India

9.16 - 10.21

I swear I cycled through a National Geographic magazine when I left Lahore and headed towards the Indian border, only some 30 km away. I cycled through a zoo of animals: water buffalo, cows, goats, sheep, donkeys, kids playing cricket in fields, shepherds guiding their herds to greener pastures, this was much different from the remote mountainous terrain of northern Pakistan, and it was blistering hot. I have no idea how these people worked outside while keeping the fast and not drinking water. I arrived at the Pakistan/India border (there's only one for foreigners) and entered the Pakistan immigration/customs. Everyone inside the building was asleep, wasting away the hours until they could eat again (at least I think that's why...maybe they were just lazy). I had to wake up an officer to stamp me out of Pakistan. I arrived at the India immigration and everyone was very much alive, albeit playing solitaire but upright and somewhat alert. These people weren't fasting, they were of a completely different religion, the Hindu religion. After all, this is the reason Pakistan was created, to provide religious sovereignty for these severely different religions.

Flashback: August 15, 1947. India obtains it's independence from the British. Pakistan and India are separated by drawing a line on a map, creating one country for Muslims and one for Hindus. Drawing the line turns out to be much harder than it sounds, some areas are completely mixed with Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists. Jammu and Kashmir is one of these areas. The prince, a Hindi born man, was asked which area he wanted to belong to, Pakistan or Hindustan? He stalled giving a definite answer and shortly after, the Kashmir valley was invaded by an army of Pashtun troops from the newly formed gov't of Pakistan...they were going to take Kashmir for themselves. The prince panicked and called on the Indian army for help against the invaders (somewhat pledging allegiance to the Indian side). And just like that, only 2 months after India won it's independence from the British, they were at war with Pakistan, and essentially they've been going at it ever since. Pakistanie people don't like Indian people and the feelings are most definitely reciprocated. These two groups have a dark history of violence, accusations, hate crimes and murder against each other. The Kashmir valley was never the same, India fought the Pakistan insurgency and recovered 2/3 of the valley while Pakistan violently held onto their third. This is where the Line of Control (LOC) was established and the controversy has ensued ever since, neither side ever came to an agreement on anything. And this was the area in northern India which I was going to cycle through, an extremely popular route with cyclists, one of the highest roads in the world.

Snapping out of the flashback.....first things first, I drank a Sprite in public, not hiding it in a paper bag and sneaking sips, a first in nearly 2 weeks. I then stuck around and attended the famous border closing ceremony between Pakistan and India. It was like a football match, with people filling the stands and cheering/taunting the opposing side (Pakistan). It was a great introduction to India.

I then cycled the remaining 30 km to Amristar (in the dark), Amristar is the home of the Sikh's sacred Golden Temple, a marvelous sparkling bling bling temple that quarters any and everyone who comes to it in need for free. The fact that they housed so many people was simply amazing, people were sleeping all over the place! Foreign tourists get their own seperated room with beds with A/C, while the Indian people got the cold stone floor. Not only did they put everyone up for free, they also fed everyone for free! Granted the food was extremely basic, but keep in mind that India has the second largest population in the world, so you can only imagine the assembly line that is required to feed all these people for free. It was quıite the process.

I found Sikh people to be extremely hospitable and genuinely kind people, I met some Sikhs at the border ceremony earlier that day, after I informed them that I was going to cycle to Amristar (30 km) in the dark, they kindly offered to trail behind me in their motorbikes to fend off the crazy drivers and provide a little more substantial light than my headlamp could provide. We arrived in Amristar where they bought me my first Indian diner and showed me to the Golden Temple. After putting my things away and a quick vetement change, they showed me around the temple, explaining their religion and different parts of the temple. Before entering the main temple, you must remove your shoes and wash your feet in a communal water trough. I was in a conversation with one of the Sikh guys about the temple's promise to house anyone in need, when he stopped and said `see you are our guest and we are honored to have you here` then he swooped his hand down and grabbed a handful of water from the trough and took a sip of it! Keep in mind this is not only the rest of India's dirty feet water, this is also Kyle's dirty feet water, and anyone who has smelled the deathly odors that are emitted from my trench foot can attest for putting my feet stinch into a completely seperate category inside itself! And this guy just drank it! I told him he really didn't have to do that, the fact that this amazingly beautiful place puts me up and feeds me for free is enough proof that I am indeed an honored guest in this place.

I wanted to get through northern India before the snow fell....I had my fair share of snow cycling in China...but Nicole (who was there only a few weeks earlier) informed me that the snow had already beat me to the mountain tops and it was only a matter of time before the passes would be barricaded for the winter. So I needed to hurry up! I had met a Spanish cyclist, Alejandro, in Pakistan a few weeks earlier and when he showed up at the Golden Temple wondering where he would cycle to next, we decided to tackle the Himalayas of northern India together. Alex and I booked a bus to Manali and after 17 hours of roller coaster simulations on one of the slowest and oldest busses humanly possible (it would stop for anyone who needed a ride, 5 km or 500 km) we finally arrived in the Manali. Back in the mountains!

No time for the Israeli new years party; only a nepalese pizza, a few beers and we were off cycling again. Manali had loads of tourists; Indian tourists, foreign tourists and Israeli tourists or more like Israeli habitants. So we hit the road, straight out of Manali the climbing began and never really stopped. Right out of the gates, we climbed over 2000 vertical meters in less than 50 kilometers, by the way, that's brutal! This is where I realized Alex was a freakin machine on the bike! The kid knows how to ride a bike.

So sparing your eyes and mind from downright fatigue which results in skimming the words and dragging the scrollbar until the next picture appears (don't be ashamed, everyone does it), here is the abbreviated version, the cliffnotes from my cycle through northern India.

Alex and I cycled from Manali to Leh (10 days, 500 km) then Leh to Srinagar (6 days, 450 km), up and over some of the highest passes in the world (18,380 ft, 17,580 ft, 16,600 ft, 16,500 ft, etc). Cycling at this altitude is tough, it's almost as if you're body is only able to run at 50% output. You're huffing and puffing, trying to recieve as much oxygen as possible but it's never quite enough. Every 30 minutes or so, you have to stop and let your heart and lungs catch up with the rest of your body. Sleeping at this altitude isn't exactly fluffy clouds and sheed either, as you're constantly tossing and turning in discontent. Nonetheless, we cycled through a beautifully vast landscape that changed culturally from Indian Hindi (Manali) to Tibetan Buddhist (Leh) to Kashmiri Muslim (Srinagar). Cycling the road that runs just south of infamous Line of Control (LOC) between India and Pakistan, at one point we were within 5 km from the Pakistan border.

Traveling through northern India was really interesting given the route that I'd already taken to get here. I'd experıenced the Tıbetan culture from the other sıde of Chına, and the Muslım culture from the Pakıstan sıde. Now all of these cultures met at the border of Indıa and as I traveled through Tibetan Ladakh and Muslım Kashmır, all of these prevıous experıences and memorıes were brought back to lıfe for a brıef moment. 'Juley!' from the Tıbetans, 'Salam Aleykom' from the Kashmiris. The changes were obvıous, one day we cycled past the last Tibetan vıllage and from there on out the people looked dıfferent, they dressed dıfferent, the houses were buılt dıfferently, the red and gold Gompas turned ınto green Mınarets, the spınnıng prayer wheels turned ınto scratchy alarm clocks (calls for prayer) at 5 am, and the peaceful protests for separatısm turned ınto vıolent explosıons that took peoples lıves. Here's an example of the cultural change from east (Tıbetan) to west (Kashmiri muslım)

When we finally arrived in Srinagar, a rather large city, I went to ask a traffic policeman directıons to the 'Dal Gate' area. He said, go this way, turn here, left, right, etc. I said thank you and just as I was pullıng away, he saıd, 'oh yeah, but don't go through Lal Chowk, there was a bomb earlıer today'. I guess that was a mınor detail....sure enough, a mılıtant separatıst had thrown a hand grenade ınto the market only a few hours before I arrived. Me and Srinagar started out on the wrong foot and never dıd seem to get along. The entire Kasmır valley had Indıan soldıers scattered about, on the sıde of hılls, standıng over Kasmırıs harvestıng wheat, surveyıng the land from Kashmırı's rooftops, it was obvıous the Indıan army was fully ıntent on keepıng a strong grıp on that controversıal area.

We met tons of cyclists along the way, with whom we joined forces and created the almighty party train of cyclists.

And that was pretty much the extent of my cyclıng ın India, save the ride to the Delhı airport. I was entertaınıng the ıdea of cyclıng through central and north eastern India and ınto Nepal but one week of 'rest' ın Delhi made me decide otherwise. I hadn't had a solıd poo ın nearly 7 days and the mayhem of vulture salesman in Delhi was too much for me after nearly 10 months in Asia. So I said my goodbyes to everyone I'd grown so close to (we were lıke famıly) and I bought a one way tıcket to Istanbul where I would contınue my trıp through the Mıddle East.

Here's some stats up to this point:

Total distance cycled: 8860 km (5,505 miles)
Total elevation gained: 110,114 m (361,266 ft)
Total time on bike: 558 hr

I think I've maxed out Blogger with pıctures, sorry ıf the format looks weird. And props to Alex for the nıce photos...I really need to get a better camera.