then I can earn a lot of money. Most of those ideas come from a long history of education which taught me to think. But when you live in a shithole and shift dirt all day, or beg, there’s no escape - the value of your labour is always restricted. I’ve realised what an incredible arrogance it is to think you deserve your success and other people who ‘fail’ don’t deserve it. It’s purely luck.

I’m not trying to take anything away from people who work hard and are successful - I respect that totally and one day I hope I can be successful too, I guess I’m just realising the full extent of how lucky I am - people always say it, but it’s the first time I’ve actually experienced it.

If it comes down to luck and chance - I ended up as Daniel in Sydney and someone else ended up as Deepak in an Indian slum - what does that say about purpose and meaning? If it is just ‘chance’ and I exist for no other reason than a random chain of events causing atoms to arrange in a certain way, do our lives have any meaning/importance? And I don’t know what’s worse, the notion of chance or fate - you can’t control either, but at least fate makes you think there’s some rhythm to the madness. Chance is like rolling the dice and relinquishing any power we believe we have.

Even if there is a purpose, how can we justify our good fortune versus other people’s misery?

Do we just gain meaning through relationships?

If we don’t have relationships, do we not have meaning?

We believe that life has an inherent value but when you look around here, it makes you wonder. I know this is a rant but it’s a hard thing to come to terms with coming from Australia to here. When I go for walks here and see desperate people living in piles of feculent rubbish, eyes hollow and scabs covering their bodies, I don’t get it and it doesn’t make sense.

2) The second thing the conversation made me realise is that although I concede that most of the world works harder than I ever will, and I’m insanely lucky to be Australian, how do I reconcile the fact that I wasn’t happy doing what I was doing back home despite my privilege? I don’t know what’s worse: to have nothing and hope for everything, or to have everything and feel like you have nothing (hopeless). Even if you know you have everything, you can still feel unhappy because it’s not enough.

I’ve found that the people here who have nothing have a kind of complacent simplicity and acceptance of their fate (or chance - which suggests they’re just unlucky) and I envy that.

How can you reconcile not feeling satisfied when you have more than virtually everyone else? I should be satisfied but I wasn’t, and in 7-8 months I’ll be back doing the same thing - working, eating and sleeping through life and I wonder if after seeing how shit the rest of the world lives, I’ll change my state of mind and view things differently. In the end that’s all happiness is - a state of mind. You can be happy in any situation, and it’s not situations which make life good, it’s perspective.

The more you have, the more you want, right? I guess this is the key question I was asking before I left, and although I know the theoretical answer, I want to be able to put it into practice. It’s easy to be happy when you’re gallivanting around the world on a credit card, but somehow I need to change my state of mind for when I come back, so hopefully the trip helps with that.

Anyway, I’m going to go have a beer

Well my plans fell through today. I decided not to walk and get the bus which turned out to be a good idea. There are political strikes going on and all the major roads have been blocked off preventing buses getting in and out of Kathmandu (lucky I didn’t walk into a protest).

Up until now these have been peaceful, but someone just told me the crowd have begun throwing stones. On the news there are crowds of people hitting sticks into fires and chanting political songs. The army is walking the streets with full riot gear on, and while it’s all precautionary, it still feels dodgy seeing the army walking around with Ak-47’s.

There are peaceful protests going on in the streets, but I have to say I’m a little nervous about the possibility of escalation. People have sticks with material wrapped around the top which I assume they will light after dark. I haven’t been able to work out exactly what the issue is, but from what I can gather it has to do with the election of the vice president. Any group of people protesting for a ’cause’ in a politcally driven and passionate way scare me. Especially in a third world country with a history of political turmoil.

So for now I’m staying pretty close to the hotel. People are saying it could get resolved today or it may last another 1-2 days. For the next day or so I will get some good reading in and relax in the sun, and hopefully everything simmers. I have the bungee jump booked for Wednesday so hopefully that route isn’t blocked off then! It’s definitely an eye opener coming from democratic Australia to here, and lying in bed listening to the outside chants is disconcerting. Why can’t everyone just get on eh?

Two nights ago I had a horrible sleep. I had a bad rash on my neck and left arm, and I was ravished without mercy from mosquitoes. There is no crazier sight than a man standing on his bed in his undies, middle of the night, holding a pillow defensively and crouching with raging eyes darting left to right, searching for the origin of the ‘buzzing’. I was actually speaking out loud “cmon you bastard, show yourself”.

I woke up in the morning and my state of mind had changed. Instead of seeing the Nepali as friendly, I saw them as annoying. I was tired, grumpy, and itchy everywhere. So I decided to set off on a mission and walked 5km to a place called Balaju and climbed into the mountains. I finally found some solitude with no one talking to me, and no sound but the crunch of my feet in the dirt. I cleared my head and had a good think about things in the simplicity of the green rolling hills.

It was over 30 degrees and I was sweating like a pig. But it felt good to get in the heat and fresh air, and listening to Powderfinger - Internationalist made me smile and think of Australia.

I walked for about 5 hours and I was absolutely spent. The heat really takes it out of you here, and my backpack was hurting my neck. I came back and had dinner with Lala and his friend, then went home and crashed.

Today I’m heading to a place called Nagarkot which is 32km east of Kathmandu. At the top (2195m), there is a lookout which has a spectacular view of the Himalaya, and on a clear day you can see Everest. The sun rises from behind the mountains and many people have told me the sunrise is a highlight of Nepal.

I’m not sure if I’m going to walk there or get the bus. 36km may be a little ambitious with a backpack, because once I get halfway, there is no turning back. Either way, it should be a good two days and I’m looking forward to doing some proper trekking.

Away

Thanks everyone for the comments. I love reading them everyday

Photos are now up on Flickr. Sorry for the low quality but it has taken me hours to upload (slow connection)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25947232@N02/

Well I got back from Chitwan National Park yesterday and it was everything I expected it to be. I woke up in the morning and we started the day riding down the river in a dug out canoe. On either side of the bank were crocodiles which was neat, but because it is monsoon season, we only saw a few as they mostly stay in the water.

Once we got to the end of the river, we walked through the jungle for about an hour to the elephant sanctuary. The walk was fun and because there’s so much rain, the grass was over 2m high. We saw tiger footprints which the guide said were from the day before, so I had my fingers crossed we’d see one on the elephant ride. The elephant sanctuary was good - basically a lot of elephants standing around.

That afternoon it was time for the elephant ride through the jungle. I had 3 Japanese tourists on my one and they spoke very little english. It was great being with them though because Japanese get very excited at the sight of anything - they were deadset snapping pictures of dragonflies.

One of my lifelong ambitions has been to do a safari in Africa, so the thought of seeing rhinos and tigers got me very pumped! The guide told us it was very rare to see either because tigers come out at night, and there are only 406 rhinos left in the park (2 had been killed for their horns in the past 3 months). After about 15 minutes of going through thick jungle, we came out into a clearing and standing out in the open were two rhinos - a mother and her baby!! The mother was huge and the baby was the cutest little thing in the world.

We rode close on the elephant and they just stood there while we watched them for about 5 minutes. The baby was running around like an uncordinated child taking it’s first steps. It was running in circles and waving its head around. I was stoked and the excitment was heightened by the Japanese laughing and smiling. Over the next 2 hours we saw deer, barking deer, spotted deer, monkeys, boar, lots of birds, and another rhino. What a day! That night a group of us went to the local restaurant for some beers though most of them were gimps so I didn’t hang around long.

The bus back was much safer but it was insanely hot - over 30 degrees and really humid. the trip took 6.5 hours and it’s impossible to read because it’s so bumpy. When I got back, my face was black with dirt from the exhaust of the trucks and all the dust blowing in the window. My shirt was covered in dirt and I was feeling pretty seedy. I bumped into Nicola and felt like a ratbag, so I went and had a shower and then met her and her friend for dinner.

We went to a middle eastern restaurant because Nicola is sick of eating Nepali food. She has been doing volunteer physio work for the past month just outside of Kathmandu working with 30 children who are seriously disabled. The stories she told me were full on, like children being strapped to chairs because they go crazy when they run around (severely autistic). Other kids have mangled arms and backs which are so deformed they just roll around on the floor. I have a lot of respect for her doing the month there because I don’t think I could handle it.

Dinner was fun and it was good to have a free flowing english conversation. However after sitting on the couches for a few hours, I had hundreds of little bites all over my neck and left arm. So we went and got a coffee and have arranged to meet on Wednesday. Thursday we’re going to go do the 160m bungee jump - well I am, Nicola will film it

I think tomorrow I’m going to do a mission in the hills for 3 days. I’m meeting a friend today who is going to show me how to meditate which I’m keen for. Then tonight I’m going to his place for dinner and to meet his family. And that’s it really! I’m uploading photos now though it has taken an hour to do 6 so I’ll probably give up soon.

Check the photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25947232@N02/

Away

Late last night I decided to go to Chitwan National Park, so I booked the bus for this morning, and jumped on it at 7am. I’m here for 3 days and I’m pumped!

From wiki:

“The Chitwan National Park is home to at least 43 species of mammals, 450 species of birds, and 45 species of amphibians and reptiles. Elephants and Indian rhinos are the largest species found in the park, but a lot of other large herbivores are found in the park, gaur, sambar deer, Indian muntjac, chital, hog deer, mainland serow, chousingha and wild boar. Three large predator species, tigers, leopards, dholes prey on them and carrion eaters like striped hyenas are also found. Sloth bears are among the main attractions of the Park. Smaller carivore species are golden jackal, yellow-throated marten, ratel, smooth coated otter, small Indian civet, large Indian civet, spotted linsang, common palm civet, binturong, small Indian mongoose, Indian grey mongoose, crab-eating mongose, leopard cat, marbled cat and fishing cat. Further mammal species found in the park are rhesus monkeys, hanuman langurs, Indian pangolin, northern palm squirrel, red giant flying squirrel, particoloured flying squirrel, Indian porcupine, hispid hare, Indian hare and ganges doplhin.

Among the reptiles marsh crocoiles, gharials and Indian python are the largest”

I don’t know where to start with the bus ride here. It takes 6 hours and the road winds precariously through lush green mountains. The scenery is breath taking and I had a huge smile most of the way. Because it’s the monsoon season here, the landscape is vivid green and mist covers the tips of the mountains. We stopped at a few little villages on the way for lunch and I met an American guy and a few British girls so we traded some war stories. Hopefully I’ll see them tomorrow.

After lunch we hit the road again and it was raining hard. The road is just wide enough to fit two trucks/buses, and everytime you pass one, the gap between vehicles is literally half a metre. Cars overtake buses/trucks by veering onto the wrong side of the road and trying to beat the oncoming traffic. It would be impossible to count the near misses because the whole trip is one big near death experience. The road is deadly, and ridiculous amounts of people die on it as buses tumble off the side of the mountain and plunge into the water below.

The first accident I saw was a truck where the front windshield had been pushed outwards in the shape of a circle - the truck had hit something and the driver’s head had smashed into it. Next was a truck which had tipped onto its side and had been abandoned.

But the greatest shock was a bus which had plowed off the road and down into the river. It was a bizarre scene and looked like it was the set of a movie. The girl in front of me said the bus had crashed on Friday night after the driver fell asleep - 14 people were killed and it had been on the Nepali news. Holy shit! It’s weird looking at that and knowing how easily it could happen to you.

The rain was coming down really hard now and the road was flooding. On our left, torrents of water were flowing down the mountain and onto the road. On our right there was a sheer drop which went down a few hundred metres into a river. We came to a crossing which narrowed, and the barrier had collapsed off the side of the mountain from the rain. The water on the road was completely covering the wheels of the bus, and there were huge potholes in the ground.

We started to crawl slowly across this secion and everyone was immediately alarmed. We were two metres from the edge and the water was pushing us towards it. Everytime we went over a pothole, the bus would lean towards the edge and it felt like any second, the left side of the bus would come off the ground. I was looking straight down, and as the bus was leaning, it felt like being on the mouse rollercoaster - that one always at the Easter show where you think you’re going to go over the edge.

The whole bus was tense and everyone was looking over the edge in fear. After seeing the bus where 16 people had died (5 days before) only 10 minutes earlier, it’s fair to say I was packing shit because there was a real possibility we were going to tumble over. I’ve never felt such a genuine feeling that I could die. The weird thing is I wasn’t scared, kind of anti climatic, though thinking about it now it was heavy.

The girl in front looked back at me and her eyes were wide - I knew this was serious. We crawled for about 30 seconds swaying frightfully, before making it across. With 10-15 minutes more rain, I don’t know how any cars could make it.

We finally got here and I’m the only person in my hotel because it’s monsoon season. Like, the only one! I sat in the food hall all alone and it was a bit creepy. But the resort is awesome - hanging trees and shrubs, long driveway, big fancy room etc. I read in the garden for a bit and the sun is very hot - about 30 degrees and high humidity.

Tonight I’m going out on a safari to see the animals of the night. Then tomorrow I’m going to ride on an elephant and go searching for the endangered one horned rhino and tigers. Stupid me forgot my camera charger so I’ll be very annoyed if I can’t find someone who has one. Hopefully I’ll get some good pics!

I have to say, I love Nepal. There is an adventure around every corner, and despite the crazy things I keep experiencing, I feel really safe here. There’s so many amazing things I can do and it’s awesome to be able to make a decision spur of the moment and go for it. I might do a 3 day trek over the weekend, or check the bungee jump.

Away!

This morning I met my three little friends and we got a taxi to another temple which was cool. There were lots of monks, big bells and humming sounds. After that we visited one of the boys houses. It was a room about 5m x 5m and only 1.8m high (I had to duck). He lives with a sister, brother, and both his parents - in this one tiny room.

Then I went and met Lala at the jewellery shop  he works at and we hired a motorbike for the day. He drove me up into the mountains going through remote villagesthrough the most incredible lush green trees, grass and rice fields. It was the first time I’ve been in a quiet place because Kathmandu is bloody noisy!

We got so high up in the mountains that there were clouds below us. It was the most spectacular thing I’ve ever seen and I loved being on the bike. We sat down next to a river in the middle of the forest and had a good chat. We also ran over a snake and cut it in half. Lala was so upset he had to say some prayers.

As I’m writing this, a huge fight has erupted outside the internet cafe I’m in. Some Japanese guy with long dreadlocks stole a pair of socks and when he got caught he started going off his tree. He was obviously on drugs and he was abusing everyone for about 10 minutes - screaming at the top of his lungs and swearing. A huge crowd assembled and things got really out of hand. Finally the police showed up and put him in the car - he started punching the police and then strangled one. At that point the crowd (all surrounding the car) started throwing punches through the window, pulling his dreadlocks while he was strangling the policeman. One guy had a stick, everyone’s yelling - there was a girl in the car who also copped some punches. Very scary (I got some photos). It’s simmered down now and the crowd has dispersed, but I’ve now seen the not so gentle side of Kathmandu and I wouldn’t want to be that Japanese guy in a Nepalese jail tonight!

I don’t know what I’ll do tomorrow - I might go to Chitwan national park for a few days, or go on a mini trek somewhere - maybe do the bungee jump.

I’m having beers with Lala and his mates tonight so I’ll see what they think. I also got 3 beanies made today - big ones to fit the dreadies in. All up it was $17 - and it takes 3.5-4 hours to crochet each beanie. Stoked!

As I write this, I am winding down on the second day I have been in Kathmandu, Nepal. I have been getting up really early - about 5am both days which means the days are very long, but I’m buggered in the afternoon.

I had no idea what to expect when I arived in Kathmandu because I hadn’t really looked into what it was like. I’ve seen documentaries etc on Tibet, but Kathmandu is different, obviously. I got a hotel in Thamel which is in the centre, and went for a walk down the main street. I instantly fell in love with it and it is exactly what I am looking for. Everything here is handmade - amazing jewellery, clothes, beanies, metalwork, silks, stone staues, and heaps of other cool stuff. Best of all, it is super cheap.

It’s crazy busy here too and you have to be on your toes, but it is less in your face and people don’t try and rip you off as much. Kathmandu is literally 15km x 15km of building next to building. You can get insanely lost and trying to find your way anywhere is impossible - especially since I have no sense of direction. I just choose left or right at each corner and see where I end up. After a few hours I ask people how to get back and normally I get there. Everytime I go for a walk someone will come up and talk to me and I’ll end up going into their stall and having tea with them - I’m drinking so much tea because people are offended if you turn it down.

I met 3 little dudes who were 13 and they took me on a 1.5 hour walk to Monkey Temple today which was great. Heaps of monkeys, prayer flags, and 400 stairs to the top! The view over Kathmandu is incredible and there were lots of monks praying which gave it a good vibe.

We had a deluxe lunch of curry, rice, naan, and fruit drinks and they were stoked. It worked out to be about $5 for the 4 of us - so incredibly cheap.

Tomorrow morning they’re taking me somewhere else (can’t remember the name), and then later in the day I’m hiring a motorbike and going around the mountains and smaller villages with a guy called ‘lala’. He’s going to introduce me to his family and show me ‘the real Kathmandu’. I can’t wait to get on the bike and cruise through the windy roads - so pumped to redline a dodgy old scooter (haha just kidding mum). We’re going to head to the zoo as well and Nepal is renouned for it’s animals.

Right now I’m just cruising around to places - temples, shops, gardens etc and hanging out with people. Some try and rip you off, but when you find someone genuine, it makes it so worth it because the Nepalese are so incredibly hospitable and honest. All they want is to hang out and I’m enjoying the conversations - talking about life in Nepal from their point of view. It’s amazing how quickly a Nepalese person will consider you their friend. Two minutes of talking and they’ll do anything for you - like take you out for the day on a motorbike.

Whenever I walk down the street random guys come up and say in a deep low voice “heroin, opium, hash”. Sometimes I’ll be walking and suddenly I hear “heroin” in my ear. And that is it. There’s a lot of hippy druggies here and I haven’t really spoken to any of them. Hopefully I’ll meet some over the next few days. There’s also some nutter old travellers here who look like they’ve been around the block so I’m keen to share a beer with them. I might check out the pub tonight but I’ve heard it’s pretty dangerous after dark on your own.

One of the highlights of my day was sitting in a huge garden with a cafe inside. There were huge trees going overhead and amazing flowers and plants. I sat there drinking Carlsbergs and reading my book and it was awesome. There’s a nice balance of crazy and peaceful here.

I’m going to meet Nicola on Friday night for dinner and a few drinks which I’m looking forward to. I still haven’t spoken to a white person yet and boken english can get a bit frustrating.

I’ll put some photos up when I can.

I am sorry the blog has been quiet since I got here. I have been meaning to post comments, but it has been rather hectic since I landed. Right now I am sitting in an internet cafe in Nepal/ Kathmandu and an unusual spider is taunting me - I will get him eventually. I’m going to tell you about my last 4 days which begun in Delhi, moved to Jaipur, back to Delhi and then to Nepal.

Sorry if this post is too long, I haven’t spoken to any Europeans since I got here so I have a lot of words built up.

Landing in Delhi was an absolute trip out and nothing could have prepared me for how crazy it was. There were people everywhere, rubbish everywhere, cows, slums - it was entirely overwhelming. I had imagined that I would be strutting around the streets hanging with locals as soon as I landed, but it didn’t turn out that way. When my taxi dropped me off in the street, I was scared shitless.

No book can prepare you for the poverty. Kids naked in pools of shit filled water, surrounded by rubbish. The heat is beyond excessive and the putrid air is debilitating. The eyes of the children reflect a world of pain I could never comprehend. I was so arrogant to think I would just waltz in unaffected.

I found a hotel and got seriously ripped off but I didn’t care because I just wanted to get my bag down. I sat in my 5m x 5m room and the enormity of being in downtown Delhi hit me with brutal force and I just burst into tears. It sounds pathetic but the poverty was just astounding. Poor people’s lives don’t matter here. They have no way to make money except to beg - if they can’t beg, they die. If they get sick, they die. And no one gives a shit because there are just so many of them.

I left my hotel and went for a walk and found an internet cafe. I came on msn and flipped out to Tali - I just needed to talk to someone as I felt so far away from everything. Tali told me to calm down and to go and meet people and it’d be alright.

So I went for a walk to see if I could find people to hang with. The temperature was about 38 degrees and every inch of my skin erupted with droplets of sweat - it was pouring off me. As I was walking, a voice called out to me “hey man, how are you?”

I walked over to an Indian man in his 30’s and said I was good, and we struck up a conversation. His name was Tony and he was obviously educated. We spoke about Australia, business, India, and my dreadlocks - he was very keen to know about them. Two other men walked over and introduced themselves as Hakim and Deepak. After a few minutes a girl in her 20’s also joined the conversation. We were sizing each other up and I couldn’t work out if they were genuinely interested in a conversation, or if they were trying to hustle me. Tony had a big child-like laugh and I liked him immediately. Hakim was obviously dodgy but for some reason I liked him too. Deepak had long greasy hair and he was pretty quiet - along with the girl.

I ask Hakim where to go in Delhi and he tells me they are driving to the markets and do I want to come with the four of them. I size him up and think about it for a moment. Logic told me getting into a car with 3 guys after being in Delhi for 10 minutes isn’t smart, but my intuition told me to go for it. I thought, screw it, nothing great comes without risk. So I said yes and we started driving.

We never made the markets, instead we drove around for a few hours making ‘business’ stops. The boot kept opening and envelopes were being swapped with other men. I couldn’t work out if this business was illegal but Tony and Hakim didn’t seem menacing so I went with the flow. However I felt very out of control in this situation and was quite tense.

After a few hours Tony turns to me and says they are driving back to Jaipur and do I want to come with them? I asked how far it was and he said 2.5 hours. He said they’d show me around and take me out to the club. I asked him how much and he looked genuinely hurt and he goes serious and says:

“Daniel, there are two kinds of relationships - business and friendship. I have offered you a seat in my car because we are strange friends. By offering me money you have changed the nature of this friendship to business”

I felt ashamed I had asked, but India is like that - you never know who is a friend and who is business.

I agree to come and we go back to my hotel and get my bags. I packed up my stuff and I was thinking to myself “shit Daniel, you’re getting yourself into an etch situation” but I just went along with it because sometimes fate beckons us to choose the unknown road.

I still didn’t have any money on me so Hakim lent it to me. We drove around Delhi some more doing ‘business’ and as the boot was opened by various men, I was sure my bag was going to get stolen.

We finally hit the road and they got a truckload of food from a local spot. I fell asleep at this point because I was absolutely knackered. I woke up sometime later and they still hadn’t eaten - they were waiting for me to wake up. They gave me a curry and watched me take the first bite. I didn’t react, but it was the spiciest thing to ever enter my mouth. It felt like it was exploding and I broke out into a sweat and went bright red.

“You like?”

“mmm it’s fantastic” I say, trying not to choke. I just couldn’t eat it so I politely moved some food around on the plate and then passed it around. We then stopped at a bottle shop and they got a bottle of whisky and fosters beer. They turned on some house music insanely loud and we hit the whisky. The way to any Indian man’s heart is a bottle of whisky.

The highway was incredible. We were screaming down it at 120km dodging cows, trucks, push bikes - honking the whole way. Drivers in India actually go for cows and dogs to see how close they can get - it’s full on and there’s no seatbelts. The music was so loud it was distorted and the whole situation was bizarre.

We then hit the fosters (including the driver). I told him to go easy on the beer while he was driving and he said “Sir, you can not drive in India unless you are drinking. Everyone is drinking - the trucks are all drinking, it is the only way to survive these roads”. Well you can’t argue with such flawless logic.

I was getting pretty pissed as we had been driving for a long time - I wasn’t sure how long because I didn’t have a watch. Hakim asked me what music I liked and I said rock so he put on Bon Jovi - It’s my life.

We were screaming down the highway, dancing in our seats and shouting “it’s my life, it’s now or never, and I aint gunno live foreverrrr”. And I have to say it felt awesome. It was so out of control - I was in the middle of nowhere with a carload of people I’d just met, and I was shouting and dancing at the top of my lungs.

The thing that has stuck with me the most was something Hakim said to me while we were pissing by the road:

“Daniel, I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. But we are connected by the Gods and our good karma. I know you are on a journey you have worked hard for and we want to make it as pleasant as possible for you”.

After the piss I went to get back in the car and Hakim said “Ohh Daniel you must wash your hands. Indians are very clean people”. We had just pissed in front of hundreds of people on the side of the road where they were walking (which was ok) but not pouring 100ml of bottled water on my hands isn’t ok. Indians are funny people.

We finally got to the hotel at 1am, about 11-12 hours after I got in the car with them.

I was starving when I went to bed - I hadn’t eaten anything all day. I woke up hungover with a bad feeling in my stomach. I walked outside in Jaipur and discovered I was in what looked like a slum. Outside my dodgy hotel a pack of wild pigs were fighting each other in a huge pile of rubbish which smelt so bad I could taste it on my tongue. Further down the road a mangy dog was eating a dead kitten which was drying up in the sun.

I couldn’t find any food I could eat - the coffee was nescafe being boiled in pots with flies all around it. The food was being made in stalls on the street. After few hours I panicked. I was so hungry and jet lagged and I decided to bail for Nepal. I jumped a taxi to the airport, flew to Delhi. Spent a night there, then got a plane to Kathmandu - total disregard for money and Hakim, Tony, Deepak, and the girl.

It was a horrible thing I did, bailing like that, but I had to get out of there. India is full on and I was unprepared for it. But it’s all good - it’s not a fail if you learn from it, and I learned a valuable lesson.