26/03/09
Arrived in Delhi airport at 0230. 23 degrees C, mozzie heavy, and none of the cash machines were working. After sizing up a dodgy taxi driver and his mate and determining I'd have a chance of defending myself if they wanted my kidneys, I reluctantly succumbed to the promises of being abel to stop at an ATM on the way to the hotel. I climbed into the 50's banger with "Tourist" daubed messily on the side in red paint (or human blood), and true enough, the boys came good and took me to the hotel. But it was closed.
To cut a long story short I ended up in a gammy tourist office at 3:30 in the morning and parted with loads of cash to go up to Kashmir forbidden zone. The smarmy travel agent was proper smarmaliscous.
28/03/09
Arrived in Kashmir, and got off the plane in shorts and T-shirt to find it was 9 degrees and raining. Money well spent, I thought....am I back in London?
Got picked up my travel agent's brother and driven to Dal Lake (see facebook). Awesomely beautiful, and the fact we drove passed literally thousands of army stockades and troops all armed with Kalishnikovs just made it exciting. I stayed on a famous Dal Lake houseboat, and the evening I got there there were 3 English girls and 2 English boys leaving the next morning so we had a party on the boat and got battered....listening to tunes off my laptop. We were living with the travel agent's family; some brothers and a dad and kids and that. It was nice for a bit but quite oppressive. It was like being in a Landmark seminar (but not in a good way), except they kept trying to sell us expensive trips and shit jewellery! I've never been called "brother" and "son", and "you're different to other tourists....this is family" so much in my life.
30/03/09
Agree to part with an embarrassingly large amount of my year's budget (even after a day of negotiation) to go trekking in the Himalayas and then spend two weeks in Rajasthan. It was completely worth doing....seriously. Check facebook.
3/04/09
Fly back to Delhi, stay with the travel agent and his Delhi family (mum and 2 other brothers). Get on really well with one brother called Shabir (see pic on lake above....he was in Dal lake and came back to Delhi). 29 and wants to open a nightclub too.
05/04/09
Now I'm in the middle of my Rajasthan tour! Highlights include:
Having a well sound driver who's great for banter and has awesome turbans.
Being in a 5.3 point earthquake and being told 30 seconds more and the hotel we were in would have collapsed.
DJing in Jodhpur in Friday night.
I'm sitting next to a pool in Pushkar typing this, and I'm the only man in a hotel full of girls; well, about 8 europeans; you'll forgive me for attending to more pressing matters....
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