I fly into Dehli tomorrow, will spend my last day in India in my least favorite city in the country, and leave for Israel at 4am, Wednesday morning.

Leh is cool, relaxing, and sunny — making me feel that I am not in ”real India”.  I am positive I will be missing Leh the minute I reach crowded, hot and humid Dehli.

My trip has been fantastic, although not necessarily the trip I was expecting.  Overall, I think it was more fun and less hard core than I had anticipated.

Someone I met on the trip remarked that as recent as six years ago Manali only had one internet cafe and it was difficult to find running water in most places in India.  The Manali I saw was teaming with tourists, and every other store was an internet cafe.

Going in, I thought this would probably be the only backpacking trip I would be taking.  Now, I really want to go to South India…

We met a group of Israelis over Shabbat and decided to join them in their trip to Pangong Lake.

The road to the lake was filled with pretty views and corny signs such as “be careful on my curves” and “be Mr. late not late Mr.“.

The jeep ride was great, until we encountered a flooded road that our jeep driver refused to cross.  A jeep coming from the other direction and a motorcycle managed to cross it, but our driver continued to insist that it was impossible.

We were told it was a 2km walk from where we were to the lake, so after an hour of discussion decided to walk the rest of the way.  The flooded road was freezing and hard for me to cross.  Then, after walking for about ten minutes we saw a sign saying that the lake was 6km further…

However, now that I am dry and warm again I can look back at the experience fondly.

Despite the travel complications — gazing into the stunning lake with the Himalayan mountains and a clear blue sky in the background — makes everything else just melt away.

However, instead of being terrified by the roads and sick because of the high altitude, I was more just amazed by the views we were passing.

I am a very talented sleeper, and despite the bumpy roads, I spent most of the ride passed out.  Moreover, for the first time in any of my travels throughout India, there were no complications in the trip and we pretty much arrived on schedule.

We got to Leh at 11pm, and all of the rooms in the first guesthouse we walked into were filled.  However, they did offer for us to stay in their dining room.  I didn’t really have the energy to walk around with my heavy bags looking for something else, so I readily agreed to the suggested accommodations.

It actually was relatively comfortable — although that could be because I was comparing it the past 20 hours I had just spent in a mini bus.

This morning we went to Beit Yehudi for food and ended up going with them on a Jewish meditation outing…

It am also definitely appreciating how sunny it is in Leh!

Obviously there were some complications with my travel plans –it rained all night and they didn’t cover the bags so all of my clothes got wet, the seats were uncomfortable, we arrived at 4am and spent a few hours in the Manali bus station, etc…

But, compared to my trip to Rishikesh it was practically luxurious .

A fellow backpacker shared his blanket with us while we waited at the bus station

Now that I am here, I am happy to be spending a few days in Vashisht, a  suburb right outside Manali.  The mountains coupled with the river make for gorgeous scenery, and I actually think that Manali is a pretty and quaint place.

Surprisingly, despite the ridiculous amount of Israelis here, the Indians are the ones I’ve made friends with.

I made a ring with Farouk and the gypsy, took a yoga class with a teacher who kept telling me how flexible I am, and learned to cook momos with Rita.

Rebecca making her ring

learning to cook momos with Rita

Rebecca took a message course with Sanjay who came with us to Lev Yehudi for Friday night dinner and even offered for us to stay with his Aunt in a small village.

The main street of the town is so familiar now that I can’t walk for more than a shop or two without seeing someone I know.

The temperature is cool, the atmosphere is very relaxed and the scenery is beautiful.

I realized that Israelis travel to India, but I had not really comprehended how many until I arrived in Bhagsu.  I think I’ve spoken more Hebrew here than in the past year and a half living in Jerusalem.  All of the signs are in Hebrew, and when I signed into my guest house the concierge asked for my “חתימה”.

I also find it interesting that almost everyone here is a long term traveler and is shocked that I am only spending a month in India.

It is clearly a very holy place for the Sikhs and doesn’t feel like a tourist site  at all.

I was actually really surprised that Rebecca and I seemed to be the only tourists at the temple.  As the only white person visiting the temple, I got many stares and requests for photos.

Likewise, on the train ride up to Amritsar, kids kept approaching me to chat and to shake my hand. They were fascinated by my looks, by the fact that I am from U.S.A, and by my name that they couldn’t pronounce.

some of the other tourists at the temple who wanted a picture with me

Yeah, that didn’t really happen.

We waited by our guest house for two hours before a bus arrived.  When it did finally come, instead of the air-conditioned bus we had paid for it was the pick up bus (that not only didn’t have AC but also didn’t have any working fans). We were on that bus for another 2 hrs before finally getting picking up passengers in Dehli.

I was excited to get on the air-conditioned bus that would take us to Rishikesh  until I saw it. Most of the chairs were broken to some degree, and I think I was in the worst one. It was stuck in a position almost completely vertical, and was very unsteady. I literally bounced every time the bus went over a pothole or over 25mps.

Except for me, Rebecca and one other passenger, everyone on the bus was Indian because of a festival going on in Rishikesh.

The other backpacker on the bus was Nathan Millward, who is riding around the world on his motor bike, and whose trip includes stops such as Pakistan and East Tamil. He really wanted to go to Iran, and only isn’t because he couldn’t get a visa. He is blogging about his adventures at www.thepostman.org.uk. Besides obviously having a fascinating story, he is also an incredibly nice and resourceful person.

At the beginning of the trip, Nathan mentioned that throughout his travels he encounters “angels” who help him out whenever he is in a bind. I think it’s interesting that he brought this up, because that is definitely what he was for us.

Midway through the trip, the bus stopped at a rest-stop that was packed at 3:30am. I found it oddly comforting that the Indians were complaining about the grossness of the rest-stop, and the ridiculousness of the bus.

the rest-stop

At about 5am the bus broke down completely. I was half asleep and too lazy to get off the bus, but after an hour Rebecca came in to give me an update about what was going on — almost everyone else had hitchhiked a ride already, and the mechanic was fast asleep.

Weighing our limited options and with Nathan by our side, we hitched a ride with two Indians driving a huge truck. The truck was slightly quicker than a bicycle.

with Rebecca and Nathan on the truck

Ten minutes after getting into their truck, the Indians let us off.  From there, bicycle rickshaws picked us up and took us to a Haridwar local bus, which we took to Rishikesh.

If Nathan wasn’t there, it definitely would have been an incredibly stressful and scary experience. But the truth was it wasn’t at all — I arrived in Rishikesh tired and wary about taking buses, but overall mostly just amused by the whole experience.

Well, the back view of the Taj is pretty at least — and we bonded with the other tourists who  made the same mistake as us. Also, all of the other touristy sites in Agra were relatively empty which definitely made those places better to visit.

But moving on…

India is definitely a very colorful country.

During the train ride back to Dehli there were people selling fried bananas, condoms, zippers and chai. There were also children in costume doing cartwheels in the aisles of the train and a transvestite giving out blessings.

Once back in Dehli, we took a rickshaw from the train to our hostel. An adorable little girl performed gymnastics in the street while we were stopped at a red light. Although before arriving in India I had resolved not to give money to beggars, she was really cute and I was in a moving vehicle, so I reached for my wallet to give her a few coins.

That was a mistake. Within 30 seconds 5 other people surrounded our rickshaw asking for money. At the same time, I realized my smallest bill was 100 and I didn’t really want to give the girl that much. When the girl realized I didn’t have change she instantaneously changed from charming to hysterics.

Luckily, within a few seconds the light turned green, and all that was left of the experience was a slightly guilty feeling combined with a sadness that such a talented young girl was begging in the street.

OK. The airport was very similar to airports in America, the weather reminds me of Tel Aviv, I’ve seen maybe three mosquitoes and overall the smell is fine.

During our first day in Dehli we hung out in the Main Baazar — visiting chabad, booking a hostel and shopping. This is clearly the area where Israelis hang out and it was really cool to see all the Hebrew on the shop entrances.

The street sells clothes that look like they come from Agripas in Jerusalem and jewelry that is sold in the wholesale stores on 34th Street in NY…except both are much cheaper here. Plus, there are cows and rickshaws in the street.

Dehli Main Bazaar