#47 Himalayas, a crowded bed and Momo anyone?

McCloud Gang up in the mountains continued to treat me well. One of the days I hiked to a "holy lake"-lake dal. For a holy lake it had a crapload of garbage in it.
I watched a cricket match next to the lake before wandering around in the hills for a while. When I was walking back to town along the road, I noticed rocks falling down onto the road and thought maybe they were rolling down the hill as a landslide or something, but when I looked up I saw a bunch of monkeys up in the trees with rocks in their hands and they were trying to hit me. What would any human (who is known to be much more intelligent than these monkeys) do when this happens? That's right, I picked up a couple of rocks and chucked them up at them and then ran down the road until I was out of their sight.

I watched a couple of movies while in town. 1)a documentary-Born into a Brothel (very sad) and
2)Mayura (or something like that) it is a movie based in Tibet about a monk, slow but good.

I learned why people where the free Tibet t-shirts. Because China is occupying Tibet and killing and torturing some of the Tibet people. Tibet however won't be saved in my opinion because it is a very small country and no other country wants to tell China to leave, especially considering it does so much work for international companies.

One day I took a cooking class to learn how to make momo. It was great fun. Easy ingredients, get a little dough and then we learned how to roll the dough fancy like in the restaurant and whalla, we were stuffing ourselves with momo. (Be ready for a momo party when I get home)

It was absolutely freezing in the mountains so I spent a bit of my time trying to keep warm; I bought a hat, drank a lot of tea and a delicious drink of hot lemon mixed with honey and ginger. My room had no heat and so I would soak my feet in hot water before going to sleep under my thick blankets they provided (they were warm but not the cleanest things).

I went and talked to a Monk to learn about their religion and how it all works. They pray a lot and strive for enlightenment. Some monks go into the mountains to meditate and pray, this can go on for a week up to 15 years; seriously.
They and the Hindu religion have a calendar that can have 11,12 or 13 months depending on the year and what the priest and astrologist decide. Each month has 30 days but might have two days that are the 4th therefor skipping a day later in the month.

There is sooo much garbage in India; it is their biggest flaw. It is everywhere, piles on the streets, garbage cans nowhere to be seen. Also, people just piss where ever they feel like it (people being men). Oh yeah, you may be driving down the main streets and see half naked men on the side of the road, they may be bathing or washing their clothes. Men can basically get naked anywhere and no one notices. Women however in general can't even show the bottom half of their leg or in noway can look as if people think are naked in public.

Raj picked me up after my few day rest in the mountains and we headed back to his home where I bonded and played with his sons for hours before leaving to a relatives home for dinner. This night I again shared the room with his parents, his son and a family friend. Since the family friend was here in a addition I got to share the big bed with his father and one of his sons... really what else could I say now after telling you that; exactly.

Today Raj and I drove back to Delhi. I bought him a Bob Marley cd since he had never heard of him before, we heard it about 16 times on the ride home. We stopped at a huge Kashmir carpet shop.(Damn those things are expensive) handmade though. A 4X6 carpet takes about 6 months to make. The salesman told me its not spending money, it is an investment. Ok, I'll take the investment if I don't have to spend the money. I still don't own a Kashmir carpet. Is this a hot item in the US? anyone want me to pick one up for them?
We also stopped at the biggest park it Delhi. Ok, so where I'm from I go to the park and there are families playing, having picnics, that sort of thing. Friends playing sports, having a party, maybe a couple walking and holding hands. Here in this park there are only couples and they are there for one reason: HOOKING UP.
They are in the bushes, against the trees, behind a wall, a the benches, everywhere. In the culture they can't go to either person's house and hotels won't give them a room, so everyone decided the park is the best place to go. It was a weird experience, I felt dirty seeing it. Even the dogs in the park were horny. Their is everything from kissing, to petting, to heavy petting to...well you know.

I am relaxing tonight, finished with having Raj at my disposal and ready to fly alone again. I take a bus south tomorrow to go and stay with the brothers and their family to prepare for the wedding.

One more thing. On all the stores they advertise selling STD's. No thanks.
They have something to do with a calling service that they offer, but when I first saw it and saw that they offer different types of STD's I couldn't help but laugh histarically and nobody here appreciates the humor in it.(I'll post pictures of it)


Integrity is what you do when you know that noone is watching.
-I read it on a wall in an internet cafe.