Wow...

...is all I can say at this point...

Hello, everyone. I know it has been a very long time since I last updated you, but I've seen some of the most extraordinary sights in the past week and have lots on my mind that I can't wait to spill out.

Vans and I have arrived to the great and ancient city of Jerusalem this afternoon and are currently taking much needed rest. Thus far, we've dined and beached in Tel Aviv, crossed 2 borders into and out of Israel/Jordan, slept under the desert stars with the Bedouin, roamed the "city older than time" in Petra, floated in the Dead Sea and smeared mud all over ourselves, and have been face to face with IDF border guards in the West Bank frantically trying to find our Israel visa stamps!

As you can tell, there is too much to update you on in one shot, and it only serves justice to write about each place with energy and dedication. Since I have the entire history of Jerusalem, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity to brush up on tonight, I'm not going to start, but what I will do is post several pictures and quick descriptions of each to whet your appetites.

Really cannot wait to write more. I hope all of you as well and happy as I am.

R

All Aboard!

The Shatabdi is leaving the station!

AC is on full blast in coach C7 – I'm in Seat 20, blessed with a tinted window, fan overhead, and a 10-inch TV screen above me which I'm sure will be playing the latest in pirated Bollywood flicks at blaring volumes! I'm on my way from Ahmedabad to Surat – planning on spending the evening in the diamond and gem merchant heaven of Surat with a few of my Pops' best friends from school. It's no "shinkansen", but has just as much character. To think that the small villages that pass by through the window are where our parents came from is unfathomable.

Spent the past few days with family and friends in Gujarat – the great home state of ours full of swine flu coverage, interesting politics, and delicious home cooked Gujarati food.

After a fun night out with the Mumbai folk on Saturday, I caught a 7AM flight to Rajkot in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat (the "peninsula" which juts out into the Arabian Sea). Bina Auntie, Nitin Uncle, and a large amount of Nitin Uncle's family had come out from the States and around India to mourn Ba's recent passing (God bless her soul), and so I made my way up there to spend the afternoon paying my respects and catching up with Bina Auntie, Dada, and other family members. Unfortunately I missed Nitin Uncle by a few hours as he and his siblings were on their way to the familiar destination of Haridwhar to disperse Ba's ashes in the Ganges. It was a memorable afternoon – although Dada's health has deteriorated he still has flashes of brilliance in communicating in both English and Gujarati. We talked about the Jackson Library, went through a few Oscar Wilde quote books, and several "R. Ambani and Company" books from his publishing days. It was a tough goodbye – I have a soft spot for grandparents.

From Rajkot I hopped on, what seemed to be, an air conditioned party bus playing the latest in Bollywood pirated hits on the TV screens and speakers. (For those of you as up to date on Indian cinema as I am – we watched Love Aaj Kal and Luck). Fortunately, I did get a few hours of much needed rest and hopped off at my stop in Ahmedabad 3 hours later, picked up my afternoon ice cream cone, and waited for Nirav to scoop me on a brilliant Sunday afternoon.

Spending time in Ahmedabad with Kaka and the family is always a treat – the kids are always up to no good learning lessons from Kaka and playing with toys. Nikhil and Nirav are blessed with awesome lifestyles in Ahmedabad – big houses, decent work hours, and beautiful young families. I thoroughly enjoy spending time during the day with Krishna and Pooja learning how to cook Gujarati specialties and joining them for scooter rides to school to pick up the kids. In the evenings we catch up on the latest in politics, talk about how life used to be and how life is now, and go through a fun slideshow of my latest trip to wherever the wind has taken me. The running joke is now Nikhil doesn't have to take Krishna to any of these places because she's seen all of it in my pictures! Welcome to Gujarat – full of Gujus!

I also clock a serious amount of time on the computer while in A'Bad! With lightning fast broadband and an upcoming trip to Israel and Jordan, I got to take care of a lot of hotel and transportation bookings and get some thorough research done on places to stay and what to do. I leave this Friday morning from Mumbai and meeting Vans at the airport in Tel Aviv before we take down this ridiculous itinerary:

Friday – Tel Aviv beaches, food, fun

Saturday – Tel Aviv beaches, food, fun (maybe Acco, Caesaria, Home Depot – just don't know if we'll have enough time)

Sunday – Fly to Eilat, cross border into Jordan, head to a Bedouin camp in Wadi Rum to sleep under the stars, ride camels and 4x4's through the desert, eat food cooked under the sand, and sleep in tents

Monday – Head to Petra (one of the 7 Wonders of the World), see the ancient city during the day and at night

Tuesday – Head back to Israel, drive up from Eilat to Ein Gedi on the Dead Sea, relax because tomorrow…

Wednesday – Up at 3:30AM! Hike up Masada's Snake Path to see sunrise from the top of Masada, rising above the Dead Sea. From here, drive to the water, read the paper while floating in the salty water, and hopefully get a nice mud bath! Drive to Jerusalem

Thursday – Temple Mount and other Jerusalem sights

Friday – Jerusalem and Shabbat!

Saturday – Leave for Tel Aviv, spend one last day on the beach

Sunday – back to Mumbai!

We realize there's a lot more to see in Israel but with throwing Jordan's desert and Petra in there we lost a couple of days, but really gained being able to see an incredible place in the world. Really looking forward to this trip…

Well – the train has just left the station and my book is calling me – I just started reading "Shantaram" by Gregory David Roberts, an excellent story which really hits home when spending time in Mumbai. It's really a page turner, highly recommend it. It may seem long at nearly 1,000 pages but after getting through Atlas Shrugged, the next book feels like child's play!

I hope all of you are well and enjoying your summers. Keep August 31 on your calendars! I'll be back in NYC and can't wait to see everyone.

UPDATE: Halfway through the train ride and the Gujarati Uncle next to me is playing the "Gujarati Spiderman" video on his phone! On full blast! Hilarious.

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Jap-Animazin'

I miss Tokyo.

Writing this as I fly back to India – evidence that I spent as minimal amount of time in the hotel as humanly possible. As much as I wish I could have written about Japan while events were fresh, there was too much to see and experience. I'll try my best to take you through a tour of this incredible country which hopefully will move it up your list of places to visit. Tokyo by far has established itself as a top 5 city in the world that I have visited – boatloads of energy and excitement, welcoming and accommodating people, spotlessly clean, delicious restaurants and nightlife, and an inherent culture that dazzles the mind.

Last time I wrote I had just made it to Kyoto after a mesmerizing ride on the 300 km/hr 'shinkansen', or bullet train. By my rough calculations, we made the 300 mile trip in 2.5 hours – very impressive. Vans had put me in touch with one of her friends who was in Kyoto for a physiology conference with another one of his coworkers, and since we were looking to get into the same tourist sites in Kyoto/Nara and spend as much time as possible in Tokyo, it would make sense for me to meet with them and go from there. Needless to say, I consider myself very lucky to have been able to find Ankit and Johan, and we had an awesome week in Japan – complete with samurai swords, sake bombs, and singing karaoke with locals. I couldn't imagine doing any of these cities alone, and we had a blast doing it. Looking forward to meeting up with you both very soon in New York.

Kyoto and Nara are full of deep history and awe-inspiring cultural sites. By way of background, Nara and Kyoto were Imperial capital cities back during the first and second centuries before the 'shogunate' was moved to Tokyo. Kyoto is an interesting layout, a relatively modern city and large city with traffic, shopping, a downtown, etc. interspersed with classic Japanese/Shinto/Buddhist temples, shrines, and other antiquated campuses of gates, towers, pagodas, and other structures found in picture books. We spent the day on Saturday following Lonely Planet's 'walking tour' in the Higashiyama district which contain temples, ancient neighborhoods, zen gardens, carp ponds, etc. – walking through the edge of the city in the foothills of green mountains that border the city. The ancient Japanese pagodas and temples are fantastic to tour, and Japan has done an excellent job in maintaining these structures. The colors and layouts of these temple complexes made me think about how calming and cooling the atmosphere must have been hundreds of years ago while paying respects at these shrines.

On Sunday we took the hour long train ride to Nara, another ancient capital city fused in with the modern. On the hit list in Nara was Todai-ji, a temple complex which is still the largest wooden building in the world. Housed inside Todai-ji is the largest enclosed bronze Buddha in the world, which did not cease to amaze. A fun experience in Nara to witness is the deer – evidently deer are/were 'messengers of God' and freely roam the parks and streets in the city. Vendors near the park sell deer biscuits for tourists to literally feed the deer from their hand. Although I've grown up with these animals in Michigan, to this day I've never been so close to this animal – and shy they were not. We were able to pet them, feel their antlers, and witness their jumping abilities up close which was great.

After a fun and rough night out in Kyoto on Sunday night meeting both locals and several Americans living in Japan teaching English, we wearily hopped back on the shinkansen and made it back to Tokyo on Monday afternoon. This might have been the one time we wish the ride wasn't 2.5 hours – we were really looking forward to getting some sleep after coming home in the wee hours of the morning and having to get up to make check out at the hotel. This "sleep when we're dead" attitude really starts to bite you in the ass as you get older!

We decided to stay in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo due to the proximity to hot spots and neighborhoods. As I may have explained before, Tokyo is a fairly large city with an intricate system of metro trains, Japan Rail trains, and private train lines which connect the vast city. From recommendations and reading, it seemed that most of the nightlife and culture was on the west side of the city in the Shinjuku and Shibuya areas.

On Monday night we headed to Roppongi for dinner and to check out the nightlife. Roppongi is known as the touristy shopping and restaurant headquarters complete with bars, clubs, big lights, big streets, and big hotels. I found it to be annoying and not so much Tokyo but really any entertainment district of a Western city. It's certainly a place to see and eat delicious food (both Japanese and international) but is unfortunately full of promotion men and hawkers – many from West Africa and India - trying to get foreigners to come to their bars and gentlemen's clubs. It got to the point where we had to be verbally blunt to these annoying men that would follow us around trying to strike up a conversation and telling us about how much better their club is than the next one.

Tuesday turned out to be probably the best full day and night in Tokyo. We started the day by touring the Imperial Palace, a humungous park in the middle of the city full of moats and gardens of which a small portion is open to the public. The Emperor and Empress (ceremonial heads of state) presently live here, although I don't believe civilians can get anywhere near let alone see their living quarters.

We then visited the Yebisu/Sapporo museum which has a great tasting menu – highly recommend the stout. From there we headed to Shibuya, which was my favorite area of Tokyo. A friend of mine from Japan recommended that we eat at a ramen restaurant called Ichiran, which through Wi-Fi on the streets of Tokyo we managed to find. Ichiran is a very fun restaurant concept to witness, and one that we had several conversations of whether it could work in the States. After walking downstairs off the street, you come across a vending machine where you insert money and press buttons containing what you want to eat – ramen (extra 100 yen for green onions), rice and eggs, beverage, other snacks, etc. After the machine dispenses your tickets, you head inside the restaurant which has individual booths with a stool, a setting to eat, and a curtain. You hand your tickets to the "chefs" behind the curtain (if you have a thing for "seeing" who makes your food, this is not the place for you!) and 5 minutes later, voila, a hot piping bowl of ramen and whatever else you ordered shows up. You basically eat in a private, individual booth, and 20 minutes later, get up a leave. That's it. Efficient, delicious, and interesting.

Shibuya, and many places in Tokyo, is Manhattan-busy. There is a massive crossing where thousands of pedestrians go several different ways, shopping galore, big screen TVs, colorful shops and restaurants, and fashion! The people in Tokyo is the main reason why really why I did not want to leave Tokyo and wanted to witness more. Ankit and I spent several hours in a mall on our last day and the outfits, clothes, hats, accessories – everything – is like no place I've ever witnessed.

A really funny anecdote is about the "English" shirts that every shop sells and which you frequently read and laugh about on the streets. It seems that Tokyo fashion designers randomly pick words out of the English dictionary, artistically place them on a shirt, and sell it for a hefty margin. You see some of the weirdest English lines and statements. Trying to shop for these shirts is hysterical – it's hard to tell which one is funnier. What's even more hysterical is that the people who buy and wear these shirts have no clue whatsoever that the clothes they are wearing make zero sense! But – it still sells! Tokyo!

We decided to try out nightlife luck out that night in Shinjuku. After eating we visited a pub where we befriended a few local Japanese that knew a combined 15 words in English. Including our 10 words in Japanese that we learned, it was a solid group full of laughs. Ankit, Johan, and I had heard much about the karaoke culture in Japan - and karaoke joints are almost every other building on many streets in Japan. (As a quick aside – there are karaoke joints and guitar shops everywhere in Tokyo. It really made us think about Tokyo real estate and how all of these places stay in business. Would love to dig out the economics behind these places…). We decided that we needed to make karaoke with locals happen in Tokyo – and happen tonight. Unfortunately the Japanese guys we met didn't want to karaoke without female counterparts. So…we walked over to the other side of the pub where two women were enjoying a few post-work Guinnesses and actually got them to come over to our side of the pub and join us! Things were happening – but, could we persuade them to karaoke?

Needless to say, the rest of the night will go down in history as one of the most fun karaoke experiences of my life. We ended up renting out a private room with our glorious, Guinness-filled crew of 8 and sang until the wee hours of the morning. Japanese songs + American songs + Japanese-American songs + tambourines + maracas + popcorn + edamame + unlimited beverages + Japanese locals = the best karaoke night ever. It happened. We did it!

The hip hop culture is huge in Tokyo/Japan. On our last night in Tokyo after an awesome sushi dinner (where we managed to teach our waitress how to sake bomb), we visited a hip hop lounge. I was really impressed with the DJ's knowledge of classic, lyrical hip hop tracks. I went to talk to him during the middle of his set to tell him how impressed I was with his selection, and he mentioned that he doesn't get that a lot. You certainly can witness the love people have for the hip hop culture in what they wear on the streets – breaking gear, colorful Nike's, Bathing Ape and Triple Five Soul gear, etc. I had to dig up as many DJ Krush songs I had on me to get myself in the Japanese hip-hop mindset – I highly recommend a visit back to him for those that are fans, it's rather refreshing.

Looking out the window right now as we fly over China (I just brought up a map of the world – I'm wondering if we'll fly over any snow capped Himalayas?!), and can't help but smile about my trip to Japan. The irony it that my trip started off as a place to "cross off the list", but now has become just the opposite – a country I will look forward to visiting more in the future.
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Terrific Tokyo

First things first, everyone should plan to visit this city. I was truly blown away by how much character this place has. I’ve spent the past 2 days wandering the city and thinking about how to write about it, and I still can’t decide how to illustrate it. It’s liveliness, color, excitement, modernization, and energy seems like an outward expression or revolution almost of the inward, polite, and respectful nature of its people.

The following which I’ve written about Tokyo only stems from my day trips around the city – unfortunately I have not been able to witness the night life as I’ve heard great things about because of a minor cold I caught in Mumbai – and because I believe I’m staying in what is essentially the financial district of Tokyo and I don’t want to get caught late at night when the trains stop running and having to take a $50 cab ride home! An important addition to this is I’m traveling the city alone as of now and, let’s face it, going out alone is a dismal level of Dante’s Inferno we all hope to never attain!

Spunk

I’ve lived in New York and been to Paris a few times in my life, but never have I seen fashion like I’ve seen in Tokyo. If I were a designer, the first place I would try to sell clothing is in this city. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’re wearing – everything goes. In my two days of wandering the streets, plazas, neighborhoods, etc., I saw everything save a leprechaun outfit (and if I had 360 degree vision I probably would have seen that). You name it: wedding dresses, pajamas, overalls, lingerie, cowboy hats, 6 inch stilettos, kimonos, skater gear, pink hair, blond hair, cake make-up, Catholic school-girl, Queen Victoria – everything. I’ve never been in a city like this before where there was no “standard” or “trendy” way of dress. It was incredible to witness, simply walking around the city left me gawking at nondescript outfits and people.

Electronics

Electronics in Tokyo is man’s dream come true. I think people here would explode if there was a power outage. Everything is automated, and on top of that, electronics are used to make certain luxuries very commonplace.

For example, my toilet seat in my hotel has to be out of Star Wars. It has 7 different buttons on it – various temperature settings for the seat and various methods of “spraying” after you’ve made your lump sum deposit at the bank. When you sit down, it automatically turns the fan on!

On my first day out in the city I accidentally left my camera’s memory card at the hotel – if I was in many other countries this would be a problem – but not in Japan! As soon as I stepped off the subway, lining the streets, are glorious, multi-level electronics stores where all your dreams come true. Picked up a quick 2GB card for $15, and was on my way, no hassles. I won’t even get started on my visit to the Sony Building – in incredible array of new and soon-to-be-released electronics which were awesome to toy around with.

Shibuya

Efficiency, Cleanliness

The city and its people are very clean and orderly – almost overtly. I found myself carrying my own garbage in my pockets looking for a garbage can! I’m not sure what percentage of cars on the streets are electric or hybrid, but it seems that the pollution and noise levels in the city are barely noticeable (I do realize that \I have spent a month in India). There are even signs in the subway on the proper way of walking around someone while smoking a cigarette as to not blow smoke in their face. Let me explain that again - a diagrammed instruction placard in the subway on where to hold your cigarette and where to blow the smoke so it does not affect the person behind you. I was astounded!

Sign about dumping your cigarettes out of your trunk at night? I didn't quite get it, then again, I'm not a comic book enthusiast either.

Transportation

Tokyo is fairly large. I think the best way to explain it is that it’s almost star shaped, with key areas/plazas/business districts at the points of the star and the middle being the main Tokyo station and Imperial Palace. There are a plethora of transportation choices – a dozen combinations of subway lines, Japan Rail lines, and even private rail lines criss-crossing the city. I found it very easy and straightforward – by day 2 I was a subway pro putting in my fare, getting my ticket, sliding it through the futuristic machine where the doors open and you grab your ticket on the other side. Very cool.

When traveling outside the city to farther destinations, people take what is called the “shinkansen”, or in our terms, the bullet train. I’m currently typing this on my way to Kyoto on the ‘super-express’ – I can only estimate by the pace at which buildings, farms, and hills are flying by me that we are going in excess of 200km/h! (These things travel up to 300 km/hr!). It’s quite a joyride, in and out of tunnels, ears popping, etc. I’ve got a window seat and it’s dizzying – this has to be the fastest I’ve ever traveled on land.

Faster than a speeding bullet, it's - a train!!!

Though cabs are omnipresent, I’ve read they are a big no-no to the wallet. The trains are easy enough to use although I have not yet witnessed the night-life Tokyo has to offer. Worst comes to worst, there are “capsule” hotels scattered around the city for those salaried workmen who are out late imbibing and can’t make any of the trains home! I’d love to pop into one of those next week when I get back…

Manga

Anime, or comics, is huge in Japan. Graphics and animation regardless are prevalent on the streets and television, but comic books (as thick as catalogs) are read everywhere and can be found in any news kiosk or bookstore.

The City

I only got to visit 3 out of the 5 main “star” points of the city – but I like to compare Shibuya and Shinjuku immediate areas outside of the train station as a miniature, clean Times Square. There are decent sized plazas with Jumbo-Trons showing ads and God knows what in Japanese television, and plenty of vertical commercialization. Stores, shopping, advertisements, and other sensory overloads surround the station. Even during the day the signage colors and noises can only point to intensity at night.

The architecture is stunning. Around the city I’ve seen humungous corporate headquarters, government buildings, and shopping centers that are visually crisp, clean, and futuristic. When you backdrop these buildings behind a above-ground commuter rail train shaped like a bullet, it’s almost Jetsons-like. Now, I may be a little biased because I’ve been staying and visiting the cleaner, more commercial areas – but needless to say, it’s quite impressive.

I'm disgusted at my own stench. Not many times has this happened to me.

The People

Japanese people are very friendly and respectful, I’ve found myself to be super comfortable in this country thus far. It’s difficult to ask for directions in English to a regular person on the street but information booths and people behind travel counters are very well versed and help with anything. All signage in Tokyo at least doubles in English – phew.

I stopped into a noodle shop yesterday for lunch and it was a warming experience. There was an older gentlemen and 4 younger ladies behind the counter happily yelling “welcome!” in Japanese to patrons coming in and “goodbye!
to those leaving. I sat down at the counter, pointed to a decent looking ramen dish on the menu, and 5 minutes later had a steaming bowl of something delcious and a bigger bowl of noodles. Slurping is a must. I managed to eek out “It was a hearty feast” in Japanese much to the chagrin of the noodle shop owners.

In the evening I went to a sushi place where, once again, pointed at a delicious looking platter on the menu. The fish was superb – less “fishiness” to it and more taste which I would assume means fresher fish. Took down a hearty helping of sashimi and rolls – tuna, salmon, toro, roe, shrimp, yellowtail. The wasabi knocked me out! Even the smallest dollop was more than enough to clear my sinuses and make my eyes water.

Meet George Jetsoooooooonnnn...

Kyoto

Since writing the above I’ve managed to get off the shinkansen and take a city bus through Kyoto to a hotel where I’m meeting a few of Vans’ friends that are here for a conference. We’re going to spend the next 3 days in Kyoto / Nara which are the historic/cultural capitals of Japan – replete with temples, baths, shrines, food, Imperialism, etc. Nothing like free Wi-Fi in the lobby while you wait! I’m going to go ahead and post this for your guys’ Friday reading pleasure – but there is certainly more to come soon.

R

TKO from Tokyo!*

*Footnote Tejas

After resting in Mumbai for a weekend, catching up on sleep, Bollywood news, etc., started making moves for the next phase of the trip. On my travels I threw around the idea of making it out to Japan – seems like a great place to visit and should be safe and easy for me to travel alone. Well, started doing research and things certainly worked out - I’m now aboard an empty Air India flight to Tokyo!

I’m heading there for 8 days which hopefully will be full of sake, sushi, and sights. I’m pretty excited about this. Fortunately, Vans has some friends that are in Japan right now and so we’re banging out an e-plan (get it, a plan over email!) to meet up. Would love to get recommendations, thoughts from all of you on places to go, eat, etc.

My plan as of now is the spend a day in Tokyo, do a day trip out to Mt. Fuji and try to mount it, then head down to Kyoto/Nara for 3 days over the weekend before wrapping up a few more days in Tokyo. I’ve read that transportation is fairly easy and really can’t wait to take these bullet trains (300kmh+) and see how far technology has taken this country. It will be nice to tour a big city again after spending the past couple weeks in the wilderness at the mercy of Mother Nature.

List of things I want to get done:

1. Buy kick ass Japanese spunky shoes
2. Eat delicious sushi
3. Go to a concert
4. Watch a sumo wrestling match!
5. Climb Mt. Fuji
6. Take a picture of a geisha
7. Play with fresh, new, cool electronics

Delhi Frenzy

From Webster’s:

frenzy (noun, fren-zee): Delhi

Delhi is nutso!!! I took the early morning flight out of Leh through Delhi and, since Shoaib was in Delhi for business, took the $15 option to push my flight back a day and see major sites again, walk the city, and hang with Shoaib.

Firstly, I am very impressed with the Delhi metro system. It seems to be somewhat new and is very clean by Indian standards, efficient, and fun to ride. Delhi was humid and hot as usual and after I checked in at Shoaib’s hotel (a fun boutique hotel in the suburbs called “Shanti Home”), I took down a quick lunch and hopped on the subway to tour Old Delhi.

The metro system is rather similar to NYC – trains run above ground until they come near downtown and then go under. From last time I knew, the city really needed something like this because the traffic was atrocious.

It took about 30 minutes to get to Old Delhi where I took a stroll down Chandni Chawk, a main bazaar/road in Old Delhi. Lonely Planet coins it as a street with smells of frying food, flowers, exhaust, urine, etc. It was all that and more. And what a sensory overload! People everywhere, yelling, screaming; putting the New York minute to shame.

Chandhi Chowk.

Got to the famous Red Fort (Lal Qila) and decided to take a walk around it instead of heading inside. I was very impressed with the manicured lawns and government protection of a sacred site. After that I hung out on the steps of the Jama Masjid, one of the largest mosques in Asia (or India?, I forget) that can hold up to 25,000 people. I couldn’t go inside because I had shorts on but was content with hanging out on the steps, taking snaps, plotting my next move.

Indian Flag over Lal Qila. A dream come true...

Hangin' on the steps of Jama Masjid.

Red Fort (Lal Qila) from steps of Jama Masjid.

I figured the Gandhi Memorial was close by – they’ve evidently made a nice memorial where he was assassinated and close by is the Raj Ghat where he was cremated. Figuring all I needed was a map, I set off on my journey. As many of you can attest (Vans), I’m not very good with directions. I got lost…

…But ended up walking around what I believe was the Muslim quarter of Delhi – which was incredible. It was really the first time in India I’ve seen butcher shops, mosques at every corner, bearded and non-bearded men, women with all skin covered and women with only faces showing, the whole shebang, all in one place. I must of stuck out like a sore thumb with my orange Tigers hat, sunglasses, and backpack, as I did not see one other tourist in the area. It was really quite awesome – as much as I would have loved to see Gandhi’s memorial this was quite a unique experience.

When I came out of the Muslim quarter I ran into a few Euros who were lost, we ended up banding together and finding the nearest subway station and spent the rest of the afternoon talking about Leh as they were heading up there and I had just come out. It’s really cool how friendly backpackers and tourists are in terms of making friends and swapping stories, etc.

It was hot and I was tired, so I headed back on the subway, reading essays from Cliff Asness that Rishi had sent me regarding health care in America. Really great reads, discusses methodically the notion of spiraling health care costs, difference between “universal” health care in European countries vs. that in the US. Definitely look it up if interested.

Indians in a uniform line?! Only in Delhi Metro...

Got back to the hotel, and now I realize why it’s called “Shanti Home”, it was so nice to get out of the Delhi frenzy and into a peaceful abode! Got ready, and Shoaib showed up after his long day of meetings and such. We got to catch up properly on the past 2 weeks, me being up in the mountains and him plowing forward with Admob’s plans in India. We tried to make the best of the night, although I’ve come to find out that I think the truest city in India to go out is Mumbai. We tried to hit a couple of spots but things were dying down, maybe it was because we weren’t in central Delhi but the suburbs. Regardless, it was a fun time and I’m glad I got to step out and see Delhi again.

As Good As Ti-Bets

Tried doing some word play on “As Good As It Gets” – I know, I know, it’s a reach.

Alas I’ve reached my final day (barring any flight delays!) in Leh. To sum it up – it’s a beautiful village full of wanted and unwanted tourists. Although the backpacker scene has brought respectful trekkers looking for a place to start off from when touring the Himalayas, there are ample I’m-A-Hippie-And-Want-To-Live-In-A-Village types which unfortunately bring a bad name to Western tourists. The Israeli backpacker / post-IDF scene here is huge – evidently Israel has began sending Rabbis to the area to talk to those who have found a home in Leh into coming back to Israel!

The sights and experiences in and around this place are awe-inspiring. Many snaps and videos I’ve taken can come only out of one’s imagination or a Planet Earth episode (which often are the same thing). I’ve gained great respect for those trekkers that manage 3-4+ week long treks in the fluctuating weather, food, and most of all, high altitude. It was frightening at times to run upstairs to my room or run around the bend to take a leak and having to wait for a few minutes to catch my breath. One doesn’t realize until the morning that even though it’s not hot per se, you still need proper hydration due to the altitude and very dry mountain air.

On Thursday, my buddies and I got to visit the Thiksey Monastery, a serene looking collection of dozens of dorms, temples, meditation halls, and schools where hundreds of Tibetan refugee monks, well, do their monk thing. It was nice to walk around and witness monks in their element, explore the prayer halls, marvel at the statues of Buddha, etc. It’s quite a beautiful setting, built into the side of a hill with vistas over the lush Indus River and valley.

I was quite perturbed, however, by both the lack of respect from other tourists and the amount of intrusion the monks had to tolerate. There were a few “photographers” that were climbing on walls to get 2 feet closer to a mountain that was miles away, trying to get monk children in training to line up for pictures, taking pictures and video of monks in daily activities, etc. It seems to be a double edged sword for these monks – they receive glorious funding from tourists for upkeep but also have to deal with the lack of respect many show towards their way of life.

The last few days in Leh were very relaxing. The 5 of us buddies that went to the lake a few days back got together to have dinners, hang out at the hippie spots, etc. Although traveling alone, I’ve been very lucky to have found really good–hearted and smart people that (whether they like it or not) can handle my idiocy. Mymy and Jason – can’t wait until we reunite in Albania at some point in life, and C.D., try making it out to the States soon enough. Karan, you are the funniest cynic I know, can’t wait to hang out on the east coast.