Golden Temple

The Golden Temple in Amritsar

This weekend I travelled to the city of Amritsar with the two New Zealand ladies to visit the famous Golden Temple. The place really was a thing of beauty. Gold crowned, sitting in the middle of the water and surrounded by a high walled, beautifully carved building on all sides the temple was amazing at all times of the day... we went three different times, one in the afternoon when we first arrived, then again in the evening and the following morning... in the complex you arent able to wear footwear of any kind, so you have to check them in with the other thousands of pairs, and you have to wear something on your head - reason for wearing the beautiful bandanas haha...the photos do most of the talking for this weekend, it was nice, slow paced, good food, and hte city was great to walk around in - narrow streets with vendors all over the place

Shimla!

Two weekends ago - i know, its taken me a while - i went on a sweet trip to a city called Shimla, only 4 hours outside of Chandigarh by bus. Me and the two Kiwis left around 9pm friday, arriving at 1 or 2 in the morning. Its always cool arriving places at night, because you really have no idea what the place looks like until the morning. Shimla was really cool - not breathtaking beautiful, but a great place to go and relax. It is a decent sized city all built into the mountains. There are no cars, bicycles, or rickshaws - only walking. It was so nice being somewhere Quiet! No really big tourist attractions there, other than the Jaku Temple (Monkey Temple). This place was a 40 minute vertical hike up from the city, but was definitely worth it haha monkeys EVERYWHERE, like hundreds. One of the girls i was wish took a shoe off and it was stolen within a minute haha i had to carry around a broken brick the whole time - apparently they’re afraid of them. Just the weekend i needed after the craziness of Agra and Jaipur...some beautiful sunsets photos worth looking at that are now posted...click the link beside for a time waster!

Shimla Monkeys!!

Approaching the Taj

Walking towards the Taj Mahal, one of the new wonders of the world, for the first time

TAJ MAHAL!!

Went on an amazing trip last weekend to Agra and Jaipur. Will write about it next week because have no internet at home right now. Posted some wicked photos so check it.

Party

Finally a weekend to sit back and relax, Canadian style.

Two of the more outgoing people from our house left sunday, so friday and saturday nights were dedicated to farewell parties. It was nice to have NO plans for the days, waking up at 230 saturday and 1pm on sunday...my first nights of hibernation since i got here..amazing...haha ill put up a couple of photos to give you an taste, but will hold the majority back for now haha

i think im caught up on all emails...if youve mailed me and i havent hit you back remind me! keep em coming...

Novice Monks in classes at a monastery outside of Dharamshala

Dharamshala

Last weekend me and 13 others took a bus overnight to Dharamshala and McCleod Ganj. They are both beautiful cities in the northeast of the country towards nepal and tibet. The Dalai Lama lives in Dharamshala if im not mistaken.

Mcleod ganj is known as the litle tibet...it doesnt even feel like you are in india anymore, the people look differently, wear different clothes, sell different things, eat different foods..it was incredible to see a town so close, but different on so many levels...it was incredibly relaxed and the people were all friendly -

The food was particularly sweet - first time eating Tibetan - Momos and Panthenthuk...momos are like dumplings...either steamed or friend and filled with veg stuff or chicken..pantenthuk is a great dish of noodles in a clear soup with a bunch of other tasty things inside...

On the saturday a group of us hiked just outside the main hub to a beautiful waterfall where we relaxed and drank tea for a couple of hours..the rest of hte day we spent walking around, exploring, talking to locals, taking photos and eating food

The city was much busier than usual becasue the dalai lama was in town giving 4 days of 'teachings'. thousands of tibetans came to the city to catch a glimpse of the dalai and listen to him speak...we were lucky enough to go to one of these - which was a wicked experience...no cell phones, cameras, electronics etc..monks everywhere, everyone but me knowing the prayers...the lamas words were lost on me but being around the huge mass of tibetans and watching them was great

sunday some of us hired a car which took us around to some of the best sites outside the city...took about 7 hours round trip but we stopped at 4 or 5 really beautiful places, including a couple of old, and a couple of new beautiful monasteries...view photos!...not sure if ive posted them yet but will within a couple days if i havent already

Statue with Ganga river in behind

Rishikesh

A couple weekends ago i travelled to a city called Rishikesh which is built near the mouth of the Ganges River. Really an amazing place, everything seemed worthy of a photo. Also supposedly a really holy place..no liquor stores open, no smoking in public etc..Went down with a small crew of people (we were only 5) which was a nice change of pace from the huge groups ive been travelling in...got in pretty late friday evening so we just did a quick tour around, got some chow and headed to bed nice and early...saturday morning me and the other dude i was with David got up at the crack of dawn to snap photos...the town is amazing in that there are two bridges that connect the city across the Ganga, with mountains in behind so we wanted to get shots of the sun hitting one side in the morning and then the other in the afternoon...Rishikesh had monkeys all over the place! Theyre really cute at first then you see them running after people, stealing food and staring you in the eyes plotting to strip you down to nothing haha

Saw the Best incorrect spelling of my stay so far. I am beyond mature. Me and David were sitting in a roadside restaurant eating breakfast and hed just put back a bottle of Coke. He looks at me and says - look at the Cold Drinks section - the menu was painted on the wall...I read - Cold Drinks (Fanta, Cock, Limca, etc.) 12 Rupees. haha still kills me, when will i ever grow up haha

Highlight of this trip was definitely the Beatles Ashram. We were cruising around this wicked little area that housed a free school, place for homeless to eat, gardens, yoga centers blah blah when a random little man came up to us and offered to take us to this place. Werent sure whether or not to trust him but it sounded great so we followed. Apparently the Beatles went to this place in the 80s to chill. Some background on the place - it was created in the early 80s i think as a yoga and meditation retreat. The places that you would stay (which look like stone igloos in the photos) were very minimal having a small room below and a hollow top where you would meditate but the surroundings were beautiful. There was also a great hotel kind of place. Anyway the place became really posh with europeans flying in via helicopter all the time. The local government hated what it was doing to the city and closed the place down. for hte last twenty years it has been illegal to go into this place. After getting there and bribing the security guy at the gate we went into this place. Amazing amazing. It was completely apocalyptic. Covering a huge land area there were these 84 little stone igloo looking things strewn about with grass and vines growing all over. We got to what used to be the hotel part and the place looked like Chernobyl - no windows, paint peeling off walls, stone breaking everywhere it was so cool. Climbing up to the roof there were monkeys everywhere and 4 huge igloo things (what they call Beatles) and you could look out over the landscape. Really a great experience - something that no one else ive talked to had done when going to this place. Check the photos now that youve got some background!

To everyone that has emailed me i promise ill get back to you this week..Its been nuts emailing, posting on blog, writing in my travel journal, talking to people at night - and im gone every weekend and only have a couple hours at night after work to take a load off. Keep em coming ill be much better i promise!!

lots of love

catch up

gahh lots of catching up to do.. ive been terrible at posting regularly on here - will get better i promise... tonight ill write about last weekend in rishikesh and this past weekend spent in dharam shala (saw the dalai lama!) more to come...

Proof that I am actually in India!

rishikesh statue

South of Chandigarh this past weekend, Taken in a city called Rishikesh

manali mountains

Beauty on the way to Manali

Manali

A quick bit about last weekend...anyone who got my big email will have already heard about this spot, but it was too awesome not to mention here... so ya, Manali is this wicked little hippie town full of Israelis and Russians who travelled there and could never leave...weed literally grows on the sides of the roads...like a weed... and the people are way more chilled out than in any of hte cities...the restaurants were awesome and reminded me of people back home...one spot gave you crayons and blank paper while you waited, and the walls were filled of amazing drawings people had done in hte past..there was another spot called the lazy dog cafe where we just sat outside looking at the himalayas, chilling, drinking chai, and eating awesome food... Dylan's Roast and Toast was another great spot, just off the road, played only Dylan music and had a great vibe...stayed at a place call the Relax...basic rooms, hot water and a comfortable bed..who would have thought how happy i would be to take a hot shower haha...the roof of this building was an amazing spot to spend the night..looking up at stars never seen before in canada, himalayas on three sides of you, great company...was really a great weekend..some very nice photos you should check out...think i put hte link up a couple of days ago but just in case .... http://picasaweb.google.co.in/amaiesec

link to photos!

heres the link to my photos! this is where ill be putting all my updates...should be every couple of days depending on how many sweet photo chances i get

http://picasaweb.google.com/amaiesec

enjoy

I'm obsessed with this. Solan at night, long exposure. ahhhh it was so nice

Amazing photo taken in Solan, about 2 hours from my house. Went there last weekend just for a night, really beautiful place but had this tiny pocket of poverty - a la photo.

And you thought my facial hair was good.

It Begins!

Chandigarh, India has been my new home for just over a week now and it has been nothing short of amazing. I'm living in two story place with 17 other people from around the world, not a bad one in the bunch. They hail from russia, new zealand, lithuania, poland, brazil, usa, mexico, germany and a bunch i can't remember..

Haha its 9:15 pm here and im sitting outside with a couple of new zealanders and a russian having beers, feeling like im in a 30 degree sauna - supposedly its nice and cool right now....

Work has been great so far...working for an NGO called DIR-I that works to improve health conditions in a nearby slum..people are great at the office and at the area we work...there are only 8 of us in the office - 4 interns, 3 indians and my boss - a 79 yr old guy from northern ireland. Lots to say but dont know where to start... im going to post more photos than text and let them do the talking for me