WHERE TO BEGIN?

Okay so you can pick and choose what you would like to read, I'll do it in sections.

1. THE PLANE

This was quite boring.. leaving my mum, sister and mum #2 was really quite heart-wrenching but that sort of thing doesn't get any easier.. you just have to go.
So i sat next to a Hongkongese to Hong Kong. Actually, funny story. So i watched a terrible Lindsay Lohan Movie about her losing her luck and then she became accident prone. And then it just so happened that I became accident prone. Seriously, I dropped my neighbors cup three times and then stepped on another passengers foot. Then I went to the bathroom in my socks which was GROSS. I was wondering why this all happened and realised what was the matter: I was used to Business Class (oh yes I say this to you Lauren).. big chairs, nice bathrooms… hahah
2. ARRIVAL
Okay so the business class thing was a joke..
So I arrived, got my stuff, got to the hotel.. AMAZINGLY easy.. and whatever anyone tells you, its not that dirty… it’s just dveloping.. Delhi has it’s own charisma.. we walked around the next day. Don’t get me wrong.. it’s quite horrible in the sense that you accosted.. but besides that it’s fine. We went to a travel agent who then sent us the very next day to Kashmir.

3. Yes Folks, KASHMIR

So arrived it Kashmir… army is everywhere, guns etc. We stayed in Dal Lake in Srinigar. This is where it gets interesting.. So we were on a houseboat..
Oh man, so much to write that.. I can’t even explain
Okay suffice it so to say that through tears and culture shock (on my behalf) we booked a tour of rajastan, a himalyan trek and transfers for 35 days.. Amazing price but I wont go into that.
I think for you all, the trek is the most interesting thing so onwards.

4. the HIMALAYAN TREK

OH MY GOD this was unbelievable.. So you drive up to the mountains. We had a terribly cute drive. Our Guide’s name was remi and we had 3 more horsemen. We walked up this massive mountain where we met gipsy people – AMAZING they invited us in for tea… and we ate their ‘bread’. It was amazing these houses in the hill. WE camped out and ate with our horsemen and started playing cards.. it was so great. Anyways they named me Zuni, meaning Moon in kashmiri. Funny because i was they regarded really affectionately by everyone and it was really sweet. Like is a horseman was 500m away, he would shout out "Zuni, you okay?". So that was really sweet. Then we trekked to the Pakistani border to a lake Vishna and Krishna (they told us the Pakistan was ‘just there’). IT was AMAZING we saw rotting horses, streams, barren land. It looked the LORD of the RINGS. I can’t explain. And our guides were hilarious. We camped, it was frezzing. FUNNIEST thing, out guides caught us fish with their BARE HANDS it was so funny to watch. Then we went to hike up to the lakes with the two young horseman, Manzur and Zahir (who I named Poker Face coz he was bad at hiding his hand). Anyways for you who know me, it wont be a surprise for me to tell you that I am a slow walker. So I was walking slowly and the guides were saying ‘faster faster’ and I said "FINE if you want em to go faster then I will. But you will carry me when I fall down" and then I fell on my head. I couldn’t breath it was so funny. Also I had bad altitude sickness copz we were like 6000" but it was fine. We had tea and food and fires.. WE had come back and are about to go to an Indian party tomorrow. WE have eaten with gypsy’s, Indian families and our travel agent.. It’s been surreal and it feels like a lifetime.

5. ODD NOTES

So I just wanted to add that the anthropologist in me has done some digging (not hard). Life here is very hard and people a poor. The life is of a very different quality. I appreciate my life at home so much but I have a lot of respect for these people. They know what life could be like in Europe and yet they make the most of their own lives. There is much more so come.. that’s all I have time for! WRITE ME COMMENTS… I love comments…