Pictures

Our friend Lovepreet (it means "Love" and also "Love")
Golden Temple (Amritsar, Punjab)
We were stranded here for maybe a week or so... we honestly
do not remember how many days we were here...
Our friends would not let us leave.

Grant with friend, "chota Sardar"

At Wagah Border (Border of India and Pakistan)

Grant playing "Contra" with Babloo's younger brother

Garrett driving Honey's tractor

Grant driving Honey's tractor

Garrett & Grant with Honey's relatives

Grant and Garrett at Honey's village drinking homemade
alcohol with his family

Taking a bath

Honey's relative, nice motorcycle

Friend at the river

Grant at the river with friends

Garrett doing a canonball

Honey home

Riding on Honey's motorcycle (Amritsar)

Honey

Bus stand, Dehradun (This is the bus we took to Dharamsala)

Dehradun

• We are in Amritsar in Punjab state. We have been here three days, I think, and it has been strange, but in the best way. We came here by train, riding in "Ordinary class" which cost Rs. 38 for Garrett and I together. So for a 3-4 hour train ride it cost less than $1 U.S. pon arriving in Amritsar, before disembarking from the train, we met a young man named Jagroop Singh. He lives in a village not far from Amritsar and comes to the city every day to visit the Golden Temple. Since we also wanted to visit the temple we decided to accompany him. This is where everything starts. Because we decided to go with Roop we are now in a small social circle of young Sikh guys our age. They all have motorcyles and they all want to hang out with us all the time. There is Roop, Lovepreet, Diamond, Honey, Prince, Babloo, and a host of others. They take us to their villages on their motocyles. We swim in the river with tons of kids. We recline on handmade beds and eat what I believe are grapes from a huge tree. We drive their tractors. At times it has been a bit overwhelming being swept up into this group and having to deal with "drama". Everyday they all want us to call them and spend time with them. For example, yesterday we were spending time with Honey and we had to call Prince by 10am. When we told Honey this, he said no don't call Prince call him tomorrow, spend time with him tomorrow. Perhaps one of my favorite memories so far: Playing the old Nintendo (?) video game "Contra" with Babloo's young brother. But perhaps the most memorable was visiting Roop's school. It is located in the farmland outside of Amritsar. Approximately 500 students attend the school. Roop introduced us to the principal and several teachers. The school is located in Kotla Sultan Singh, which is the birthplace of Mohammed Rafi, the legendary Hindi film playback singer. When one of the school's math teachers informed me of this I was speechless. We have had so many opportunities to practice Hindi, although our friends only want us to speak English so that they can practice. This certainly is not tourism, at least I don't think it is. I honestly don't know what it is, but I think it is good. We will probably spend several more days here in Amritsar and then move onto either Jodhpur in Rajasthan or Mumbai. The kid who is running the internet cafe I am writing from just put on some good Bhangra music....

Sincerely,

Grant

Dharamshala

We arrived in Dharamshala after an incredibly tiring 14 hour bus ride. We then proceeded to walk 8 miles uphill in the dark (it was 2am), haunted by packs of dogs in the streets and not knowing whether we were in danger of wild animals or other things. We checked into a hotel and had some breakfast. The man at the hotel was singing a Hindi song in the kitchen while preparing our food. The song was "Tere naam" and Grant briefly chatted in Hindi about it. We decided to look around a bit before resting, and met a guy named Tenzin who we practiced more Hindi with. I asked if the Dalai Lama was here right now (since Dharamshala is home to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in Exile), but he didn't think we would get to see him. About ten minutes later we saw him drive by in a car. Later I visited the Namgyal Monastery, which is part of the whole temple complex that includes the Dalai Lama's residence. The temple as a building is not as impressive as the giant buddha inside and the one enormous prayer wheel filled with thousands of prayers. Having seen the Dalai Lama, we don't think there is much else to do here, so tomorrow we plan to go to the Punjab to visit the city of Amritsar.

Sincerely,
Garrett

sardi aat baje jomprdi mein milenge

"We will meet at 8:30 in the hut" That was one of the running jokes during our stay at the Himalaya Hindi House. We actually did meet in hut every day for Hindi lessons.

Our Hindi course is finished and we are now in the city of Dehradun. Next we go to Himachal Pradesh (to visit Dharamsala) and then on to Rajasthan to find some friends of a friend in Jodhpur. We may also go to Jaisalmer. Our teacher Yogendra-ji gave us a name "Pankaj Joshi". He runs an STD operation (STD is a sort of pay phone you can use to make local or international calls) in Jaisalmer. Yogendra-ji just told us to ask around and we will find him.

"Chand Chandni Se Hota Hai
Sitaron Se Nahin
Pyaar Ek Se Hota Hai
Hazaron Se Nahin."

We learned so much Hindi at the Himalaya Hindi House... going on trips with our friends who do not speak English and visiting their villages... While visiting our friend Anil's village, Sainj, we had lunch at his house and later we were in his parent's bedroom and his father (who is the chief of the village) offered us each a cigarette and then a nap on his bed. Later we watched an auction for a huge cedar tree that had fallen near the village temple. Yogendra-ji won the tree for Rs. 6,000. Garrett went on a trip to a remote village and stayed in a hotel with a mud stove, slept in a smokey room with a rat running around in it, drank sweet, boiled milk from the cows of Divinder's family, and almost burst into tears when as we were leaving Nolunna Anil gave him his copy of the Ramayan that had belonged to his grandfather.

Take a peek at the post below for pictures.

Sincerely,
Grant

char aankh

Our friends at Nolunna. Left to right: Binita,

Mahavir, Dilbahadur, Mani, Hari Om, Hasmukh, Badri,

Yogendraji, Anil, Divinder, Grant, Anila, Ganesh Bahadur, Garrett

Some relatives of Divinder

Anil's father


bathing in the sacred waters of Gangaji
Garhwali folk dancing

yeh larki kaun hai?

char aankh (four eyes)